Suit Targets VW Over Cars Designed to Cheat Smog Tests

Volkswagen AG and its American division was sued today on behalf of Los Angeles-area consumers who allege the automaker misled buyers by cheating on air pollution tests for its “clean diesel” line of vehicles.

According to the proposed class-action complaint, filed in Los Angeles federal court, the German automaker sold 2009-15 diesel Volkswagen and Audi cars with software that turns on full pollution controls only when the vehicle is undergoing official emissions testing.

“In order for VW to increase sales, consumers were told they were buying a diesel vehicle that was cleaner than a gas-powered engine, and now we find out that was not true,” said Richard McCune, a partner in an Inland Empire law firm that filed the lawsuit.

“Volkswagen was deceptive in the manufacturing and the marketing of the vehicles,” he alleged. “What’s worse, not only did they lie to their customers but essentially to the entire population as they polluted the environment with an unlawful level of contaminants.”

The Environmental Protection Agency and California Air Resources Board last week issued notices of violation to Volkswagen Group of America, citing it for equipping almost 500,000 cars with a “defeat device” -- software that would recognize when the vehicle was being tested, and implement the full pollution control systems only under those circumstances.

On the open road, the vehicles were spewing up to 40 times the permitted amount of nitrogen oxide, according to the EPA. According to The Los Aneles Times, the taxpayers shelled out as much as $51 million in green subsidies for Volkswagen diesel vehicles based on false smog tests

Plaintiffs allege that the device has caused the vehicles to lose value.

In a statement dated Sept. 20, Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn said he was “deeply sorry” for violating U.S. emissions standards and ordered an external investigation.

“The Board of Management at Volkswagen AG takes these findings very seriously,” he said. “I personally am deeply sorry that we have broken the trust of our customers and the public. We will cooperate fully with the responsible agencies, with transparency and urgency, to clearly, openly and completely establish all of the facts of this case. Volkswagen has ordered an external investigation of this matter.”

City News Service