Volkswagen Emissions Settlement

  

  On September 18, 2015, the United States Environmental Protection Agency issued a violation notice  of the Clean Air Act to the German Automaker Volkswagen Group for knowingly programming the TDI engines to activate certain emissions controls only during laboratory emissions testing.  The intentional programming caused the vehicles' NOx output to meet standards during testing, but in real-world driving, the emissions were 40 times more than US standards allow.  This programming was put into about eleven million cars worldwide and in 500,000 in the United States, for model years 2009-2015.

  Volkswagen soon became the target of regulatory investigations in numerous countries, and Volkswagen's stock fell in value by a third in a matter of days following the news. The Volkswagen Group CEO resigned, and the head of brand development, Audi research and development head, and Porsche research and development head were all suspended.  It was announced by Volkswagen that plans were made to spend US$7.3 billion (later raised to US$18.32 billion) to rectify the emissions issues and planned to refit the affected vehicles as part of a recall campaign.

Fast forward to now. 283 days later.

  It has been announced that a settlement has been reached with Volkswagen on Tuesday June 28, 2016 after the German auto group knowingly rigged 475,000 diesel vehicles in the U.S to cover up that fact that they didn't meet emissions standards. The $14.7 billion settlement will include about $10 billion that, according to federal regulators, will be used to compensate owners and get the faulty vehicles of the road. All in all, about 475,000 vehicles are involved in the settlement, 460,000 of them were sold by the Volkswagen brand and another 15,000 Audi models. The models include the 2013-2015 VW Beetle, 2010-2015 VW Golf, 2009-2015 VW Jetta 2012-2015 VW Passat and the 2015 Audi A3.

  Consumers can find out more about the settlement at www.VWCourtsettlement.com, but don't expect an immediate payout. Documents are saying that the "earliest possible time for payments to begin is October 2016."  Volkswagen plans to notify owners immediately after the deal is finalized and it will have to complete any buyback within 90 days after an owner accepts the offers. The deal will allow VW and Audi owners to continue driving their vehicles until they either complete a buyback or get the necessary emissions repairs made.