OCU about possible increase in consumption of vehicles affected by Volkswagen scandal

Despite announcements from Volkswagen claiming calls to car owners affected by the dieselgate regarding their repairs were imminent, seven months has passed since the scandal erupted and very few vehicles have been sent to mechanics in order to resolve the problem. To date, calls for repair have only been made to owners of the Amarok model, of which few have been sold in Spain. Even though they were planned for March, calls for the remaining models, such as the Passat, have been stopped after several previous delays.

Little by little, the reasons for Volkswagen failing to adhere to the established repair calendar are becoming known. As various German media have affirmed, the Approval Authorities have detected an increase in the fuel consumption of vehicles that have had the manipulated software removed. This fact could be the reason explaining why the German KBA has yet to authorise Volkswagen to continue calling owners as they have been promising for months.

For OCU, this news is worrisome since this would show that the only goal of the campaign carried out by the German manufacturer was to gain time by appeasing affected car owners with false information. Even more serious is the fact that the affected car owners continue to lack the guarantee that the problem caused by Volkswagen by manipulating software will be able to be resolved with no additional cost to them, beginning with the fuel consumption of their vehicles.

For this reason, OCU reminds consumers of its campaign to file a class action lawsuit against the company, for which already more than 5,000 affected car owners have registered, in order to demand compensation for this scandal from the Volkswagen-Audi Group. Likewise, OCU demands that the Spanish authorities require the highest degree of transparency with regard to the current state of the repair process, ensure that a solution to this problem be provided to Spanish consumers at no cost to them and not to give in to unacceptable pressures such as those that have recently come to light.

For more information, please contact Eva Jiménez (media). Telephone: 917226061 prensa@ocu.org