Volkswagen brand sales dip in wake of scandal

Now, Volkswagen promises to focus on quality over quantity, with more focus being given to electric vehicles.

On the road, the exhausts of those cars would exceed allowable levels of nitrogen oxide, a harmful pollutant.

“The temporary sales stops for vehicles affected by the diesel issue had an impact on sales”, said Juergen Stackmann, Volkswagen board member responsible for sales. Now Audi – the Volkswagen Group’s luxury brand – is under scrutiny, too. Sales in North America including Canada rose 3.5 percent from the same month a year earlier. That part of the scandal affects at least 11m vehicles.

For CO2, the estimated provision amounts to about €2,500 per vehicle versus about €610 for the vehicles carrying the engine implicated in the NOx case.

But the kicker with the Carbon dioxide emissions is that the fuel consumption data on which there based is also bogus. The company says anyone coming forward will not be fired or face damages.

“What consumers want to know is, will they be compensated?” The program only targets VW owners of 2.0-liter diesels, offering one $500 gift card good anywhere that Visa is accepted, one $500 gift card good at any participating VW dealership, and three years of complimentary roadside assistance.

A few owners took to social media to vent about what they believed to be a lowball offer given the depreciation sustained by their cars since the scandal erupted two months ago.

Richard Blumenthal, a Democratic senator from CT, said that offer was “insultingly inadequate”.

Meanwhile, VW’s headquarters in Germany has been mum in recent weeks about how and when it will remedy the noncompliant diesel vehicles, a communications void that has pummeled resale values and annoyed owners.

GM lawyers, Bharara said, gave USA prosecutors real-time updates on the investigation – “often revealing to the office what witnesses had said – even before GM management was filled in…”

The company’s German head office failed to respond to our questions, and a United Kingdom spokesman said there was no further information to add to the official statement.