ZR
09-04-2017, 08:11 AM
CHATTANOOGA — Volkswagen will give its dealers first rights to acquire hundreds of thousands of repaired diesel vehicles returned through their stores under recalls stemming from the company's diesel emissions scandal, brand leaders said here last week.
Hinrich Woebcken, head of the VW's North America region, said the company is awaiting approval from regulators allowing the earliest recalled VW turbodiesels to be resold to consumers. Regulators have approved the fix, but have not given the green light to return them to dealers to repair and resell.
When that approval comes, Woebcken said, VW will slowly release the vehicles, giving its 652 U.S. dealers a "right of first refusal" to buy the specific vehicles returned through their dealerships.
And VW dealers, he added, are excited to get the once-popular cars.
"There is, of course, a community of customers who would like to take a look at these cars, once they fulfill the regulations, and that's why we are pretty optimistic that we will have a successful remarketing of those cars," Woebcken said.
When regulators give the go-ahead to resell the cars, Woebcken said, VW will return the cars to market in a manner "to make sure that the residual values of those cars remain stable." He said the brand will "find a smart way to dose it in the right way through different channels into the market."
http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/storyimage/CA/20170904/OEM02/170909929/H2/0/H2-170909929.jpg&MaxW=450
VW has repurchased about 67 percent of the estimated 485,000 turbodiesel vehicles it sold in the U.S. between 2009 and 2014 that had illegally excessive emissions. Those cars are being stored in dozens of large parking lots across the U.S.
The vast majority of the parked cars are the earliest versions of what VW once called its "clean diesels." These first-generation diesels, bought back from consumers, used an illegal software defeat device that allowed the cars to cheat on U.S. clean air standards in what became a global scandal for Volkswagen Group, costing the company tens of billions of dollars and sending two employees to prison so far.
Later VW diesels that were recalled have had their fixes approved by regulators and have returned to dealership lots. VW fixed and returned for sale about 8,000 of an estimated 70,000 Passats with the later engines.
Fixing the first-generation diesels requires significantly more work, however, which will be done at VW dealerships, a spokeswoman said.
Some VW diesels with high mileage will be scrapped, said Herbert Diess, global head of the VW brand.
"If the mileage is too high and the residual value is too low, it doesn't make sense anymore" to fix them, Diess said. "But the majority of the cars are going to be resold."
In March, VW pleaded guilty to three felony counts in U.S. District Court in Detroit as part of a settlement of the diesel scandal with the U.S. Justice Department. Asked if returning the cars to the roads might become an uncomfortable reminder of VW's past illegal actions, Diess said the scandal is now part of VW's checkered history.
"It was a very big scandal," Diess said. "It's something we have to live with."
Hinrich Woebcken, head of the VW's North America region, said the company is awaiting approval from regulators allowing the earliest recalled VW turbodiesels to be resold to consumers. Regulators have approved the fix, but have not given the green light to return them to dealers to repair and resell.
When that approval comes, Woebcken said, VW will slowly release the vehicles, giving its 652 U.S. dealers a "right of first refusal" to buy the specific vehicles returned through their dealerships.
And VW dealers, he added, are excited to get the once-popular cars.
"There is, of course, a community of customers who would like to take a look at these cars, once they fulfill the regulations, and that's why we are pretty optimistic that we will have a successful remarketing of those cars," Woebcken said.
When regulators give the go-ahead to resell the cars, Woebcken said, VW will return the cars to market in a manner "to make sure that the residual values of those cars remain stable." He said the brand will "find a smart way to dose it in the right way through different channels into the market."
http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/storyimage/CA/20170904/OEM02/170909929/H2/0/H2-170909929.jpg&MaxW=450
VW has repurchased about 67 percent of the estimated 485,000 turbodiesel vehicles it sold in the U.S. between 2009 and 2014 that had illegally excessive emissions. Those cars are being stored in dozens of large parking lots across the U.S.
The vast majority of the parked cars are the earliest versions of what VW once called its "clean diesels." These first-generation diesels, bought back from consumers, used an illegal software defeat device that allowed the cars to cheat on U.S. clean air standards in what became a global scandal for Volkswagen Group, costing the company tens of billions of dollars and sending two employees to prison so far.
Later VW diesels that were recalled have had their fixes approved by regulators and have returned to dealership lots. VW fixed and returned for sale about 8,000 of an estimated 70,000 Passats with the later engines.
Fixing the first-generation diesels requires significantly more work, however, which will be done at VW dealerships, a spokeswoman said.
Some VW diesels with high mileage will be scrapped, said Herbert Diess, global head of the VW brand.
"If the mileage is too high and the residual value is too low, it doesn't make sense anymore" to fix them, Diess said. "But the majority of the cars are going to be resold."
In March, VW pleaded guilty to three felony counts in U.S. District Court in Detroit as part of a settlement of the diesel scandal with the U.S. Justice Department. Asked if returning the cars to the roads might become an uncomfortable reminder of VW's past illegal actions, Diess said the scandal is now part of VW's checkered history.
"It was a very big scandal," Diess said. "It's something we have to live with."