The class-action settlement agreement proposes using what is essentially the wholesale value of the vehicle at the time of sale, rather than the retail value. The wholesale value of a vehicle can range from hundreds to thousands lower than the retail value. Wholesale cost is the price dealers pay when they buy cars at auction.

Approved after months of tense negotiation last month, the class-action settlement of Volkswagen’s self-inflicted diesel scandal covers buybacks and payments to owners of the 482,000 2.0-liter engines. Also, the proposal takes care of those owners who may have sold their cars to others and provides for remediation of environmental problems caused by the years of diesel cheating that VW carried out.

VW Dieselgate Scandal
The Dieselgate scandal has dragged on and been in the news almost continually for nearly a year. On Sept. 15, 2015, VW announced that it had engaged in a widespread diesel flim-flam on its supposed “clean diesel” vehicles. Court documents and continuing news reports detailed the fact that VW knew its EA 189 four-cylinder engine – originally designed to use urea formaldehyde to clean up emissions – could not meet the tough emissions standards for oxides of nitrogen. The standard went into effect in 2008.

VW engineers opted to use a patched piece of computer coding for its emissions control routines. The software allowed the affected cars to pass the test by resetting the emissions system to “pass” mode when the computer detected a test was being conducted. Among other things, the test watched the wheels, crankshafts, sensors and other control modules (car computers – there are up to a dozen in most vehicles). When the test was detected, the emissions system was tightened up so that the vehicle would meet the standard. At the end of the test, the emissions system was reset to “normal” so that mileage went up and performance increased.

The issue at hand was the fact that VW’s engineering crew knew they had to use the cheatware, as it has been called, because there was no hope of the engine passing the tests. They knew this as early as 2006 when the engine was in final development. Interestingly, the engineering manager initially in charge of development was an import from BMW. Not of the VW culture, he was willing to obtain control technology from outside VW.

This is Craig Simmons’ 2010 turbocharged V6 Challenger: a car that started life as a mild mannered vehicle, but quickly turned into the car that started the boosted revolution.

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