VW offers $US1000 in gift cards

“I personally feel insulted by their peace offering”, said Nevada resident Dave Thompson, who owns a 2010 diesel Jetta sportswagon. “That trust is gone”, he added.

The offer goes to owners of 482,000 cars, many of whom are angry at the company because they paid extra for the cars to be environmentally sensitive without losing peppy acceleration.

In the meantime, we’re providing affected 2.0L TDI owners with a $500 Volkswagen Prepaid Visa Loyalty Card, a $500 Volkswagen Dealership Card, and no-charge 24-hour Roadside Assistance for three years*.

The VW scandal broke in September when the company was caught by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency using a so-called “defeat device” created to cheat on emission tests.

Volkswagen hasn’t announced how it will be fixing vehicles involved in its diesel scandal, but it has assembled a new “goodwill package” for its customers.

VW also acknowledged finding irregularities in carbon dioxide emissions in 800,000 other vehicles, all outside the U.S. a few of those were powered by gasoline engines. The carmaker is setting aside funds as it recalls cars and prepares to fight court cases against shareholders and customers.

Blumenthal and Markey said if VW wants to do the right thing, the automaker should offer every owner a buy-back option and do it without taking away the option for the owner to sue.

“They’re a very nimble team, and they are fast to react to the changing climate”, Alan Brown, chairman of Volkswagen’s US dealer network and the general manager of Hendrick Volkswagen in Lewisville, Texas, said of the VW corporate reaction.

“I’m sure people people behind me see the TDI badge and back away”. “There are no strings attached”, she said. Customers won’t be required to sign a release of claims in order to receive the package, said VW spokesman Darryll Harrison Jr.

“What matters to us primarily is that we can offer full transparency to our customers at this point”, the VW executive said.

The gesture will cost Volkswagen almost $250 million – a fraction of what the automaker has warned investors the scandal will costs.

The Volkswagen said it would have made a profit of 3.2 billion euro (£2.3 billion) if the “diesel issue” had not emerged. Void where prohibited and outside USA and Puerto Rico.

It increasingly looks like systematic cheating so as to give VW an unfair -and indeed illegal – advantage over rival vehicle makers.

Volkswagen, based in Wolfsburg, Germany, on Monday started the hard task of convincing unions to accept cutbacks it says are necessary to survive the crisis. The 2009-15 diesel Audi A3 owners will also get the same offer, according to Detroit Free Press.