SAN FRANCISCO/WASHINGTON, April 21 (Reuters) - Volkswagen AG, driving to move beyond a scandal that has disrupted its global business and sullied its reputation, announced a sweeping U.S. Thursday to buy back or potentially fix about a half million polluting diesel cars and set up environmental and consumer compensation funds. 10 billion, is not likely to end the Dieselgate controversy that began last September when the world's No. 2 automaker admitted using sophisticated secret software in its cars to cheat exhaust emissions tests. VW shares are still down nearly 20 percent since the emissions cheating was exposed as investors worried not only about large fines and management instability, but the toll the scandal would take on the German automaker's efforts to stay competitive. VW still faces U.S. The framework of the deal was hammered out by VW with the Justice Department, state of California, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Federal Trade Commission as well as lawyers for car owners who filed class action civil lawsuits.
It was brokered by former FBI director Robert Mueller, the court-appointed mediator, in marathon talks at a Washington law firm over the past week. It is expected to settle more than 600 class suits in U.S. Breyer did not disclose the amount of money involved, and ordered lawyers for all parties not to disclose details until they were final. He said there is "definite momentum" toward a final resolution. The judge set the June 21 deadline for VW and the other parties to nail down the final details before the agreement faces a public comment period. It would need final judicial approval before taking effect. The judge said the settlement includes VW's offer to buyback 482,000 2.0-liter vehicles, fix them if regulators agree on that step after further testing, or cancel outstanding leases. Big automakers have shown resiliency once damaging scandals are resolved. Toyota Motor Corp and General Motors Co have been rocked by safety scandals in recent years, paid substantial penalties to regulators, and both are now healthy.
GM on Thursday reported first quarter profits that soundly beat investors' expectations. Many questions must be answered. The U.S. settlement will include an environmental remediation fund to address excess emissions and a fund to promote green automotive technology, and additional "substantial compensation" to owners to sell back or have their vehicles fixed, Breyer said. Many other issues remain, including what happens if vehicles are not deemed fixable and owners opt not to sell them back. A fix could potentially reduce vehicles' road performance and it is not clear if VW would have to compensate owners for that. Also unanswered is when VW can sell thousands of diesel cars sitting in showrooms that are subject a government-ordered stop sale. One of the key issues of contention in the talks had been whether regulators would accept a remedy that does not eliminate all excess emissions to meet the requirements of the U.S.
Clean Air Act. In March, a California Air Resources Board official said only a partial fix may be possible. Democratic U.S. Senators Edward Markey of Massachusetts and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut said VW should extend the same buyback offer to owners of 3.0 liter vehicles. Republican U.S. Representative Fred Upton of Michigan called the deal "welcome news for the hundreds of thousands of American consumers" but withheld judgment until the agreement is finalized. VW lawyer Robert Giuffra said. Volkswagen has more miles to travel before the scandal is behind it. The Justice Department said its other investigations into VW's conduct "remain active and ongoing." Environmental and consumer groups said they are not convinced the deal goes far enough. Sierra Club environmental group said. Volkswagen spokeswoman Jeannine Ginivan said customers do not need to take any action immediately. Based on the court schedule outlined on Thursday, the earliest buybacks would begin is likely in July. On Thursday, Germany's justice minister and Europe's industry boss raised the pressure on Volkswagen to compensate European consumers as well.
These buttons on the steering wheel control the stereo and activate the voice command system. The audio menus use separate screens for broadcast, which includes satellite radio, and fixed media, with the same semicircular menu treatment. We were pleased to find that the media sources not only had iPod integration, but also Bluetooth stereo streaming. There is also an SD card slot next to the screen. The iPod cable, inconveniently placed in the glove compartment, uses the same proprietary port originally used by Audi. This port allows for a variety of cables, with connectors for iPods, full-size, and Mini-USB, and a simple 1/8th-inch auxiliary input. As for browsing an iPod library, the interface makes it easy to look through music based on artist, album, or genre. A slight annoyance: the system always defaulted to showing the full list of songs every time we connected an iPod, forcing us to back up a few menus to look by artist or album.
