Are you in the market for a 2009 Volkswagen Jetta TDI that was rigged to trick federal regulators and is now part of the biggest car buyback in U.S. history? Tim Monahan of Columbus, Indiana, has one listed for sale with 144,000 miles on it, and he’s asking $11,600. Lowballing is a common negotiating tactic when it comes to buying used cars, and a few people who have inquired about Monahan’s 2009 Jetta have sent him screen shots of vehicle valuations that put the price of his VW at about $6500.
That offer could very well be what the eight-year-old Jetta should be worth, but Monahan is firm on the price, because he knows that Volkswagen is not only buying back cars like this for what they were worth before the diesel emissions scandal broke in September 2015; VW also is giving cash payouts on top of it.
In fact, Volkswagen’s payment breakdown puts compensation at about $12,437 for Monahan’s Jetta. So why doesn’t he just let Volkswagen buy it back? “We take good care of our vehicles, and it’s in fairly excellent shape, so we hate to sell it back and see it destroyed,” Monahan told Car and Driver.
He’s not wrong about the prospect of the 2009 Jetta getting scrapped if it goes back to Volkswagen. Older-model TDIs affected by the emissions scandal and the subsequent, unprecedented buyback are less likely to find a suitable fix both to meet the standards of U.S. regulators and to maintain the performance and fuel economy Volkswagen had originally promised. Many will likely get junked.
In the meantime, Volkswagen has all but abandoned diesel vehicles in the U.S. market and is moving headlong toward electrification. That leaves the relics of its most recent and now disgraced push for clean diesel, about half a million cars from the 2009 to 2016 model years, in a kind of weird used-auto purgatory.
The affected vehicles have 2.0- and 3.0-liter TDI engines and range from VW Jettas to Audi Q7s to Porsche Cayennes. A consumer settlement for about 475,000 cars with 2.0-liter engines was approved in October, with the German automaker agreeing to earmark some $10 billion to buy back the cars, terminate leases, or modify the vehicles.
About 75 percent of all the people who have registered for the buybacks signed up within two weeks of the settlement announcement, company spokeswoman Jeannine Ginivan said. Volkswagen has had to hire about 1300 people in the United States, including more than 600 at dealerships, just to help process all the paperwork. So far, the automaker has offered about 275,000 buybacks. It has a third party auditing the buyback process, and about 100,000 claims have been fully processed.
Owners of the 2.0-liter cars are getting paid the cars’ market value, frozen in September 2015 at the time the diesel emission scandal broke when the company admitted to rigging vehicles with “defeat devices” to trick emissions tests. In addition to that buyback price, owners get cash payments that add $5100 to $10,000 to the total compensation, depending on the vehicle’s age.
Last month, a $1.2 billon settlement was reached for the 78,000 3.0-liter TDI vehicles on U.S. roads. But unlike the settlement involving the 2.0-liter TDIs, which all qualified for buybacks while the company searches for a fix, some of the 3.0-liter TDIs may not carry the buyback option.
The 3.0-liter TDIs have been divided into two groups: Generation 1, which includes 2009–2012 Volkswagen Touareg and Audi Q7 vehicles, and Generation 2, which includes a variety of 2013–2016 Volkswagen, Audi, and Porsche vehicles. VW appears confident that it will be able to fix the Generation 2 vehicles to bring them into compliance with U.S. emissions standards and still achieve the performance and fuel economy the automaker had promised. Those owners will still get cash compensation, however.
Elizabeth Cabraser, a plaintiff’s attorney overseeing the consumer settlement, told the media last week the move should also help reduce some of the scrapping and junking that now appears inevitable because of the sheer magnitude of cars being bought back by Volkswagen. VW, for its part, is regularly maintaining the cars as they sit in makeshift holding areas throughout the country. And while some already have been scrapped, Volkswagen’s Ginivan said the company does not rule out putting some back on the market in some form.
C/D has heard from a few people who have been through the buyback process who say that they now see owning one of Volkswagen’s TDIs as having been a very inexpensive endeavor. That’s not to say they’re all thrilled with the company’s backhanded attempt to add more pollutants to the air.
On the other hand, not everyone is happy to see Volkswagen’s diesel wares get put out to the proverbial pasture, either. Monahan is one such owner. “It’s disappointing to hear that they’re not going to sell them anymore,” he said. He currently owns three TDIs, including a pre-scandal 2004 Jetta, the 2009 model he has listed for sale, and a 2010 Jetta Cup Edition that he has no plans to get rid of. He favors their fuel economy and performance. And he said that’s also why he has no intention of getting his 2010 Cup Edition modified, unless a fix is offered that will sacrifice neither of these attributes.
But for his 2009 Jetta TDI, even Monahan is not immune to Volkswagen’s enticing buyback offer. If no one buys the car for his asking price, he says, all of the paperwork has been filled out and is ready to be filed, and he’ll take Volkswagen up on its offer.
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