Eligible Owner But No Eligible Seller

Okay, so my situation is as follows:

I purchased a 2013 Gold TDI with 16k Miles in October. I purchased the car mainly because it sounded like the situation would be resolved and I always wanted a TDI and they were no longer selling them new. I take a train to work so I've only put 1,100 miles on the car since October.

My question: since this car was purchased at a VW dealer, and I know it was traded into them in June 2015, therefor there was no registered seller at the time the scandal broke.

What am I entitled to? I know the 50% number, but there is no eligible seller, do I get all?

As I understand it, if the eligible sellers do not apply for their portion in the allotted time period, the remaining unclaimed seller funds will be dispersed equally to the buyers, in this situation or similar:

"For an Eligible Owner who acquired the Eligible Vehicle after September 18,
2015, Owner Restitution is equal to 50% of Owner Restitution under ¶ 5(a), plus a
share of any unused portion of the funds set aside to pay Seller Restitution in an
amount determined by dividing the unused funds among all Eligible Owners who
acquired their Eligible Vehicles after September 18, 2015 on a proportionate basis
using the restitution amount for each Eligible Vehicle that was determined in
arriving at the allocation of the Funding Pool. The unused portion of funds will
be determined at the conclusion of the Eligible Seller Identification Period and
prior to the start of the Class Action Settlement Program based on those Class
Members who identify themselves during the Eligible Seller Identification Period
as Eligible Sellers entitled to benefits under the Class Action Agreement."

How can a VW dealership be an eligible seller? That's how it's confusing the hell out of me. These dealerships were claiming new TDIs would be on the lot again in December, they weren't exactly being up front when they sold me the car(not that I'm upset, I love the car)

Sounds likely to me that all the money would go to you if dealer bureaucracy is as usual. Id expect half and be pleasantly surprised if they didnt bother to register and you get all.

tonestar said:

How can a VW dealership be an eligible seller? That's how it's confusing the hell out of me. These dealerships were claiming new TDIs would be on the lot again in December, they weren't exactly being up front when they sold me the car(not that I'm upset, I love the car)

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VW dealers are excluded from the settlement, so they can't claim the 50%.

CAS settlement doc
2.16:
The following entities and individuals are excluded from the Class:
(e)
Volkswagen Dealers and Volkswagen Dealers’ officers and directors;

autdi said:

VW dealers are excluded from the settlement, so they can't claim the 50%.

CAS settlement doc
2.16:
The following entities and individuals are excluded from the Class:
(e)
Volkswagen Dealers and Volkswagen Dealers’ officers and directors;

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So I should be entitled to ALL of the settlement $?

tonestar said:

So I should be entitled to ALL of the settlement $?

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Sounds like it to me.

dropnosky said:

Sounds like it to me.

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I'll expect half, hope for more. If they offer me half, they aren't taking my car. Between the taxes and extras I spent (car mats, and the accessories I bought with the dealer card) I would be about even at 50%, possibly a bit over.

The car is literally like Brand New, it's going to take a lot to get this car off my hands knowing there aren't many replacement that fit the all around experience at this price.

tonestar said:

I'll expect half, hope for more. If they offer me half, they aren't taking my car. Between the taxes and extras I spent (car mats, and the accessories I bought with the dealer card) I would be about even at 50%, possibly a bit over.

The car is literally like Brand New, it's going to take a lot to get this car off my hands knowing there aren't many replacement that fit the all around experience at this price.

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If a seller registers by 9/16/16, they get half, by default, if nobody eligible steps forward for the other half, you get all of it.

EXACT same situation, except I bought mine from carmax. Looking for half, hoping for all.

Yeah, there was no seller as it was sitting on a lot since June 2015, purchased October 2015.

Bonus!

The other 50% could go to the previous owner. The dealers are only agents.

Philpug said:

The other 50% could go to the previous owner. The dealers are only agents.

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The previous owner did not own the car as of Sept 18th, therefor they are not entitled to anything. The only question here is where the other 50% goes to, it's def not the dealer, or the previous owner.

the amount that eligible sellers do not claim gets equally dispersed between all buyers in this situation. since there is no eligible seller, i doubt they will give you the 100%, you'll probably get 50% and then a check for the dispersed amount

I am in the same boat so that is what I am hoping for

Freeze Plug said:

the amount that eligible sellers do not claim gets equally dispersed between all buyers in this situation. since there is no eligible seller, i doubt they will give you the 100%, you'll probably get 50% and then a check for the dispersed amount

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Well since I am the only eligible owner on the car, who gets the rest of the check- that's the point of this thread. There is no set in stone answer for this. The only eligible owner is me, the dealer cannot claim anything as they were the owner on the date the scandal hit. The previous owner is not an eligible seller since they sold the car to the dealer in June 2015.

So you're just talking about the restitution portion of the settlement, right?

Since you bought the car after the scandal became public knowledge, it seems fair that VW wouldn't have to give you the full amount of restitution. You theoretically knew what you were getting when you bought it, and you bought it anyway.

If they do give you 100%, consider that a super awesome bonus. (I will be jealous... My car pollutes way more and I get nothing).

tonestar said:

Well since I am the only eligible owner on the car, who gets the rest of the check- that's the point of this thread. There is no set in stone answer for this. The only eligible owner is me, the dealer cannot claim anything as they were the owner on the date the scandal hit. The previous owner is not an eligible seller since they sold the car to the dealer in June 2015.

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I am speculating and thinking that the other 50% goes into the "seller pool" which you may receive some portion of

Freeze Plug said:

I am speculating and thinking that the other 50% goes into the "seller pool" which you may receive some portion of

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If they give me 100%, the car is going back. If they give me 50%, they aren't touching it- that's really where I stand. I guess it's anyone's best guess as to what I get. For sure, nobody will be registering as a seller, because nobody is eligible besides the VW I bought it from, and they're not included in this.

yes you're right, in your case you can hope for a nice chunk of the seller pool. We may know more in a month. I am thinking that not many sellers will file in the time period which will end up pushing the seller pool disbursement as close to 50% as possible

Same situation applies to one of mine. I just bought a 2014 TDI that was a lease turn-in from July 2015 in California. It sat unsold in that VW dealer's inventory from July 2015 to March 2016. They then sent it to auction where it was bought by a different VW dealership in California. It sat in their inventory from March 2016 until June 2016 when they sent it off to auction. It was then bought at auction by a used car dealership in Las Vegas in June 2016. This dealer sold it to me on July 1st (all sales after June 27 forfeit any claim to 50% of the owner restitution).

So long story short, there is no "eligible seller" with regards to this car. 50% of owner restitution is $3394.

Jimmy Coconuts said:

Same situation applies to one of mine. I just bought a 2014 TDI that was a lease turn-in from July 2015 in California. It sat unsold in that VW dealer's inventory from July 2015 to March 2016. They then sent it to auction where it was bought by a different VW dealership in California. It sat in their inventory from March 2016 until June 2016 when they sent it off to auction. It was then bought at auction by a used car dealership in Las Vegas in June 2016. This dealer sold it to me on July 1st (all sales after June 27 forfeit any claim to 50% of the owner restitution).

So long story short, there is no "eligible seller" with regards to this car. 50% of owner restitution is $3394.

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CAS Settlement doc pdf page 58
For an Eligible Owner who acquired the Eligible Vehicle after September 18, 2015, Owner Restitution is equal to 50% of Owner Restitution under ¶ 5(a), plus a share of any unused portion of the funds set aside to pay Seller Restitution in an amount determined by dividing the unused funds among all Eligible Owners who acquired their Eligible Vehicles after September 18, 2015 on a proportionate basis using the restitution amount for each Eligible Vehicle that was determined in arriving at the allocation of the Funding Pool. The unused portion of funds will be determined at the conclusion of the Eligible Seller Identification Period and prior to the start of the Class Action Settlement Program based on those Class Members who identify themselves during the Eligible Seller Identification Period as Eligible Sellers entitled to benefits under the Class Action Agreement.

So, you get 50% now, and some of what's left of the sellers pool, based on how much your other 50% was in the initial pool before they paid the sellers. So if you were 0.0000001% of the initial pool, you get the same percentage of the leftovers.

Nice!! So it looks like this additional amount should be known by the time buybacks start in October. I was guessing it would take a lot longer.

Jimmy Coconuts said:

Nice!! So it looks like this additional amount should be known by the time buybacks start in October. I was guessing it would take a lot longer.

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Once the Eligible Seller Identification Period is over, the pool remainder is known.

2.32
If the Court enters the Preliminary Approval Order on July 26, 2016 (the date of the preliminary approval hearing), the Eligible Seller Identification Period will run until September 16, 2016

I have the opportunity to purchase a 2012 Passat TDI SEL for about $12k (42K miles). My 2012 Jetta TDI premium sedan w/nav with 70Kmiles, owner restiton and buyback value is about $20k or $19,8xx.

If I let vw buyback the Jetta and I purchase the Passat today 7/6/16, do I still get 50% owner restitution on the passat??? Seems too good to be true...I can upgrade cars, cut down about 30k miles and pocket $8-10K.

I must be missing something? Thanks for any clarifications you may have. Pros and cons welcome.

This might be one of those 'too good to be true' deals that actually carries very little risk. The risk is that the settlement is not approved on July 26th. How it will NOT be, I can't grasp. EPA, DOJ, FTC, 44 states, VW and the lawyers (supposedly) representing us all have signed off.

However, by that time, all used TDIs sitting everywhere will be gone by those of us who are/were willing to take this risk. I got a fantastic deal on Friday morning last week, after I figured all of this out Thursday night. The toyota dealer had no idea. My brother bought a better one that I found after purchasing the first on Saturday. Sunday/Monday, prices started to rise dramatically.

I was pissed at the settlement on Thursday, just because of my situation on my original car (just paid off, sat through 4 years of massive depreciation and 100K miles). No way I was going to be able to replace that car with what they were offering. So I doubled down, and now have a tough decision as to what car to sell back. (miles vs cash)

If anyone decides to do this. Make sure your car has a clean title (not salvage,etc), and try to understand who owned the vehicle on Sept 18th, 2015 so that you can maximize your restitution payback. The person you buy it from (after June 28th) will lose all rights to the settlement, but the owner on Sept 18th still has rights as long as they know about, care about, and register by Sept 26th, 2016. Remember you only get 50% of the restitution (10% of value plus $14xx) guaranteed (with a minimum of about $2500) so subtract that amount from the listed buyback amounts to know what to expect.

If my seller registers..which I suspect is unlikely...I am going to contact them and work a deal that says I get something from them, because as I read the documents, they get nothing until I actually do something with the car (sell or fix)...and I can do neither.

What doesn't seem clear to me in all of this is when does that money actually get to you? In all other arrangements it seems that the money doesn't get transferred from VW until one of the two options is taken. So the seller gets nothing until the new owner either takes a buy back or mod? Furthermore that doesn't make any sense at all because which portion of the buy back money actually goes to the eligible seller? Eligible buyers won't have as much incentive to take the buy back if they get nada clean retail plus half of the settlement money. The modification also isn't immediately available for most cars including most likely, the OP's. Technically it could take years for him to get anything am I right?

tonestar said:

If they give me 100%, the car is going back. If they give me 50%, they aren't touching it- that's really where I stand. I guess it's anyone's best guess as to what I get. For sure, nobody will be registering as a seller, because nobody is eligible besides the VW I bought it from, and they're not included in this.

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I think, from what I've read on other threads, if you won't let VW touch it, you won't get anything. The offers are buyback or fix.

dmanb2b said:

I have the opportunity to purchase a 2012 Passat TDI SEL for about $12k (42K miles). My 2012 Jetta TDI premium sedan w/nav with 70Kmiles, owner restiton and buyback value is about $20k or $19,8xx.
If I let vw buyback the Jetta and I purchase the Passat today 7/6/16, do I still get 50% owner restitution on the passat??? Seems too good to be true...I can upgrade cars, cut down about 30k miles and pocket $8-10K.
I must be missing something? Thanks for any clarifications you may have. Pros and cons welcome.

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Please check the title on this....$12K for a MY12 SEL with only 42K sounds a bit low. In fact, it sounds like VW settlement pricing.