Volkswagen needd to compensate motorists for loss of resale value: UK top official
30 Oct 2015
Volkswagen would need to consider compensating motorists whose Volkswagen vehicle had lost some of its resale value as a result of the diesel emissions scandal, transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin said.
Speaking in the House of Commons, he said, the German company would need to address the impact of the scandal on second-hand Volkswagen diesel prices.
Volkswagen had admitted that 1.2 million cars and commercial vehicles in the UK had been fitted with the defeat devices that allowed them to cheat emissions tests.
When Jim Shannon, Democratic Unionist MP for Strangford asked, whether VW needed to meet the ''full financial implications'' of falling resale values, McLoughlin said: ''That is one of the issues which I think VW will have to address in due course.''
According to the UK minister, VW deserved to suffer substantial damage.
The transport secretary also pledged to push the company to fix the affected vehicles by the end of 2016.
Volkswagen had admitted that 11 million vehicles around the world had been fitted with a defeat device and the carmaker had put aside €6.7 billion towards meeting the costs of recalling the vehicles, however, it also faced the threat of fines and legal action from shareholders and customers.
Holly Lynch, Labour MP for Halifax, asked, "Volkswagen's new CEO has said that all the affected vehicles will be fixed by the end of 2016.
"However, the UK's managing director has said that this might not be deliverable.
"What assurance can the Secretary of State give the House that he is working with Volkswagen to ensure that the affected vehicles will be fixed by the end of 2016?"
McLoughlin replied, "I will be looking to Volkswagen who have, it has to be said, acted disgracefully in this whole episode, to ensure that they live up to the expectations which they promised originally.
"We will be working to make sure that does happen."
On Thursday the Indian unit of German auto maker Volkswagen AG is likely to recall 100,000 diesel-fuelled cars in the aftermath of the diesel emission scandal (See: Volkswagen likely to recall 100,000 cars in India: report).
