Diesel Scandal is Coming to an End

When the discovery was made in September 2015 that Volkswagen had installed cheat devices in diesel vehicles to create false results on emissions tests, you knew the scandal would last several years in court. Recently, an appeals court turned down all objections to the settlement from Volkswagen, which should allow the case to be nearing a close. This is good news for those who have been driving around in the vehicles that emit more than 40 times the allowable toxic pollutants into the air and cause there to be damage done to the atmosphere.

The Diesel Settlement Upheld

The settlement is listed at nearly $10.03 billion and it applies to owners of nearly 500,000 vehicles. In all, Volkswagen Automotive Group has already agreed to pay more than $25 billion in the United States for the claims of the vehicles that have been polluting the environment. The buybacks that have already been taking place will continue through the end of 2019, but at the very least, it appears the court case and proceedings have come to an end as the appeals were heard and turned away, making it possible for us to move on from this scandal.

So far, more than $7.4 billion has been paid to buy back nearly 350,000 of the 475,000 2.0-liter diesel engine vehicles that have been on the road in the US. There is a separate settlement that was reached for the 80,000 models that are powered by the 3.0-liter diesel engine with an agreement to buy back about 20,000 of these models. Any money that isn’t claimed during the settlement period will revert back to Volkswagen as a mark of fairness. This means those owners who still have one of the offending vehicles need to turn it in and have it bought back within the next several months or lose out.

Fraud Settled As Well

As you may expect, there have been several cases of fraud filed against Volkswagen by individual states. In addition to the payment of between $5,100 and $10,000 in compensation to some owners, the company agreed to pay an additional $1,000 per vehicle to settle state lawsuits in Vermont and Arizona. Consumer fraud cases have been filed as well in all states with 44 of them settling for $603 million and five more reaching a settlement that’s valued at $120 million. The only state with pending fraud action against Volkswagen is in New Mexico.

Thankfully, the court proceedings and changing of money is nearly over and we can once again see Volkswagen in the light of positivity as they begin to bring their I. D. lineup of EV models to the market.