Volkswagen Offers $1000 in Gift Cards to Owners of Affected Diesels

Volkswagen has extended a financial olive branch to its angry customers by offering US owners of diesel-powered cars $1,000 in gift cards and vouchers.

On top of the gift cards, Volkswagen already is offering $2,000 to current VW owners to trade in their cars for new vehicles.

The package consists of a US$500 ($710) prepaid Visa card, a US$500 ($710) Volkswagen dealership card and three years of free roadside assistance.

The company installed software that cheats during emissions test into 11 million of its diesel cars sold worldwide.

That package will cost Volkswagen $250 million (£165 million), but that’s only a fraction of what the auto company will have to spend in recalling its problem vehicles and paying fines to regulatory agencies it deceived. “It’s clear that our company betrayed the trust of our customers, our employees, our dealers, and the public”, said Michael Horn, the CEO of Volkswagen America, in a video message accompanying the details of the offer. To determine whether you may qualify for the program, you can go to www.vwdieselinfo.com once the program is formally announced and look up your car’s vehicle identification number.

The “goodwill package” is a stopgap measure while the automaker works on a way to fix the cars, which contain software created to evade US pollution regulations. The same offer extends to owners of Audi vehicles affected by the scandal. He or she will also receive a $500 dealership card that can be used at any participating dealership for service or, barring that, a few sweet automaker-branded merchandise. The deal ended on November 2 and was offered to VW owners or their family members, as long as they lived at the same address. That includes the Touareg TDI and five Audi models.

Volkswagen NZ general manager Tom Ruddenklau indicated today he had been taken by surprise by the offer of $US1000 ($NZ1528) to about 500,000 United States diesel vehicle owners.

Owners with any questions can head to Volkswagen’s diesel information site, where the automaker has compiled a very thorough frequently asked-questions page.

Not exactly straightforward, the program first requires that an owner see if a vehicle is eligible for the card.

VW said on Monday it continues to discuss potential remedies with US and California emissions regulators, including the possibility that a few of the affected cars could be bought back from customers.

“I think it’s important that customers don’t think we are shirking our responsibilities because we really want to help them”, said Mr Ruddenklau, whose European Motor Distributors operations is owned by the Giltrap Group.