Cash for VW’s Clunkers: Diesel Buybacks Boost U.S. Auto Demand
- German carmaker’s repurchases mirror 2009 scrappage program
- VW required to fix or buy back about 562,000 diesels in U.S.
A VW logo sits on a covering under the bonnet of a Volkswagen AG Passat TDI automobile powered by a turbocharged direct injection engine in London, U.K., on Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2015. Volkswagen is grappling with an emissions scandal on three fronts: cheating software installed in about 11 million vehicles worldwide with 1.2-, 1.6- and 2.0-liter engines; irregular carbon dioxide ratings on about 800,000 vehicles in Europe; and questionable emissions software in about 85,000 VW, Audi and Porsche vehicles with 3.0-liter diesel engines in the U.S.
Photographer: Miles Willis/BloombergScott Nichols was happy with his 2013 Jetta SportWagen TDI and planned to keep it for years. Then it surfaced Volkswagen AG had been breaking emissions laws, souring him and his wife on the brand and thrusting them back into the market for a new Honda.
“We were really disappointed, because it was in fact too good to be true -- this car with really good gas mileage and all the pep that it has,” said Nichols, who works at a private high school east of Los Angeles with his wife. “We researched this, we wanted something that was going to last a long time and now we have to go back and buy another car.”