SoylentNews

mendax [soylentnews.org] writes:

The New York Times is reporting [nytimes.com] that:

Volkswagen has agreed to pay nearly $15 billion to settle claims stemming from its diesel emissions cheating scandal in what would be one of the largest consumer class-action settlements ever in the United States.

The proposed settlement, valued at $14.7 billion and involving the federal government and lawyers representing the owners of about 475,000 Volkswagen vehicles, includes just over $10 billion to buy back affected cars at their pre-scandal values, and additional cash compensation for the owners, according to two people briefed on the settlement’s terms.

The cash compensation offered to each car owner will range from $5,100 to $10,000, depending on their market value before Volkswagen’s public admission last September that its supposed “clean diesel” cars had been deliberately designed to cheat on air-quality tests.

Rather than sell their vehicles back to Volkswagen, car owners can also choose to have their vehicles fixed to meet emissions standards, although doing so would probably reduce the engines’ performance and gas mileage. And the methods for fixing the vehicles that Volkswagen has proposed are still subject to approval by the Environmental Protection Agency, one of the federal parties to the case.

My take? Not enough. VW ought to buy back these cars at what they were worth when NEW, and then pay as much again as punitive damages for the fraud committed upon the customer and the public. But what about the people such as myself who are sensitive to air pollution, and what about the fate of the VW executives and engineers who perpetrated these frauds, these criminal acts? I have yet to hear about any indictments.

Original Submission