As we all know by now, Volkswagen has been in quite a bit of trouble for the emissions scandal now known as dieselgate. A little while ago, the company finally came up with a solution to try and fix issues caused by their 2.0-liter diesel engines, where they eventually agreed to an industry-record $16.5 billion settlement. However, a resolution for vehicles with the 3.0-liter diesel had not been revealed, until now.
According to a report in Automotive News, the Volkswagen Auto Group has agreed to either buy back or fix roughly 80,000 VW, Audi, and Porsche vehicles with the affected engine.
This does break down somewhat interestingly. According to the report, with the approval of the EPA and California’s Air Resources Board, VW will be allowed to fix around 60,000 vehicles as well as buy back 19,000 older vehicles that would be too complicated to repair. These ‘repairs’ are largely just a re-flash of the ECU, which is fortunate for VW. Doing much more than just an engine flash could get quite expensive. A full buyback of all affected vehicles could end up costing the company upwards of $4 billion.
Still, the German automaker has a lot of court cases to get through before they can say dieselgate is officially over. The court handling the case of the 3.0-liter engines still hasn’t approved this deal, so some changes could be made to this proposition still. Furthermore, VW is under suit from owners of the vehicles, as well as a criminal investigation by the U.S. government. Depending on how those go, VW could see even more in the way of fines and compensation necessary to rectify their mistakes. They already owe $16.5 billion, so who knows what the total cost will end up being for this emissions scandal?
We will continue to follow dieselgate and bring you updates along the way. Until then, why not check out one of VW’s new, non-diesel, cars. Andre had a chance to attend the release of the 2018 VW Atlas. To learn everything you ever wanted to know, be sure to watch the full video below:
