In October I told you that  Federal Judge, Charles Breyer had given final approval to a settlement of the class action brought on behalf of the 475,000 purchasers and lessees of Volkswagen and Audi 2.0 liter diesel cars.  As you may remember Volkswagen had tampered with software used to measure emissions of the cars to make them appear to comply with EPA regulations. The class action was based upon false advertising and has resulted in payments of more than ten billion dollars to VW and Audi owners and lessees of the VW Beetle and Beetle Convertibles for the years 2013-2015, VW Golf & Golf SportWagens for the years 2010-2015, VW Jetta & Jetta Sportwagens for the years 2009-2015, VW Passats for the years 2012-2015 and Audi A3s for the years 2010-2013.  Consumers have the choice of a buyback or to have their cars fixed in addition to payments ranging from $5,100 to $10,000 per owner.

Now Volkswagen has agreed to buy back or fix the remaining  80,000 diesel Audi’s Volkswagen and Porsche cars that were not covered by the October settlement.  Final details are still being worked out and I will report to you once the settlement has been finalized as to what you need to do make a claim if you have one of the affected vehicles.

Consumers should be aware that there are people trying to take advantage of this settlement by contacting affected car owners and making alternative offers.  Some of these offers are even coming from independently owned VW dealers.  In some instances, these offers are falsely implying that the new offers are part of the court approved settlement as well as misrepresenting to customers that the customers are required to take any payments received pursuant to the settlement and apply it to new purchases of Volkswagens, Porsches or Audis.  Finally, as with so many scams, the scammers misrepresenting the terms of the settlement pressure their victims into acting quickly, implying that the they will miss out on an opportunity unless they act immediately.

TIPS

If you are an affected car owner, don’t feel pressured into accepting offers from sources other than through the approved Volkswagen settlement process.  For more detailed information about the settlement including charts to help you estimate how much you will receive if you purchased or leased one of the affected automobiles, go to the top of the first page of Scamicide.com to the FTC Scam Refunds tab and click on the link to the official information from the FTC for details about the settlement.