The suit, filed on behalf of a Santa Monica resident who drives a 2013 VW Beetle TDI that could be spewing up to 40 times the legal emissions limit, comes just days after Volkswagen Group of America’s CEO, Michael Horn, told a congressional subcommittee in Washington, D.C. that the company will not begin to recall or repair the illegally rigged diesel cars until 2016.
Completing the recall process will take at least a year, Horn said.
The cost to Volkswagen of buying back all affected cars sold in the U.S. is estimated at $7.3 billion, and California is thought to account for about 10 percent of that.
Monday’s complaint is the fourth class action lawsuit to be filed against VW by the Seattle-based consumer rights law firm Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro, LLP.
It is one of several dozen that have been filed against VW in multiple states since September 18, when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that the company had installed so-called defeat devices on five of its diesel models to intentionally circumvent federal emissions standards.
A hearing is set for November 9.
“This lawsuit is very focused,” said Steve Berman, managing partner at Hagens Berman. “It’s only for people who bought vehicles in California.”
Under California law, the suit contends, VW had to warranty that its diesel vehicles complied with emissions standards. Having breached that warranty, VW has a duty to promptly fix the problem.
The suit seeks to force a fix for all California buyers of affected diesel models, either by having VW compensate owners for the fair value of their cars or by giving them new cars that comply with emissions standards.
“On the one hand, that’s what I was hoping they would do. But I love my car, so I actually don’t want to give it up,” said Kathy Mirescu, who traded in a gas-powered VW Golf for a diesel Golf in January 2014 and spent $30,000 to do so.
“That’s a lot of money I personally sunk in for a lot of broken promises,” said Mirescu, 37, a web designer in L.A. “The car I bought a year ago is not the car I have now, so what is that financial compensation going to look like?”
Berman’s firm also filed a motion Monday to require that the affected vehicles be bought back in every state, not just California.
“We’re asking that VW be required to implement this remedy rather quickly. I would hope it would be done within the next six months,” said Berman, adding that 10,000 VW owners have contacted his firm since the scandal broke.
Berman was lead counsel in the class action suit against Toyota Motor Co. for unintended acceleration in its vehicles. That suit settled earlier this year for $1.2 billion, resulting in payouts of $500 to $12,000 for affected consumers and free installation of a brake over-ride safety feature in 2.6 million vehicles, Berman said.
“This lawsuit is not a surprise because we’re hearing from consumers that they don’t want the cars anymore,” said Michelle Krebs, senior analyst at AutoTrader.com, a car-buying website based in Atlanta. “There are a lot of things Volkswagen has to do, and frankly they haven’t done anything for their customers just yet.”
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