US VW Dealers Are About To Get Paid For The Dieselgate Fiasco, By VW Itself.

Ever since Volkswagen was caught cheating on emissions for it’s diesel cars, the brand has been on the decline. Not necessarily in sales, but the perception of VW at this point in time is, well, not great to put it in the lightest terms imaginable. Another way, consumer feel cheated an lied to about the entierty of VW’s lineup, diesel or not.

Well today they take another step in trying to mend the fences, though this time it’s not with the consumers. VW is about to pay back it’s own dealers stateside due to those dealers sitting on product that they couldn’t move because of government involvement. The dealers have been pissed at VW because they’ve essentially had to sit on diesels for the better part of a year.

Not long ago, Volkswagen implemented a buyback program to compensate TDI owners for their air-offending automobiles. Unfortunately that compensation didn’t help VW’s American dealers that were stuck with cars they weren’t allowed to sell for nearly a year, which was a serious blow to their brand’s reputation. But VW announced today that will soon change.

The German automaker announced today that it came to an agreement with American dealers to compensate them for losses from the diesel scandal. This settlement comes in response to a lawsuit brought forth by a number of American VW dealers in April. No specifics on how much compensation would be provided as VW and the dealers’ counsel still need to decide those details. VW did say that compensation will come in the form of “cash payments and other benefits,” and the company expected final details will be sorted out and announced at the end of September.

It seems as though VW is taking steps in the right direction, but they still haven’t said the one thing that matters: I’m Sorry. After VW, Mistubishi came forward to say they cheated and were sorry and took full responsibility. If VW just did that in the first place, this probbaly would have blown over a bit better. Not entirely, but better.

Mending fences is all well and good, but consumers and dealers alike are still going to be like a scorned lover just coming back and looking for their stuff before they move on. But look on the bright side, you can probably still get a great deal on a VW Diesel right now.

(Source: Autoblog)