The cheating diesel scandal has misled consumers who bought Volkswagens in the past and should be compensated.
This is what the Volkswagen Group Diesel Efficiency Foundation (VGDES) and the Consumers’ Association argue in a case about cheating types of diesel that the court in Groningen will hear on Wednesday.
The organizations ask the court to determine compensation for a consumer who deliberately purchased a Volkswagen Polo Blue Motion diesel in 2011 because of its ‘clean character’. The sales brochures at the time praised the car for “its enormous economy, environmentally friendly technology and pleasant dynamics”. But later, according to the Consumer Association, this turned out to be completely wrong.
“The Polo was not clean at all. It even turned out to well exceed the permitted emission standard. But thanks to manipulation software, he had passed the entrance tests. So the customer was very deliberately deceived,” says Consumers’ Association director Sandra Molenaar. Dick Bouma, the chairman of VGDES, says that the stake in the case is repayment of the purchase price minus the current trade-in value. “In this case, 17,290 minus 2,000 euros. The gentleman must therefore receive a refund of 15,290 euros.”
The diesel scandal came to light at Volkswagen in 2015. That concern then admitted to having manipulated emissions tests on a large scale with cheating software, which made diesel cars appear cleaner than they actually were. It later became clear that other car companies also used cheating software.
This Polo case is one of four trial proceedings in which the Consumers’ Association and VGDES claim compensation. “Our goal is that Volkswagen realizes that it really has to compensate Dutch consumers and, based on the outcome of those procedures, enters into discussions with us about a scheme,” says Molenaar.
