VW News: As the Diesel Emits: Volkswagen's Brand Boss Says A Deal With U.S. Regulators Can Be Done In Months

[William Maley]

We're getting close to entering the seventh month of not having a fix for Volkswagen's cheating TDI engines in the U.S. A couple weeks back, a Federal judge in California gave Volkswagen a deadline of March 24th to provide a definitive status of a fix. But Volkswagen might not have the answer the judge or affected owners want.

 

In an interview with German newspaper Wolfsburger Allgemeine Zeitung, Volkswagen brand boss Herbert Deiss said it could take months before Volkswagen and U.S. authorities come to an agreement.

 

"I think that we have a good chance to reach an agreement with the authorities in the US in the coming months," said Deiss.

 

There are a couple possible reasons for Deiss' response. First is that Volkswagen still doesn't have another solution ready. As we reported back in January, Volkswagen's first proposal was rejected by CARB due to it being "incomplete, substantially deficient and fall far short of meeting the legal requirements to return these vehicles” to compliance. Volkswagen has been hard at work on a new proposal since then. There has been talk this new proposal will include a buyback program.

 

The second reason comes down to money. Volkswagen knows that it will be facing large fines from various regulators, along with the massive costs in terms of fixing vehicles and dealing with lawsuits.

 

Source: Wolfsburger Allgemeine Zeitung, Reuters

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[G. David Felt]

This is going to really hurt VW, saw the VW dealership by my house and it looked closed, so pulled in and sure enough there was a sign on the door that said they would now be closed on Sundays to give their employees time with their families. This is a HUGE dealership that was open 7 days a week with Service 7 days a week.

 

Based on sales, I bet VW dealerships are really hurting.

[Suaviloquent]

Yeah, they basically have lost 25% of sales.

 

And many of these places are leveraged through the wazooo.

 

And their whole marketing stance of "affordable German engineering" is tossed out the window. Not the least of which when you buy competing Chevys, Buicks and Fords, heck even Hyundais tuned in Germany

 

Cheatineering is not engineering.