VW offers United States customers $1000 vouchers as gesture of goodwill

VW will give eligible drivers who own one of the TDI cars affected by the diesel emissions scandal $500 loaded onto a prepaid Visa card and $500 that can be redeemed at Volkswagen dealerships.

Many owners are angry at the company for cheating because they paid extra for the cars to be environmentally sensitive without losing peppy acceleration.

The cheat software in question senses when a vehicle is being tested in a lab or during inspection and artificially lowers the amount of nitrogen oxide emitted by the auto. The final item in the package is an additional three years of 24-hour roadside assistance. The VW chief said that today’s package is ” a first step towards regaining our customers’ trust”.

“We are very anxious to find out if there are any other programs out there”, EPA transportation and air quality director Christopher Grundler said in a statement published by The New York Times.

Germany’s motoring regulator also announced that VW is likely to need to perform significant engine repairs on 540,000 cars in Germany. Apparently, that’s what Volkswagen engineers had to do when they couldn’t live up to former CEO Martin Winterkorn’s ambitious expectations.

It has admitted that four-cylinder diesels from its 2009 to 2015 model years have the software that can cheat on pollution tests.

The EPA said that in addition to cars with 2.0 litre diesel engines using the “defeat” software to mask actual emissions of poisonous gases, certain of the company’s 3.0 litre diesels also had the same devices. In particular, VW’s corporate governance was pinpointed as being weaker than that of its peers. Volkswagen says, they are going to make the offer announcement tomorrow (Monday). That could wind up hurting performance or perhaps fuel mileage, the two main reasons why people buy the diesels.

They also want VW to “state clearly and unequivocally that every owner has the right to sue” amid concerns that the offer could be contingent on an owner signing away his right to bring a lawsuit against VW.

VW has declined to comment on the rating’s downgrade.

Volkswagen is offering a $1,000 credit, of which half is to be spent at VW and Audi dealerships, to USA owners of certain diesel models that do not comply with government emissions standards, VW’s US subsidiary said.

The scandal drew protests from the Greenpeace environmental group Monday outside the main entrance to VW’s headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany.