VW TDI Settlement - buying a TDI now

xwesx

corvette said:

Can you get one of those Mr. Buddy portable propane heaters to stick under the hood? Or an electric?

I have an 80,000 btu propane space heater (one of those big rocket blower style deals), and I could probably go all gangbusters with that and a tarp, but I'm not sure I want to go that route just yet. It takes a long time to air-heat the metal components of the vehicle so that the fluids within actually start to heat.

I'm going to start with some more fuel additives as well as checking the fuel filter to see if the car is suffering gelling. If yes, then I'll try a chemical approach to fixing the problem followed by the "warm the whole car up" method if that doesn't work. And, if still failure, it's time to just tow the thing to a shop.

stever

Those skinny little compact spares probably dig down into the snow pretty good.

andres3

stever said:

Those skinny little compact spares probably dig down into the snow pretty good.

with AWD your supposed to run virtually identical tires (including wear) on all 4 corners. When my tire went down at the track, and I wasn't able to get a replacement (whether I wanted 1, 2, or 4), it became an idea that might be fun to track 4 spare donut tires.

stever

Let's see, a donut is supposedly good for 50 miles and one track mile probably equals 50 street miles.

I'd give you two laps, tops.

Hard to keep up but I think this is the latest:

VW will pay $200 million in 3.0-liter TDI V6 engine emissions settlement (autoblog.com)

From USA Today:

VW nears deal to compensate owners of large diesel cars

kyfdx

Seems like they are going to fix the 2013 and newer models.

corvette

Hmm, no word on the buyback amount. Doubt we will be able to make a quick buck on the 3.0 TDIs. There is only one TDI in Carmax's inventory right now and it's a 2014 A7.

breld

Yeah, makes me a little regretful of not getting that Q7 TDI a few weeks ago.  That's a car I like on its own merits, and getting a bit of restitution back would be nice.  But, certainly doesn't seem these models took much of a hit in resale at all, so don't think it'd be a particularly profitable deal.  

kyfdx

2010 Touareg with 85K miles for $18,900 asking. About 2 hours from me. Of course, I have no idea what the buyback might be. Also, worried that if you buy before the preliminary settlement, you might get less than those that buy afterwards.

stevedebi

28firefighter said:

andres3 said:

I got the email letter:

We have reviewed the documents you submitted as part of your claim with reference number ABC123456. Currently, your application contains all of the necessary documentation to determine your eligibility. We are now determining your eligibility and will inform you whether you are eligible to participate in the VW/Audi Diesel Emissions Settlement Program.

Seems a bit silly since it is pretty straight forward (no lien).

I have been stuck at that phase, same situation with no lien, for over a month.

Mine was at that point for around a month.

28firefighter

stevedebi said:

I got the email letter: We have reviewed the documents you submitted as part of your claim with reference number ABC123456. Currently, your application contains all of the necessary documentation to determine your eligibility. We are now determining your eligibility and will inform you whether you are eligible to participate in the VW/Audi Diesel Emissions Settlement Program. Seems a bit silly since it is pretty straight forward (no lien).

I have been stuck at that phase, same situation with no lien, for over a month.

Mine was at that point for around a month.

Class counsel is planning to escalate to the VW Attorneys on Monday if I don't have anything by then. Apparently VW is taking the approach of moving as many timely claims through as possible to meet their statistics. Once it falls off, it falls to the bottom of the pile. 

Basically it would have paid to be less diligent about filing my claim. 

andres3

stever said:

Let's see, a donut is supposedly good for 50 miles and one track mile probably equals 50 street miles.

I'd give you two laps, tops.

Hard to keep up but I think this is the latest:

VW will pay $200 million in 3.0-liter TDI V6 engine emissions settlement (autoblog.com)

From USA Today:

VW nears deal to compensate owners of large diesel cars

Never understood the 50 mile limit thing. First, might it be probably based on overheating limits after 50 miles at 50 MPH? What about 300 miles at 65-70 MPH? Since I've gone 300 miles on mine, should I get a replacement? The tire looked fine to me. Something tells me they say 50 miles at 50 MPH max knowing that people will multiply by 10, then multiply by another 2 as a safety factor; so I figure 1,000 miles is good.

andres3

kyfdx said:

2010 Touareg with 85K miles for $18,900 asking. About 2 hours from me. Of course, I have no idea what the buyback might be. Also, worried that if you buy before the preliminary settlement, you might get less than those that buy afterwards.

What's the precedent that makes you worry about a thing like that?

kyfdx

andres3 said:

kyfdx said:

2010 Touareg with 85K miles for $18,900 asking. About 2 hours from me. Of course, I have no idea what the buyback might be. Also, worried that if you buy before the preliminary settlement, you might get less than those that buy afterwards.

What's the precedent that makes you worry about a thing like that?

Those that bought 2.0 liter models between 09/15/2015 and 06/28/2016 are reporting different buyout offers than those of us that bought post 06/28.

xwesx

kyfdx said:

Those that bought 2.0 liter models between 09/15/2015 and 06/28/2016 are reporting different buyout offers than those of us that bought post 06/28.

Yeah, it is really quite strange the way they worded that. VW should have just worked toward any purchase after 9/15/2015 was 50% restitution and left it at that. I think the reason we benefitted is because they were looking to make a pool of funds available to those who sold the car prior to knowing there would be restitution, but didn't include those who reasonably should have known (e.g., the information was made public), yet didn't include any sort of language to exclude post 6/28/16 buyers from full restitution.

They could have saved a bundle by including that language, and I doubt anyone (within the legal groups) would have balked at it.

xwesx

So, I was successful in getting the car to start!

I initially started with pulling the cover on the fuel filter, which was blessedly easy to access (Who does that these days?! It was simple to access the fuel filter, but a real PITA to access the oil drain and filter....). After verifying that the fuel was thickened at about 10 degrees, with some cloudiness, I decided to try warming the filter housing with my magnetic oil pan heater to see if that did the trick.

It did not. Next, I bought some Diesel 911 as well as some anti-gel (for afterward), and again pulled the filter, carefully extracted about half of the remaining diesel syrup in there, and reinserted the filter. Then, I filled it up with Diesel 911 and secured the cover. Next, I added the rest of the 911 to the fuel tank and gave it about ten minutes. No start.

While I was recharging the battery... again..., my son suggested that he could probably get under the car to pull the shield under the engine. He could not (about 5" of clearance? I should think not!), but he did clear away the snow around the car nicely, so I lifted each side and put it on blocks.

Once we had it up, we were able to crawl under there to remove that cover and, apart from the fact that there are a dozen screws - with varying sizes of Torx head (both T20 and, I think T45) that hold this thing on, I discovered that there looked to have been some sort of thermal shield between the engine and the shield. However, my neighborhood squirrels decided it was far better to insulate their nests, giving me one more reason to hate those vermin! Anyhow, I went to attach the pan heater... and discovered that the pan is aluminum. Great....!

My wife had the brilliant idea of using the jack to hold the heater against the pan, so my son did that while I covered the engine with an electric blanket and an emergency blanket (one of those reflective ones) over top of it. With the battery charging and the engine being warmed from both ends, I called it a day and decided to try again this morning.

This morning (about twelve hours later and about -5F) I came out, pushed the button, and it fired up like it had never had any issues doing otherwise. /sigh

28firefighter

Still no offer from VW yet. Apparently some are hearing it could be mid-January for those of us that really fell to the bottom of the pile. I'm not amused and am following up with class counsel, but not much I can do.

xwesx

28firefighter said:

Still no offer from VW yet. Apparently some are hearing it could be mid-January for those of us that really fell to the bottom of the pile. I'm not amused and am following up with class counsel, but not much I can do.

Sorry to hear that, 28. That's a pretty crappy approach when they are so focused on the statistics that they forget they are working with real people.

andres3

xwesx said:

28firefighter said:

Still no offer from VW yet. Apparently some are hearing it could be mid-January for those of us that really fell to the bottom of the pile. I'm not amused and am following up with class counsel, but not much I can do.

Sorry to hear that, 28. That's a pretty crappy approach when they are so focused on the statistics that they forget they are working with real people.

If you promise to buy another VW they might move you to the top of the pile. Sugar works better than Vinegar at times.

andres3

By the way, I'm going to mention this on another thread too, because it bares mentioning, if you are in the market for a slushbox AND/OR manual transmission turbocharged AWD wagon, give the Golf Alltrack a close look. They look better in person than in photographs, significantly so! I'd want $5,000 off MSRP on it though; not sure if that's feasible given VW will consider it their newest latest model.

Michaell

andres3 said:

By the way, I'm going to mention this on another thread too, because it bares mentioning, if you are in the market for a slushbox AND/OR manual transmission turbocharged AWD wagon, give the Golf Alltrack a close look. They look better in person than in photographs, significantly so! I'd want $5,000 off MSRP on it though; not sure if that's feasible given VW will consider it their newest latest model.

At the moment, the Alltrack is selling well; not much in the way of incentives on it. If you wait a few months for the 'gotta have it now' crowd to thin out, you may be able to score a deal.

mjfloyd1

28firefighter said:

Still no offer from VW yet. Apparently some are hearing it could be mid-January for those of us that really fell to the bottom of the pile. I'm not amused and am following up with class counsel, but not much I can do.

Hopefully you will get your offer soon.

My Passat's drivers exterior door pull just decided to stop working so I just dropped it off. Taking it to south FL soon and it's a PITA to have to reach through from the passenger seat or rear seat to open it from the inside. Thankfully it's still under the extended b to b warranty.

kyfdx

I broke down and put in $5 of fuel, yesterday. Should get me through to next Wednesday.

xwesx

It's a tough life, @kyfdx!

I broke down and put an oil pan heater on mine so that I can be certain that I will not need to lift up the car again. Another $20.... flushed!

corvette

Email from VW:
"IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR UPCOMMING APPOINTMENT"

Upcomming.

Spent most of my afternoon reading very badly written legal pleadings (which started with "Comes the Plaintiffs" and got worse from there), now I get to correct VW's spelling with my imaginary red ink pen.

kyfdx

So, what was the important info?

corvette

Info on the electronic funds transfer and list of things to bring to the closing. Both of which I think I've already seen before.

kyfdx

corvette said:

Info on the electronic funds transfer and list of things to bring to the closing. Both of which I think I've already seen before.

Ah... okay

andres3

corvette said:

Info on the electronic funds transfer and list of things to bring to the closing. Both of which I think I've already seen before.

care to share the list? I was surprised they wanted a scan or picture of the back of the title.

kyfdx

Your ID
Title
POA form, so they can do the title work
TDI vehicle

xwesx

kyfdx said:

Your ID
Title
POA form, so they can do the title work
TDI vehicle

That all seems reasonable. Except the last one. WTH?! How are we supposed to come up with THAT?!

28firefighter

Still no paperwork here...class counsel is running it up the chain on his side, but made it very clear it goes to the firm that is sending VW periodic lists of outstanding claims that are very behind and is not a specific escalation related to my claim.

kyfdx

28firefighter said:

Still no paperwork here...class counsel is running it up the chain on his side, but made it very clear it goes to the firm that is sending VW periodic lists of outstanding claims that are very behind and is not a specific escalation related to my claim.

I would guess this is just bad luck.

Unless, every time you call about your claim, they move it to the bottom of the pile.

28firefighter

kyfdx said:

28firefighter said:

Still no paperwork here...class counsel is running it up the chain on his side, but made it very clear it goes to the firm that is sending VW periodic lists of outstanding claims that are very behind and is not a specific escalation related to my claim.

I would guess this is just bad luck.

Unless, every time you call about your claim, they move it to the bottom of the pile.

I agree, but frustrating nonetheless.

breld

Well, I have my buyback appointment this Friday and received a reminder e-mail. That e-mail includes an updated buyback amount that does indeed take into account my current mileage - I don't even remember updating that recently, but I must have. So the buyback of $28k is spot on to what I was expecting.

The e-mail also states that you can expect an e-mail from JPMorgan Chase within 3 days of the appointment with which you enter your banking information to complete the EFT transfer (if that's the option you chose).

qbrozen

Putting in mileage was a step in registering for turn-in appt

kyfdx

Just got the appointment reminder email, as well.

breld

qbrozen said:

Putting in mileage was a step in registering for turn-in appt

Aah, that makes sense then. I printed out all the tables and everything to support the buyback amount, but seems they're all over it.

xwesx

breld said:

qbrozen said:

Putting in mileage was a step in registering for turn-in appt

Aah, that makes sense then. I printed out all the tables and everything to support the buyback amount, but seems they're all over it.

Encouraging news.....

andres3

Ahhh, they were super fast with me. Didn't even see it until yesterday (21st) but the email was dated from the morning of the 19th! Offer letter.

1 Problem though on the letter. Instead of listing my name and the wife's name, they listed my wife's first and last name, then again her first, middle, and last name as if she was 2 different people. Putting 2 owners on the title was a huge mistake! I know this is partly my fault because one of my scans had our two driver's licenses, but I realized hers was expired, so I had her scan hers again with the new DL, and attached that as a separate file. I figured it would be easy for them to figure out the two right people, turns out my thoroughness with the expiration date worrying me ended up causing another error by them. Should have just left it alone, but I was afraid they'd reject it.

First, the paperwork from having two owners is tremendous and massive. We are going to have to be together with a notary to get this signed all at once, we can't do it one at a time unless we want to double our notary costs and cause more confusion. This means we can't do the sign scan and pass it on method. We have to visit a notary together.

I'm tempted now that the letter lists one and the same person to relinquish my rights to the settlement to simplify things, but somehow I think the notary won't like that, and an anal claim payer rep might catch the mistake and further delay at the end of the deal.

I guess I'll call the 1-800 number and see if they can fix this and resend it right away.

By the way, the buyback offer was exactly what we expected from the previous correspondence and tables; just shy of $30K all-in. Lame duck 22,500 trade-in value being used.

28firefighter

Aaaand still nothing for me...

andres3

28firefighter said:

Aaaand still nothing for me...

Remember though, my case was as cut & dry as it gets:

1) We paid for the vehicle in full when we bought it; no financing or lien, ever!
2) Original first owners.
3) Recent vehicle purchase and sale history being a '15 model sold in 2015.

28firefighter

The challenge I'm having is that the hotline is telling me my offer was generated on 11/24. A bit baffling to me that I still have not received it.

breld

Getting closer on the 3.0l agreement...

https://vwdieselinfo.com/updates/statement-by-volkswagen-group-of-america-15/

Sounds like they are pretty confident that they will be able to fix the newer (2013-2016) models, with a buyback likely for the earlier models.

I'd imagine there will be some restitution for all owners in any case, but no details as of yet.

breld

Well, here's the proposed consent decree:

https://epa.gov/enforcement/30l-second-partial-and-20l-partial-and-amended-consent-decree

Just briefly looking through it, looks like the proposed buyback equals:

1. "Vehicle Value" - The NADA Clean Retail value as of November 2015, plus
   
2. "State and Local Taxes Payment" - A tax adjustment, representative of your sales tax on the Vehicle Value, plus
   
3. "Associated Owners Expense" - $720.
   

From what I can tell, owners of the 2009-2012 models will be offered the buyback, and owners of the later models will be offered a recall and fix. I don't see any mention of restitution for those receiving the fix.

Now, a fix hasn't been approved yet, and if there is no fix, then all vehicles will be subject to buyback. But just reading through the stipulations in the decree, it sure seems they are anticipating an approved fix. Makes sense based on my limited understanding of the urea system in those vehicles.

So...not running out to look for a 3.0l TDI. At least not for arbitrage.

andres3

So they told me the letter listing my wife's name twice was my fault as I must have filled out their unclear web forms incorrectly.

However, after double-checking a solution (at first she was saying we'd have to start the whole process over again), second, she complained out loud that I never should have gotten this far, that my mistaken application should have been rejected way earlier, then finally third she realized my title and registration say Mr. OR Mrs. not AND. Key thing in a legal sense. She said it was the first time she saw the word "OR" used with two names on a title.

Bottom line, VW told me my wife signs the letter twice, gets it notarized, and we have $29.8K to spend on another vehicle. (Caveat that I should be present during the buyback just in case; not a problem). I think since it's Christmas we can bump that up 10% if need be. Then again, if the loan is available for 1.49 and under, it is tempting.

xwesx

Great customer service there, blaming you for all their ails. Hahaha. /facepalm


Since we're in update mode, though, I just booked my flight home for $87. So, I'll likely head out on Sunday afternoon, visit with family in Palmer that night and the next morning, take the car in to Anchorage on Monday afternoon, get picked up from the dealership by a friend at around six and hang out with him for the evening, and then he'll drop me off at the airport at around 10pm. My flight should have me back in town a little after midnight and home by 0100!

Now, I just have to wait for the bottom to drop out....

stever

Ah, the one am airport runs. Did one of those last night, but I was back home in bed right at one am. Safe travels!

Has anyone gotten their money yet? We should start a pool....

stever

Judge warns VW owners not to strip car parts before buybacks (thenewstribune.com)

stickguy

some people. just makes you shake your head.

sure, swap on worn out tires if you have them. But stripping the seats, that is just rude.

28firefighter

stickguy said:

some people. just makes you shake your head. sure, swap on worn out tires if you have them. But stripping the seats, that is just rude.

That's all I'm doing. Not even worn tires going on it. Just not as good.