Judy Sexton took a road trip in September. On her three-day drive to Nebraska, fuel costs were no problem. Her 2014 diesel Volkswagen Jetta gets more than 40 miles per gallon.
Before buying her Jetta a year ago, the Oak Harbor woman drove an Acura SUV. “I got tired of paying big gas bills,” she said.
Her trip to see relatives was fine, but Sexton said people in Nebraska started asking, “Is your car one of those?” At first, she didn’t know what they meant. She knows now.
Sexton, 73, is one of some 500,000 diesel Volkswagen and Audi owners in the United States with cars affected by an emissions-cheating scandal. She was shocked when she learned about it.
“You don’t expect to be polluting the environment when you buy these cars,” she said Friday. “I felt very confident it was a good purchase. I don’t know what the fix is.”
In September, the Environmental Protection Agency found that many newer VW diesel cars have software, a defeat-device, that can detect when vehicles are being tested and change the performance. The German carmaker admitted to cheating emissions tests in the United States. Its chief executive, Martin Winterkorn, resigned.
Last week, Volkswagen announced that VW diesel owners caught up in the cheating debacle would get a $500 gift card that can be used for anything, and another $500 for goods or services from a Volkswagen or Audi dealer.
Accepting that $500 may not be a smart move. The Burlington Free Press newspaper in Vermont reported Thursday that gift card takers must sign an agreement that could jeopardize the right to a jury trial.
Sexton has signed up to be part of a class-action lawsuit against Volkswagen filed by Hagens Berman, a law firm with offices in Seattle and nine other cities. “I was hoping it would make up for any loss when I decide to trade my car,” said Sexton, adding that resale value is a huge issue.
Neither managers at Pignataro Volkswagen in Everett nor at Campbell Nelson Volkswagen in Edmonds returned calls for comment Friday. Seattle’s Carter Volkswagen has a page on its website, www.cartervw.com/vw-tdi-owners, devoted to the issue, with a Volkswagen of America statement, a list of affected vehicles, and other information.
Like Sexton, Pete Shainin bought his 2013 Volkswagen Jetta TDI at Pignataro. Neither has heard from the Everett dealership since the emissions-cheating scandal surfaced, but both received letters from Volkswagen.
Shainin, who lives in Skagit County, worries about the cars’ performance if a fix brings them into compliance.
“They’ve created an expectation, a standard, that you can buy a diesel engine that will get you fantastic mileage and meet all the emissions rules,” said Shainin, 72, who has a mechanical engineering degree and runs a consulting company.
Shainin is happy with his Jetta, which he bought after trading in a 15-year-old Mercedes-Benz with nearly 300,000 miles on the odometer.
If he receives a notice about a fix that would make his Jetta meet emissions standards, Shainin said he’s not sure he’ll get the work done. In Skagit County, he said, emissions testing isn’t required for car license renewal.
Without the cheat software engaged for emissions testing, those diesel engines out on the open road were found to emit nitrogen oxide pollutants up to 40 times above what’s allowed in the United States, according to news reports.
Shainin, who said he respects Volkswagen engineering, isn’t impressed by the offer of $500 and other “goodies.”
“I wish they hadn’t done that. I’d rather see them put the money into fixing the problem,” he said. Unlike some VW owners, he’s not calling for the company to buy back his car. “I like my car, I don’t want to give it up,” he said.
I like mine, too. I have a fun-to-drive Volkswagen Passat wagon, but it’s a 2008 with a 4-cylinder turbo gas engine. The company lists affected cars as starting with 2009 models through 2015, all with TDI diesel engines — so mine deserves no dirty looks.
But get this: The New York Times reported Nov. 3 that the crisis has expanded. “A limited number of gasoline-powered cars are affected,” VW spokesman Eric Felber was quoted as saying.
So really, how do we know if our emissions tests are accurate? How do we know if VW is the only car company cheating, or just the one that got caught?
Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460; jmuhlstein@heraldnet.com.
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