Volkswagen sold new cars fitted with cheating devices till this week

Volkswagen (VW) has admitted it sold new cars in the UK fitted with ''defeat devices'' to cheat diesel emissions tests till Wednesday even after the dieselgate scandal hit the headlines.

The German carmaker comes under additional pressure with the revelation, as Richard Lloyd, executive director at consumer group Which?, accused VW of ''adding insult to injury'' for consumers.

VW revealed yesterday that it had suspended the sale of 4,000 new vehicles in the UK over fears they contained the same software used to deceive testing procedures in the US, which meant cars fitted with the devices were on sale until Wednesday, almost two weeks after the scandal broke out.

According to a spokesman for VW, the company did not know how many affected cars had been sold during the period but it regretted customers had bought them and would now have to get their vehicles fixed.

Customers who were in the process of buying an affected car would be able to pull out or choose another VW vehicle.

in Ireland over 100,000 cars could be recalled to dealerships to get their engines "re-tuned" (See: VW to recall over 110,000 cars in Ireland over emissions check)

According to the spokesman VW had ''taken time'' to identify affected vehicles and the 4,000 cars, representing 3 per cent of the car group's UK stock, covered the VW, Audi, Skoda and Seat brands.

Meanwhile, VW said yesterday it would take longer than expected to investigate its rigging of vehicle emissions tests, which probably meant months of uncertainty for customers, shareholders and staff, Reuters reported.

According to the German carmaker's supervisory board which discussed the issue on Wednesday, it would take "at least several months" to complete investigations, including an external inquiry by US law firm Jones Day.

Consequently, it proposed cancelling a 9 November shareholder meeting it called less than a week ago to discuss the crisis.

Europe's largest carmaker has admitted cheating in diesel emissions tests in the US and according to Germany's transport minister, it also manipulated them in Europe, where Volkswagen sold about 40 per cent of its vehicles.

A criminal complaint brought against Volkswagen AG's three Spanish affiliates and their chairmen accuses them of rigging emissions tests defrauding consumers and the tax authorities and damaging the environment. (See: Workers union files criminal complaint against Volkswagen Spain over dieselgate).