VW May Have Deal Today on Cheater V-6 Diesel Settlement

Volkswagen AG will be in court today with a possible resolution to consumer and criminal complaints about 3.0-liter V-6 diesels it rigged to evade U.S. emission limits.

U.S. District Court Judge Charles Breyer said on Friday that VW and teams of lawyers representing owners and the Dept. of Justice were in “intensive” discussions about a final deal. He urged them to continue talks through the weekend before reporting to his court on Monday with their results.

Negotiations began a year ago over the 80,000 affected Audi, Porsche and VW models. Breyer has repeatedly threatened to conduct a bench trial—one without a jury—if the two sides fail to reach accord.

Legal analysts tell Bloomberg News that VW would be wise to settle the case now rather than deal with the uncertainties of the incoming Trump administration. Reuters, citing unnamed sources, said on Friday that VW had agreed to fix 60,000 affected vehicles, buy back roughly 18,000 older models and pay more than $200 million in environmental restitution.

Weekend negotiations are believed to have centered on how much compensation VW would pay owners of the effected vehicles.