U.S. Owners of VW Cheater Diesels Opting for Buyout

Nearly half of the 475,000 owners of Volkswagen AG vehicles fitted with diesel engines that evaded emission laws are opting to have the company buy back rather than fix their cars, Bloomberg News reports.

Last month VW reached a $10.6 billion settlement with regulatory agencies and the U.S. Dept. of Justice to reclaim or fix the cars. All were equipped by VW with secret software that cheated on pollution tests.

The deal gives owners the option of selling their car back to the company or keeping their vehicle and getting a free engine update designed to bring the vehicles into regulatory compliance. In either case, each owner also will receive a payment of at least $5,100. Bloomberg says 210,000 owners have opted for the first choice.

To avoid further penalties, VW must get at least 85% of the affected high-polluting vehicles off the road by July 2019, by either buying them back or fixing them.

The compensation plan has won preliminary court approval, but a final ruling isn’t due until Oct. 18. In the meantime, regulators have not yet sanctioned any of VW’s proposed remedies to fix the three generations of engines involved in the cheating.

VW is expected to submit a final plan to fix first-generation diesels (various 2009-2014 model VW cars and 2010-2013 model Audi A3 small sedans) in November. A fix for second-generation vehicles (2012-2014 model Passat sedans) is due in mid-December. VW isn’t expected to submit a repair scheme for third-generation engines (various 2015 model VW cars and the Audi A3 small sedan) until August 2017.