At a meeting last week,
Volkswagen assured franchise dealership owners that they are next in line to be compensated after individual owners of vehicles powered by its
TDI engine, according to
The Wall Street Journal. With 150 dealers in attendance at the meeting, Volkswagen of America’s Mark McNabb promised compensation to
dealerships that claim the diesel scandal damaged them economically. It’s the first time VW has confirmed it’d offer restitution for the company’s franchise dealers.
“McNabb said the company was working toward a fair settlement and restitution for the dealers. He used the word restitution for the dealers for the first time,” Steve Kalafer, a New Jersey-based VW dealer told the WSJ. McNabb added that there was “heavy discussion” about “fair compensation” for dealers inside the company, Kalafer said.
Specific details on what the company will pay individual dealers isn’t yet available. VW is already
on the hook for nearly $15 billion in compensation for nearly 500,000 TDI owners. With 650 dealers in the company’s US network, that number will probably increase substantially once VW gets around to detailing its restitution plans.
“Volkswagen’s compensation for consumers is very generous, but it was done with a gun to their head,” Kalafer told WSJ. “We want to know what restitution Volkswagen is going to give to dealers, because we have not put a gun to their head.”
Aside from promising restitution, the WSJ reports that Volkswagen explained its timeline for
repair and buyback programs to its dealers. If the courts okay VW’s settlement plan, consumers can
sell their cars back to Volkswagen or choose from repairs – software updates for second and third-gen diesels and “software/hardware modification” for first-gen TDIs. Fixes for third-gen models hit dealers in October, while solutions for first- and second-generation diesels will hit in January and February, respectively. VW expects the program to run through the end of 2018.
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