Multiple Volkswagen and Audi vehicles with diesel engines have been engineered to give emissions testing equipment false-positives, thus lying to customer about the defective products they've been manufacturing. This is one of the assertions brought to the attention of millions of Audi and Volkswagen owners all over the country last week.
Amidst the allegations is a charge that, for more than six years, Volkswagen deliberately and methodically cheated its customers, lied to the government regulators, and misled the public about the efficiency of four-cylinder diesel engine vehicles sold by Volkswagen and Audi manufacturers.
Diesel vehicles are normally more fuel efficient and more powerful than gasoline engines. Diesel engines, however, often emit higher levels of pollutants as a by-product of combustion and the elements within the fuel's makeup. Volkswagen's answer to those pollutants was its "clean diesel" engine vehicles which, while they sounded environmentally friendly, were anything but.
Attorney Dallas Hartman at Dallas W. Hartman, P.C.-a firm representing misguided car purchasers out of New Castle, Pennsylvania-says that Volkswagen marketed these clean diesel automobiles as high performance cars that were fuel efficient and environmentally safe. He says that consumers here in Western PA and all over the country purchased Audis and Volkswagens for these reasons and that they were to is a great disservice to American car buyers. Attorney Hartman says these German car companies profited hundreds of millions of dollars on lies and now they need to right this wrong.
It was revealed last week by the United States Environmental Protection Agency that nearly a half million Volkswagen and Audi diesel cars sold in the United States since 2009 emit toxic pollutants at up to 40 times the limit allowed by law under federal and state guidelines.
The vehicles in question include 2010 – 2015 Audi A3, 2012 – 2015 Volkswagen Beetle, 2012 – 2015 Volkswagen Beetle Convertible, 2010 – 2015 Volkswagen Golf, 2009 – 2015 Volkswagen Jetta, 2009 – 2014 Volkswagen Jetta SportWagen, 2012 – 2015 Volkswagen Passat, and the 2015 Volkswagen Golf SportWagen
As alleged in the wide-spread complaint, Volkswagen and Audi sold these vehicles with what is known as a "defeat device." A defeat device consists of advanced software that is able to detect when the vehicle is undergoing an emissions test. The vehicle's software then engages its "emissions control system." At all other times and when the vehicle is being driven, the emissions controls are disabled and the vehicles emit illegally high levels of poisonous contaminants.
Many Volkswagen and Audi consumers are seeking statutory penalties and compensatory, exemplary, and punitive damages for being lied to by false advertising. Currently, anyone who has one of the vehicles listed above may have a potential case against Volkswagen and Audi. Some people would like the car companies to buy their vehicle back from them and others want full restitution for being lied to about the emissions testing device. Though this issue is in its infancy, the Pennsylvania defective products attorneys at Dallas W. Hartman understand the state and federal laws ignored by these car companies and would like to speak to you if you have purchased one of these vehicles. Please call today for a free consultation at 800-777-4081.