VW News: As the Diesel Emits: Federal Judge Gives Volkswagen A Deadline To Figure Out A Fix

[William Maley]

It has been almost six months since Volkswagen admitted to using illegal software on their diesel vehicles to fool emission tests. Since then, a lot of people have been waiting for a fix to make the vehicles legal. Now a federal judge has given Volkswagen a deadline to come up with a solution.

 

Reuters reports that at hearing yesterday, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco has given the German automaker till March 24th to give a definitive answer on the status of a fix.

 

"Six months is long enough" to determine if this is a fixable problem, Breyer said.

 

"This is an ongoing problem."

 

Back in January, Volkswagen presented a possible solution to the EPA and California Air Resources Board (CARB). But CARB rejected the plan as it was "incomplete, substantially deficient and fall far short of meeting the legal requirements to return these vehicles” to compliance. Since then, Volkswagen has been talking with the EPA, CARB, and the U.S. Justice Department about a new solution.

 

Robert Giuffra, a lawyer representing Volkswagen told the Judge Breyer the company is making progress with the various parties. Giuffra couldn't go into specifics as the Justice Department has asked Volkswagen not to speak about the negoations.

 

"We are committed to resolving these matters as quickly as possible," said Giuffra.

 

Source: Reuters

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[G. David Felt]

My gut is telling me that VW will be buying back and crushing the half million illegal diesels in this country. I cannot see their lack of details fix becoming reality. One if memory serves me correct there is the 325,000 that are sold with NO EMISSIONS cleaning and so a whole new emissions system is a fail from the start. The rest of the auto's if they cannot supply a clear patch to fix it, then they might as well just buy them and crush them as well.

[cp-the-nerd]

My gut is telling me that VW will be buying back and crushing the half million illegal diesels in this country. I cannot see their lack of details fix becoming reality. One if memory serves me correct there is the 325,000 that are sold with NO EMISSIONS cleaning and so a whole new emissions system is a fail from the start. The rest of the auto's if they cannot supply a clear patch to fix it, then they might as well just buy them and crush them as well.

 

This is really what I've been expecting all along. There's a reason every legal diesel sold in the US has a urea injection system. I don't see how they can retrofit a solution.

[G. David Felt]

Interesting wonder if any of the auto's will not be sold back or fixed but held by people looking to have a rare collectible. This covered what 5 to 7 years of auto's or some crazy range, but that is a number of versions that will just go away. Course I never thought of VW auto's as collectible so this could be a mute point.

 

Still interesting to think of years of auto versions being taken off the road, crushed and then auto fans have a void between legal to current legal auto's.

[William Maley]

My gut is telling me that VW will be buying back and crushing the half million illegal diesels in this country. I cannot see their lack of details fix becoming reality. One if memory serves me correct there is the 325,000 that are sold with NO EMISSIONS cleaning and so a whole new emissions system is a fail from the start. The rest of the auto's if they cannot supply a clear patch to fix it, then they might as well just buy them and crush them as well.

 

I forget the exact totals, but I believe the earlier ones just have a particulate filter (2009 to 2012/13). The newer ones do have a urea system.

[cp-the-nerd]

Interesting wonder if any of the auto's will not be sold back or fixed but held by people looking to have a rare collectible. This covered what 5 to 7 years of auto's or some crazy range, but that is a number of versions that will just go away. Course I never thought of VW auto's as collectible so this could be a mute point.

 

Still interesting to think of years of auto versions being taken off the road, crushed and then auto fans have a void between legal to current legal auto's.

 

I doubt the cars will hold enough value for the owners to overlook a buyback. Once the legal case is closed, these cars will be permanently red-flagged for road use after the next emissions test.