Volkswagen Preparing To Buy Back 115,000 US Diesel Vehicles

OUCH

I wonder if Fraud felony charges against the former CEO and other Execs are being waived in consideration of buying back the cars. In any other universe these CRIMINALS yes, CRIMINALS would be rotting in jail. But, true to form, there is always a way out of responsibility and repurcussions for our wealthy corporate overlords. This is the possibly the greatest case of business Fraud in human history. And no one seems is going to jail.

The EPA and CARB (both US entities) insist that VW "fix the problem" -- I'm not sure if that means simply being able to pass an in-lab emissions test without circumvention software, or whether it means they are no longer allowed to emit up to 40x legal levels outside of the lab in real world use -- at NO COST to consumers.

Rightfully so! And I hope (possibly unrealistically) that VW does this with a mindset of what's best for the consumer, as opposed to what's best for VW. For example, if a consumer prefers to keep their car for a long time, then the car's book value is nearly worthless. It would not be in the consumer's interest for VW to pay them the $300 book value, offer them a discount of $1,000 off their next VW, and then confiscate the car, when all it cost the owner to operate their vehicle is maintenance, insurance, and fuel costs (i.e., no monthly lease or finance payment).

Given that the car was non-compliant from the start, VW should have to buy back at transaction price plus interest of the car when it was new.

I hope owners refuse and let a rogue jury wallop VW.

There is no way a court is going to make VW pay effected owners interest!

You forget that those owners not only had use of the car for this period of time, but probably enjoyed the car.

With the political system in the U.S., VW will probably get off with a slap on the wrist fine, compared to the actual damage, with a stern warning.

I'm sure VW will probably leverage building additional vehicles in the U.S. and "new jobs" to ease the fine.

If owners go to civil court, oh yes, they most decidedly could get original transaction price plus interested plus punitive damages. Si se puede.

Key difference. GM started by committing a sin of omission designing an inferior part and installing it and later finding it was deficient. Not fixing it when discovered is negligence, and that is their weakness. VW started by committing a sin of commission, deliberately deciding to do something wrong and knowing it was against the law.

Opps above it went in the wrong place. Wanted to write this.

Matt, even in a civil suit owners aren't going to get their purchase price back after using the vehicle for years. VW will bring in a flood of diesel owners who will swear that they bought the vehicle for its high mpg and great performance, not because it was clean and green. The "green" buyers were a small minority. VW will wear them down legally and pay something, but not a free new car.

Wow - 115,000 cars at an average buy back price of $20,000 is $2.3 Billion.

What my grandma said was correct... "cheaters and liars eventually get caught and pay the price".

Buying them back with a release against further litigation my actually be the cheapest way out for VW. It would put a cap on consumer claims versus rouge jury punitive damage awards of far greater amounts.

This sounds like Ferdinand Piech's version of "cash for clunkers".

Just because VW is preparing to possibly be made to buy back vehicles does not mean it will happen.

I'm sure some of the older car's owners will get a great deal on a new VW, perhaps some of those $15k Passats that are left.

so lets get this straight GM ignores a defect that leads to over 100 deaths(that we know of) and pays a $900 million fine but VW is getting crucified for selling cars that get significantly better mileage than advertised and are cleaner than any previous diesel... makes sense... makes as much sense as the EPA wanting to fix cars to make the emissions go down but get less mileage so you burn more fuel which in turn will pollute more... if this were a domestic automaker you wouldn't be hearing anything about this

Key difference. GM started by committing a sin of omission designing an inferior part and installing it and later finding it was deficient. Not fixing it when discovered is negligence, and that is their weakness. VW started by committing a sin of commission, deliberately deciding to do something wrong and knowing it was against the law.

"Sin of omission"... which cost people their lives!

Omission = homicide. Commission = murder 1. If GM truly covered it up once they knew it was killing people then negligent homicide might be a charge but proving it in a court of law would be tough. Throughout history there have been omission errors by governments, corporations, and others that have killed people. It is tragic but the level of perfection needed to insure it never happens would be too costly and risk adverse for a society to function.

VW Credit zeros my loan. VW takes the TDI. VW sells me any Porsche, Audi, VW at their cost with free lifetime maintenance or jury trial.