The claims fund set up by Volkswagen to address U.S. customers has revealed that it expects to provide compensation to U.S. TDI customers in the form of either cash, buy-backs or no charge repairs/upgrades.
According to a Reuters report, VW fund manager Kenneth Feinberg told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung that he expects the compensation to be “generous.”
In the interview with the German newspaper, Feinberg said customers are free to accept or reject the offers made by the fund. He does not yet know if Volkswagen will approve an unlimited ceiling on compensation offers (as GM did when he managed the victim fund for the ignition switch settlement) but he expects the take right to be very high, regardless.
More than 90 percent of victims accepted offers recommended by Feinberg on behalf of the GM ignition switch fund. The same was true when Feinberg represented BP in the wake of the Gulf oil spill. When Feinberg managed the fund for September 11th victims, the acceptance rate topped 97 percent.
With the initial EPA announcement now six months in the rear-view mirror, hope for a solution that would avoid buybacks or other financial compensation here in the United States is rapidly fading. CARB’s rejection of Volkswagen’s initial proposal only compounded the anxiety for those U.S. customers who purchased TDIs and still have yet to be told what will become of their purchases. In Europe, where the gap between actual emissions and the allowable output is much smaller, VW is on the way to implementing a fix that requires only minor hardware and software changes.
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