Well it doesn’t take the lawyers very long
to smell blood, don their wigs and gowns and get into court to make a packet from a
class action.
This VWAG diesel engine scandal across a range of brands is just the
ticket.
Here in Australia it’s been reported that lawyers Maurice Blackburn are
representing 19,000 owners and prosecuting VWAG for deceiving the owners. What?
This is a frivolous and dead end lawsuit,
and I don’t say that out of any defence mechanism for VWAG. Volkswagen has admitted
wrongdoing, and has said it will fix the problems.
From the owners' perspective,
that’s it! There’s nothing more to be gained from a Class Action.
Just listen to the waffle produced by the
lead lawyer on the case. When put on the spot by a TV interviewer, who asked if
this wasn’t just a case of lawyers jumping on a bandwagon that could be a big
earner? The lawyer replied:
“We’re only doing this for the owners. The
owners are concerned about a number of issues, namely”:
- The damage to resale values (This will be NIL once the engines are fixed)
- The impact on the attitude of buyers of their used car (This will be NIL, as the cars will no longer have the problem)
- The damage that’s been caused to the engines (This will be NIL, as it’s a software issue, not a reliability issue)
- VWAG deceived the buyers (Maybe, but they are just collateral damage, because the parties that were truly deceived were government agencies)
- Detrimental fuel economy impact (NIL, once the problem is fixed)
This class action will drag on, cost lots
and I’m certain it will eventually be settled out of court. If VWAG hires a smart bunch of
lawyers for its defence, then I’m certain the claims listed above will be
denied and the class action will be lost.
Certainly, car buyers, the community and government
agencies should be outraged at what seems to be definite fraudulent activity,
but VWAG is by no means the first to do it.
More than 10 years ago a number of
manufacturers of diesel truck engines (including Mercedes-Benz, owner of
Detroit Diesel) transgressed, and later also Ford, and even Cadillac.
Once the new software is developed and
installed it will be ‘As You Were’ and the issue will have proved to have been
a big storm in a big teacup – but hey, on the other hand you’ve got to hand it
to the engineers responsible for it. It was fraudulent, yes; but very audacious
and pretty bloody clever!
Thanks for your enjoyable blog. However in this post I think you have severely underestimated the damage to the brand of VW and associated companies this recent issue has caused. It is all about trust. If they have lied to us on this issue, what else is there? The marketers are desperately hoping very few people understand that VW, Audi, Skoda and others are related. So anyone with half a clue will see this is not new to VW. Look at how they have treated Australian consumers on other issues, such as DSG failures? Overseas VW acknowledge the issue and recall to repair. In Australia they are in denial until the Government forces action. Even the local response to this diesel issue has been the same, with the VW website responding to "media articles" rather than admitting the issue. The arrogance is so immense. The resale value of VW's will be impacted negatively.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure how you can claim the fuel economy will not be impacted since the fix is not yet known. I am no expert, but can only suspect that the cheat software was in place to ensure the emissions were "legal" when tested and other times the performance and economy were as expected by the consumer. How can we be sure the performance and economy will not be impacted when the emissions are brought into compliance?
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