Volkswagen will recall 11 million VW and Audi "TDI Clean Diesel" vehicles worldwide - including 500,000 in the U.S. - after admitting that it had equipped these vehicles with a "defeat device" that was designed to conceal their high pollution levels. Volkswagen is facing thousands of lawsuits from diesel-powered vehicles owners whose cars have been implicated in the recall.
Volkswagen has announced that it will recall about 500,000 VW and Audi diesel-powered vehicles sold in the U.S. The company has admitted that it lied to hundreds of thousands of customers who purchased its cars. Volkswagen now admits that it intentionally installed a “defeat device” on over 11 million Volkswagen and Audi diesel-powered vehicles designed to fake low pollution levels during emissions testing.
Car owners who purchased Volkswagen or Audi “TDI clean diesel” vehicles may be eligible to file a lawsuit over the company’s fraudulent misrepresentation of the performance and eco-friendliness of these vehicles. The vehicles affected include the Volkswagen Jetta TDI, Passat TDI, G
olf TDI, Jetta Sportwagen TDI, and Beetle TDI for model years 2009-2015. Also included are the 2009 to 2013 Audi A3 TDI and the new 2015 Audi A3 TDI. Volkswagen now concedes that the number of affected vehicles may be greater than 11 million in what has been dubbed “Dieselgate” by the press.
Volkswagen’s “Turbocharged Direct Injection” or “TDI” diesel-powered engines were supposed to give drivers the best of both worlds, offering fuel-efficiency and eco-friendly emissions combined with exceptional vehicle performance and drivability. But as drivers have found out, Volkswagen’s talk about “clean diesel” failed to live up to the hype surrounding these engines.
The emissions issue with Volkswagen’s diesel-powered cars was uncovered by researchers who noticed a discrepancy between the amounts of pollution emitted by these cars on the road versus the emissions levels in a controlled setting, such as when a vehicle undergoes state mandated emissions tests. Volkswagen initially tried to deny that the discrepancy between the real-world and controlled-setting pollution levels for its TDI models was part of a deliberate act of deception on the company’s part. However, under pressure from the EPA, the company later admitted that it had installed “defeat devices” on the vehicles in order to mask their high pollution levels from regulators and consumers.
Volkswagen and Audi vehicle owners who purchased one of the diesel-powered vehicles involved in the recall may be eligible to file a lawsuit over Volkswagen’s efforts to fraudulently mislead regulators and consumers about the performance and fuel-efficiency of its “clean diesel” vehicles. Numerous individual and class action lawsuits have already been filed against the German automaker by U.S. car owners who feel they were misled about the product they were purchasing. The first step in taking legal action is to secure the services of a law firm with experience in handling product liability and commercial class action cases.
Before the company issues a recall for the vehicles involved in the emissions issue, Volkswagen will be required to develop a comprehensive plan regarding how it will address the software and fuel efficiency problems with these vehicles. Experts say that whatever technological solution Volkswagen can devise for fixing issues with the 500,000 diesel vehicles, it will most likely mean reducing the performance, drivability, or fuel economy of cars—the very factors that attracted many drivers to Volkswagen’s diesel-powered cars in the first place.
Volkswagen says that it has set aside about $7.3 billion—or about half a year’s profits—to cover the costs of fixing the recalled diesel vehicles, fines, and other costs related to the emissions software problem with its vehicles. Some of these funds will also likely be used to cover costs regarding the company’s legal liability to victims who purchased Volkswagen vehicles that do not pass emissions testing under real world driving conditions. Legal experts have predicted that the company could eventually face billions in legal liability over lawsuits filed by Volkswagen and Audi car owners whose vehicles were involved in the "Dieselgate" scandal.
