As I understand , VW is partially owned by the German government, and is a flagship of national pride.
Therefore, it will not “go under”.
Even to exit the US market would be a slap in the face to the top politicians like Merkel.
Therefore, I predict that: a few men wearing suits will pay huge fines. One of them might sit in jail for a few months.
Oh…and the company will say it’s very, very sorry.
But neither the German government nor the American government will not allow any serious damage to the conglomerate business. It’s not only too big to fail, it’s too prestigious to fail.
You understand incorrectly. The government of the German state of Lower Saxony holds a minority stake in the company. The German government has no ownership interest. But the German government is still quite protective of the company and won’t allow it to fail.
Update: on NPR’s Marketplace, they reported that the FTC was suing (? didn’t hear what mechanism they are using) VW to recoup the profits that VW made while advertising falsely about the performance of their diesels.
Besides that penalty, regarding the actual cars, they just got an extension to come up with a solution. If they don’t and have to buy back the U.S. cars it will be $7 Billion.
In reporting on the FTC action, MP said that VW’s marketing studies have come to light and are especially cynical. They did research which concluded that their target population of buyers aspire to a Green lifestyle, but will compromise that if they are appealed to properly. Nice. :rolleyes:
My workplace blocks the SDMB now, so I don’t get on here much anymore
VW has until this Thursday to come up with a fix (having already blown thru the first deadline), and if they haven’t thought up a solution by now, there’s no reason to be hopeful one will materialize in the next 2 days.
I keep wondering if VW might close their factory in Tennessee. If not directly due to the emissions scandal, then as collateral damage. For example, they’re bound to lose vast sums of money over this, and they probably weren’t making any money in North America even before the scandal, so perhaps they might decide this is a good time to move the factory to some place with cheaper labor (like Mexico or Brazil).
I’ll hold off on judgement until the official announcement. If true my car would be eligible for a buyback. Anything less than pre scandal value would be a fail on VW’s part.
I’ve read a couple stories that say slightly conflicting things. One is a German newspaper which says owners get $5,000, and the other says a buyback at pre-scandal value plus some undefined compensation. I think a buyback at pre-scandal value plus a few thousand would be very fair. I can’t wait to unload this car.
There was a department of transport investigation here in the UK that looked at real world Nox levels across a range of cars.
Unsurprisingly, none could reach the levels seen in the lab and some exceeded it by a substantial amount. VW group cars were included in the test and were nowhere near the worst offenders. in fact in the most recent engine types they were actually amongst the cleanest under real world driving.
I still consider the angle on VW to be a non-story to be honest in terms of public health. I consider it a classic “everyone does it but they got caught” scenario. I don’t a single VW group driver here in the UK who is particularly bothered about it.
Keep in mind the Euro 5 and 6 standards and test procedures are rather different from the EPA’s. The EU standards are a joke compared to EPA, not only are the limits for trace pollutants higher, the test procedure is pretty easy to game. Plus in the name of CO2 reduction they pushed diesel adoption heavily so it wouldn’t surprise me if there was some “wink-wink, nudge-nudge” going on between the automakers and regulatory bodies.
Meanwhile, cities like Paris and countries like India are having such big problems with smog (of which NOx emissions from diesels are a key contributor) so now a bunch of them have egg on their faces.
EPA and CARB don’t put up with that shit, which is why they have such enormous fine structrures to hit offenders with. So I wouldn’t assume the same tomfoolery which goes on in Europe is going on in the US. The heavy truck manufacturers already got pounded about 10 years ago for falsifying emissions compliance, yet VW was arrogant and/or stupid enough to think it’d be no big deal even if they were caught.
Tomorrow is the big day. Preliminary reports have VW paying out $15 billion in the U.S. Owners can expect $5-10,000 in compensation (based on the condition of the car) in addition to a buyback offer. My fingers are crossed.
No cars are being forced off the road at this point. However, if you buy one, there is the possibility that in the future either you will have to get the emissions fix done, or your state might decide that your car cannot be registered in your state. That is certainly a higher risk in California and several other states.
I sure as hell wouldn’t buy a TDI in the near future, and risk being boxed in to selling a near-worthless car in a few years or being required to have a fix that will very likely have a substantial impact on engine performance.
However, there are die-hards out there who will have the keys to their TDIs removed from their cold, dead hands. Good luck, guys.
[QUOTE=NYTimes, behind their paywall]
Volkswagen has solved one big problem stemming from its diesel emissions deception, as the carmaker agreed on Tuesday to pay up to $14.7 billion to settle claims in the United States.
But the final financial toll — once the company deals with a long list of fines, lawsuits and criminal investigations around the world — will be far higher. The continuing fallout could leave Volkswagen vulnerable to billions of dollars more in expenses at a time when profit is already under pressure and the industry is facing a period of technological upheaval.
[/QUOTE]
For those owners looking to see how much they’re getting Jalopnik has a good article showing how to navigate the various tables to get to your final amount.
I’m satisfied with the amount I’m getting and October can’t get here fast enough.
No kidding. But VW has up to 90 days to complete the transaction, so it’s possible that it would take days/weeks to get your money after you file for compensation.
Looking around other message boards, I’m shocked by two common complaints. First, it seems that many people bought extended warranties on their VWs and are upset that they aren’t getting additional compensation for that. People, you made a horrible decision to buy a service that is much more likely to be pure profit for the dealership. Even those use use the extended warranties generally don’t make their money back after purchasing them. Such a poor financial decision does NOT deserve compensation, period.
Second, there’s quite a few people who are complaining that the compensation amount does not allow them to buy a new car. Well, you don’t deserve a new car. You deserve a car that’s roughly as good as your current car, plus some cash compensation. You do not deserve a totally new car plus cash compensation.
For example, I just read one guy complaining that his Jetta SportWagen TDI is worth something like $18 grand under the buyback. Meanwhile, a new non-TDI Golf SportWagen starts around $20 grand. OMG VW is costing me money! Well, if you look for a used Jetta SportWagen of the same year, and with half the miles of your beater, you’d find you could buy one of those and end up at least $4 grand ahead in the deal.
I can understand arguments about whether the compensation is too stingy based on punishing VW and so on, but holy Christ does free money make people into whiners.
The nightmare is almost over. Today I received the official buyback offer. The offer is fair–it’s about $2k less than I paid for the car new, and considering the car is 5 years old and has 85k miles on it I don’t think I should complain. All that’s left to do is get the offer notarized, send it back to VW and then schedule an appointment to turn in the car. Goodbye VW, never again will I buy one of your cars.
I got my offer on November 4, and had a buyback scheduled for this weekend. Then I got a call saying that there was a scheduling error, so I need to wait until next weekend. I still think the offer is fair - maybe not generous but plenty fair - and I, too, don’t think I will buy another VW for a long time.
I see what you mean. Cell Guy basically got to rent a car for 5 years and 85,000 miles for $2,000.00, and he’s still complaining. I’d be thanking my lucky stars.
