Volkswagen Problems and News Tagged #emissions

Last week a federal judge granted final approval on a $1.22 billion settlement to fix or buy back 80,000 3.0-liter diesel vehicles in the US.

Poor Volkswagen. Oh, don't get me wrong – I don't feel bad for them. I just mean they must be poor by now with all these settlements.

The settlement was announced back in December 2016]. Owners who opt to get their engines fixed can expect compensation between $7,000 and $16,000.

A Bosch Settlement Too ∞

In addition, the judge approved a $327.5 million settlement for Bosch for its role in developing the engines.

Bosch has denied any wrong-doing, but the company undeniably supplied VW with the defeat device software which was then used to cheat emissions on millions of 2-liter "clean diesel" engines.

Prosecutors have previously tried to determine if Bosch intentionally conspired with VW, which is a claim Bosch says is "wild and unfounded."

There's been a lot of talk about diesel buyouts and fixes lately.

But one group that's been left out was what VW calls "Generation 3" diesel vehicles from the 2015 model year. But after 16 months of waiting, that's about to change:

"Volkswagen finally received approval to fix certain 2-liter diesel vehicles to make their emissions systems legal, at least for about 67,000 of the 475,000 illegal 2-liter "clean diesel" vehicles."

VW will remove the "defeat device" software and replace it with something a lot less cheat-y. Then sometime next year, VW will install new software in addition to a diesel particulate filter, diesel oxidation catalyst and a nitrogen oxide catalyst.

Our neighbors to the north tend to be a patient bunch, but you have to imagine Canadian VW diesel owners were starting to wonder when their settlement offer would come.

Well, good news. Canadian owners will receive between $5,100 and $8,000 in compensation along with a few options. Any eligible owner can choose to trade their vehicle and apply its fair market value at that time towards the purchase of a new or used Volkswagen or Audi vehicle.

Spread out over 105,000 vehicles, that equals about $2.1 billion CAD (Canadian dollars). The settlement needs to be approved and finalized by two courts.

It's been well over a month since Volkswagen's historic $14.7 billon dollar diesel settlement which includes the option for owners to sell their cheatin' cars back to VW.

So how are things going? Meh, according to a firm appointed by the court to monitor the settlement's progress.

Many owners have complained about long telephone hold times and missed deadlines. Some, in snowier climates, are ticked off they had to pay to put on snow tires while waiting for VW to get its act together.

Yes, this is an unprecedented deal. And sure, there's a lot of moving parts. But as Jalopnik.com points out, it's not like VW couldn't see this coming.

You can review the settlement details on our site.

And if you haven't yet, I'd also encourage you to visit VWcourtsettlement.com or call 1-844-98-CLAIM to schedule appointments with claim specialists.

The settlement details for VW diesel customers in the USA is here and you know what? It actually looks pretty good.

The agreement involves 500,000 2-liter engines that VW called "clean diesels" but turned out to be NOx spewing polluters. The full details are available here, but here's some cliff notes:

1. Volkswagen will offer to buy back the affected diesels using their pre-scandal NADA book value (September 2015)
2. Owners can sell their cars back or keep them and wait for an EPA approved fix
3. Whether you sell it or keep it, VW will compensate owners somewhere between $5000-$10000 for their trouble
4. Lessees will have the option of terminating their lease without penalty

So far there is no word on what the fix will be for these vehicles or how that'll affect MPG or performance. Owners of the following are eligible for compensation:

475,000 2.0-liter diesel cars including the 2013-2015 Beetle, 2010-2015 Golf, 2009-2015 Jetta, and 2012-2015 Passat, along with the Audi A3 between 2010-2013 and 2015. All in the USA.