“There was an agreement that [VW vehicles] would be maintained. VW says yes, but we haven’t noticed anything concrete.” – Gerard Scimeca, Vice President of Consumer Action for a Strong Economy
“This crusade distorts the terms of Volkswagen’s agreements with the U.S. government and is full of lies.” – Robert J. Giuffra Jr., VW lawyer
One organization is rejecting Volkswagen’s efforts to bring back to market many of the cars it bought in the wake of the diesel emissions scandal.
But the automaker responded with a lawyer, claiming that an Egyptian businessman will stoke the complaint and push VW’s payment in an unrelated dispute, calling it an “attempt at coertion.”
Consumer Action for a Strong Economy, founded in Arlington, Virginia, or CASE, said the German automaker was looking to “throw away” thousands of cars that the company bought from drivers after the diesel scandal.
Gerard Scimeca, vice president and co-founder of CASE, said there were many questions about the vehicles, for example, if there is an audit of their correction.
“We don’t know where the cars are. We don’t know exactly what the maintenance record is,” he said. “There is an agreement that they will be maintained. VW says yes, but we haven’t noticed anything concrete.”
$23 billion: amount VW will pay under court-ordered settlement agreements with consumers, federal and state over diesel emissions scandal
495,000: number of cars affected to date through VW purchased, limited or repaired
Years: Years, VW will have to conduct test for use on modified vehicles, invite EPB and California regulators to practice testing, and submit results.
Source: Volkswagen
Scimeca said VW sitting in unsold cars is worth $7 billion.
According to VW, the company has purchased, limited, or changed more than 495,000 affected diesel cars to date from its U.S. government agreement systems.
According to court-approved agreements, cars are stored in transitional services and maintained to ensure long-term operation and quality so that they can be legally returned to the market once they have won an approved emission modification, Volkswagen said. U.S. spokesman Mike Tolbert.
CHATtanooga’s VW plant and two s in Walker County, Georgia, are among the many places where the automaker temporarily sells the vehicles.
“While those cars are back on the market, we are consciously balancing source and demand through our network of Volkswagen dealers, in order to create surpluses,” Tolbert said. “Vehicles that are changed due to their age or condition or other reasons will be responsibly recycled.”
‘Pressure campaign’
In addition, a VW attorney sent a letter to two members of the U.S. House committee on Science, Space and Technology before this month, complaining that the panel’s recent interest in VW is the result of a crusade of tension led by Egyptian businessman Mohamed Shafik Gabr. In April, the committee sent a letter to VW CHIEF Herbert Diess, saying the panel was investigating ongoing allegations that VW “continues to circumvent global emission requirements.”
In VW’s letter of reaction to the committee received through the Times Free Press, attorney Robert J. Giuffra Jr. said Gabr asked VW to pay him “an unreasonable amount to resolve an advertising dispute in Egypt” involving Skoda, a subsidiary of the automaker.
Giuffra said Gabr, president and chief executive officer of a personal conglomerate, which is Skoda’s distribution spouse in Egypt until the end of 2016. It was then that Skoda ended the relationship after offering a proper termination agreement because the conglomerate would not signal a popular import agreement, Giuffra said. . Training
Gabr sued Skoda in Egypt and hired three U.S. lobbying companies to influence members of Congress and the media through “deceptive online opinion articles and television ads,” Giuffra said. Earlier this week, a full-page CASE ad published in the Times Free Press and classified TV ads were shown to audiences locally.
“This crusade distorts the terms of Volkswagen’s agreements with the U.S. government and is full of lies,” the lawyer said in the letter. “We know from a number of resources that Mr. Gabr has boasted of manipulating movements in Congress that oppose Volkswagen.”
In addition, the letter indicates that VW believes That Gabr and its conglomerate were “television attack ads” previously broadcast in the domain of Washington, D.C. and New York about the dumping of vehicles on behalf of CASE.
“We are disappointed that the accusations appear to have been provoked through a cross of disinformation funded and led by a non-U.S. citizen, connected to unsorelated U.S.-related occasions,” Giuffra said.
REJECTION OF THE CASE
But the Scimeca case “absolutely” rejects Volkswagen’s characterization of its involvement in the subject.
“In addition, it is a company that has been arrested and convicted, involving systematic fraud of millions of consumers in the United States and around the world, as a vast conspiracy to hide their crimes,” he said.
Scimeca said CASE’s efforts aim to “hold them accountable for their misleading habit and ensure that American consumers are no longer disappointed through their movements or those of any other automaker.”
Case sought to know what the cars were supplied with and what kind of testing is being done in relation to cars and SUVs as VW slowly returns to dealerships for sale.
“We want answers and we don’t have them,” he said. “Before you sell the cars, they have to be clean.”
But the attorney representing VW told the congressional committee in the letter that the corporate issue for compliance oversight through an independent compliance controller for 3 years under its court-ordered agreements.
In addition, VW is guilty of ensuring that cars exchanged in the hands of consumers continue to meet emissions standards, the letter says. For five years, VW will need to test for use on modified cars, invite EPB and California regulators to practice testing, and submit results.
For cars that receive patches, Volkswagen will need to label them and provide a mechanism for prospective buyers to determine whether the cars obtained the approved repair, according to VW.
VW said it had reached agreements on consumers, the federal government and the states, ordered through the court, for a total of $23 billion, according to Giuffra’s letter to the committee. This includes up to $11.2 billion for affected consumers in the form of buybacks, advance terminations of leases and other bills and benefits, the letter says.
In addition, VW agreed to pay a $2.8 billion fine and plead guilty to conspiracy, obstruction of justice and the advent of parts imported into the United States through false statements. After the guilty plea agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice. And the EPA, VW agreed to a three-year probation.
As of June 8, VW has restricted, retired or changed more than 432,435 2.0-litre cars and approximately 63,315 3.0-litre cars, according to the chart.
VW has developed emission modifications to repair all 2.0-litre vehicles, with the exception of a small number of Passat manual transmission sedans from the 2012-14 style year. The company has also developed a solution for all 3.0-litre “Generation 2” vehicles, the letter says. The company said it had received approval for a solution for “Generation 1.2” SUVs, Touareg 2011-12 and Q7.
Contact Mike Pare at [email protected] or 423-757-6318. Follow him on Twitter @MikePareTFP.