VW dieselgate settlement gets approved in US
A U.S. judge approved Volkswagen’s $14.7 billion plan to compensate owners of VW TDI vehicles with 2.0-liter engines yesterday. While the settlement is only for U.S. owners, it will likely be very similar to what we get in Canada.
Autoblog shared the company’s press release in a post outlining the settlement and next steps in bringing the scandal to a close.
The main things you need to know are that owners will be offered choices between buybacks and refurbishing. By the looks of things taking the buyback is probably the better option.
No matter what option you choose, VW will compensate owners with a minimum restitution payment of $5,100 up to approximately $10,000 depending on the car’s pre-scandal resale value. If you lease, then you will receive half what an owner would.
The buyback program will pay owners the resale value of their cars (adjusting for options and mileage) on September 18, 2015, the day news of the scandal broke. For 2015 model year cars which didn’t have a resale value at the time due to being new, the payout will be 71.7% of their original purchase price. Lessees will be able to terminate their lease with no penalty and owners will be forgiven of their car loan obligations.
Those who choose to get their vehicle fixed will have to wait until Volkswagen and environmental regulators come to an agreement on the solution. Currently the only solution VW has still won’t bring the emission levels down to standards. The only timeline for the recall is that VW must have fixed 85% of the affected vehicles by 2019. Without knowing what the fix is or how it could affect its performance, the Buyback program is the easiest and least complicated solution for owners who’ve held onto their dirty diesels.
If you sold or totalled your TDI, you can still get the restitution payment. As long as it happened after September 18, 2015 you are eligible for the payment. If you sold it to someone you will have to split the cash with them.
A plan to compensate the more than 100,000 Canadian owners of TDI vehicles has yet to be explicitly mentioned despite promises of more information coming this summer.