Short stories about Volkswagen Golf SportWagen recalls, lawsuits, and other interesting bits. Signup to have these stories emailed to you for free from CarComplaints.com.
Um, whoops? If the coil spring breaks it will cause an unsettling noise (bad), a sagging backend (worse), and can even puncture a tire leading to a sudden blowout (holy smokes terrible). Owners of the 2018-2019 Atlas, 2015 Golf SportWagen, and 2019 Jetta should be on the lookout for a recall notice in the mail.
Some owners that had sold their affected vehicles before the news came out tried to file for compensation in court, but didn't get very far. That may be about to change due to an interesting court decision in California.
Former owners and lessees of Volkswagen "clean diesel" vehicles can proceed with their lawsuit even though the customers got rid of their diesel vehicles before anyone knew the emissions systems were illegal.
Volkswagen, as you might image, is less than impressed with this decision.
keep reading article "Judge's Decision May Open to the Door to New Diesel-Scandal Claims"Volkswagen says the case is nothing more than trial attorneys trying to suck more money out of the automaker that has already paid more than $25 billion for its emissions sins.
The owners had not been covered by previous diesel settlements because they had sold or traded in the cars before dieselgate became public knowledge. From CarComplaints.com:
Volkswagen told the judge those former owners and lessees are attempting to pry money out of the automaker's pockets even though the former owners didn't lose anything. When they sold or traded their diesel vehicles, or ended the lease agreements, the transactions occurred before the emissions scandal was known.
The lawsuit boils down to economic harm. VW says the cars were sold at a value determined before anyone knew they spewed 40x the legal limit of NOx emissions, so dieselgate had no affect. The owners say they paid a premium for an eco-friendly car and should be compensated accordingly.
Now a judge will decide if this case is a money grab.
keep reading article "VW Says New Lawsuit Represents Group Unaffected by the “Clean Diesel” Scandal"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.
keep reading article "Fix for 2015 2-Liter Diesels Approved"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.
keep reading article "Oh, Canada! A VW Diesel Settlement Update"In addition to those payments, owners will also have the option to offload their cars as part of a buy back program.
…keep reading article "TDI Cash Compensation and Buy Back Options"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:
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:
keep reading article "VW Close to Agreement to Buy Back Diesels and Compensate Owners"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.
Horn said it could take between 5 to 10 hours of labor for each of the 500,000 vehicles affected in the USA. And if that wasn’t enough, the cost of the repairs might end up being higher than the vehicle’s worth.
To sum up: repairs could take years, cost lots of money, and reduce the horsepower and gas mileage of the repaired car.
“Mr. Horn told committee members Volkswagen would consider a buy-back program for all affected vehicles. It's estimated that based on current values, the cost for such a program could reach $7 billion just for the Volkswagen vehicles on U.S. roads.”
VW is just hemorrhaging money at this point.
keep reading article "Fixing Each of the Cheating Volkswagen Diesels Could Take Years"However, Volkswagen says that might not be enough due to the massive number of vehicles potentially involved.
What started as 500,000 vehicles in the USA has quickly ballooned to 11 million vehicles worldwide. The total cost of the fines, repairs, and lawsuit settlements are going to be astronomical. To the point where only setting aside $7 billion seems rather optimistic.
Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn said that he is "endlessly sorry" shortly before resigning. He just rammed his ship headlong into an iceberg and took off with the only lifeboat.
keep reading article "Volkswagen Sets Aside $7.3 Billion for Emissions Mess"A VW diesel emissions lawsuit has been filed in California. Girard Gibbs LLP has filed a class-action lawsuit against VW in California, for deceiving customers into buying vehicles marketed as “clean diesel.”
"Volkswagen promised consumers a car with power, high fuel economy, and low emissions—if they paid a few thousand dollars more for a Volkswagen “clean” diesel vehicle." - Attorney Andre M. Mura, Girard Gibbs LLP
The vehicles named in the lawsuit are the 2009-2015 Volkswagen Jetta (including the Jetta Sportswagen); 2010-2015 Volkswagen Golf (including the Golf Sportswagen); 2010-2015 Audi A3; 2012-2015 Volkswagen Beetle (including the Beetle Convertible) and the 2012-2015 Volkswagen Passat.
keep reading article "The First Class-Action Filed Against VW for It’s Not-So-Clean-Diesels"The EPA says the "defeat device" is sophisticated software on VW cars that detects when the car is going through official emissions testing. When the software recognizes an official test is underway, it turns on full emissions controls to make it appear the emission standards are within the rules. Once the official tests are completed, the emission controls are decreased during normal driving.
The EPA estimates 482,000 diesel passenger cars are violating the Clean Air Act, an offense that can carry a penalty of $37,500 per vehicle. Holy $$$.
The offending cars were sold in the USA starting in 2008 and include:
The government has temporarily blocked VW from selling any 2016 diesel inventory, and the automaker should expect a wave of fines and consumer blowback. This is going to get interesting.
keep reading article "VW Busted by the EPA for Using 'Defeat Devices' to Manipulate Emissions Output"The best way to find out what's wrong with a vehicle is from the people who drive them. Not only do owner complaints help us rank vehicles by reliability, but they're often used to spark class-action lawsuits and warranty extensions. Plus, they're a great way to vent.