WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN TO ALL THOSE VW TDI DIESELS?

Report: VW diesels await two possible fixes, but crusher is also an option

APRIL 10, 2017

The question of what to do with diesel Volkswagen vehicles that the automaker has purchased back has plagued the company from the early months of the TDI crisis, as it became clear regulators would force VW to buy back hundreds of thousands of vehicles. VW is using a number of large sites around the country to store thousands of TDI vehicles that customers have sold back, but VW can't store these cars forever.

The clock is ticking: VW has until June 30, 2019, to buy back or fix some 482,000 2.0-liter diesel vehicles; after that date, VW will once again face hefty fines totaling tens of millions for missed deadlines.

Under the terms of the agreement with the U.S. government, VW has to remove at least 85 percent of the affected diesel models from the road, repair the other 15 percent, then either crush or repair the majority of diesels it bought back.

VW has been cleared by the EPA to repair new, unsold vehicles that have been gathering dust on dealership lots since 2015, but the used TDIs will require different repairs based on the tech they need.

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Bloomberg reports VW will only have to apply a software fix and install a new after-treatment system and particulate filter for all 2015 model year cars, making them the easiest to fix. But 325,000 older diesels from the 2009-14 model years will require a different and more costly fix, one not likely to make economic sense for a sizable percentage of these older diesels. Early cars with high mileage won't be worth fixing, so VW might have no choice but to scrap them.

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As more time passes, the older cars continue to lose value. Even if a fix is developed soon, it's a safe bet that tens of thousands of diesel cars will meet the crusher.

http://autoweek.com/article/vw-diese...#ixzz5BSSCnSmV