VW Rejecting Non-Clean Titles?

duratitus

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Here's the story,

I had a buyback appointment scheduled for 5/3/17 @ 9:00am.

At 9:05 am I was almost at the dealership with my car when I received a call from the VW appointment scheduling department saying that they had cancelled my appointment, and were
going to send me formal communication stating the reason.

Yesterday I received this letter,



The letter addresses 5 claims that were complete other than the closing appointment at the dealer.
I already received final offer letters for each of these cars, which state that "Based on the information you have provided, you are eligible to participate in the 2.0-Liter Settlement Claims Program", and had already scheduled closing appointments for each one.

2 of the cars have clean titles with no salvage history,
2 of the cars have rebuilt titles,
1 car has a salvage title.

I have state issued registrations in my name for each car, and they all had clean titles up to 7/13/2016.

All of the cars are driveable without any issues.

Anyone else having similar problems from VW on rebuilt or otherwise non-clean title TDI's? :eek:
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surfstar

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SB, CA
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"together with claims that have been submitted by other consumers on the same vehicles" might be the sticking point, and not the actual title issues.

That would be the only reason to cause an issue with your two clean titled vehicles and we had the other thread where lowered restitution amounts were noted if a second claim on the same VIN was simply started in the system.

My best guess.

You'll be made whole, eventually, but I imagine some annoying amount of phone calls coming up - bummer.
 

duratitus

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Watertown NY
TDI
Several different models. Selling them back to VW
Hopefully.

I've never heard of them cancelling a claim for review after they already approved all the documentation, and had the closing scheduled. - Unless they find a problem with the actual car at the appointment - i.e. missing parts, or it don't run, etc.
 

FVWVWF

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Hopefully.

I've never heard of them cancelling a claim for review after they already approved all the documentation, and had the closing scheduled. - Unless they find a problem with the actual car at the appointment - i.e. missing parts, or it don't run, etc.
He hasnt gotten to the dealership yet so cant be that.
Possible that another party has submitted a claim with same VIN? (previous owner?)
 

Rico567

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Hopefully.

I've never heard of them cancelling a claim for review after they already approved all the documentation, and had the closing scheduled. - Unless they find a problem with the actual car at the appointment - i.e. missing parts, or it don't run, etc.
I think, as was pointed out in another post, if there are two VINs in their system with different names, etc., then that is going to be a problem. If you're selling back this many cars, you're obviously in this for the money, so be prepared to hunker down and do some more paperwork and spend time listening to elevator music on the phone. In the final issue, I don't think you've got much choice except to do as they ask. Good luck!
 

duratitus

Veteran Member
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Location
Watertown NY
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Several different models. Selling them back to VW
He hasnt gotten to the dealership yet so cant be that.
Possible that another party has submitted a claim with same VIN? (previous owner?)
Yes I was at the dealership. - My appointment got cancelled 5 minutes after I was there.
In the final issue, I don't think you've got much choice except to do as they ask. Good luck!
You're probably right, however someone would have to inform me how to upload a clean title......... for a vehicle that already has a rebuilt title?

That'd take a miracle, which I'm all for if you know how to perform miracles...... :D
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duratitus

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^^^ My point being that the appointment was scheduled. I did make it to the dealer. the phone call lasted for a good 30 minutes.
 

ZippyNH

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2015 JETTA TDI SE
I think you are kinda stuck...you bought cars without clean titles... everything I read always said what they did was what was going to happen.
Too bad you didn't "clean" the title like happens with many collector cars....
A car is transfered to a state that does not "brand" a title, then transfered back...makes the paperwork look good, but in this day of electronic "paper trails"it doesn't hide anything by more, but does get a "clean title.
Think RI was a state that was still possible the do this...
But now VW knows....
 

duratitus

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^^^ Maybe you never actually read the court approved Notice.....

I may be stuck, but rebuilt and salvage title cars are included in the claims.....

(See question #9 and #11 of the Approved Exhibit 3 - Long Form Notice)

They have bought other salvage/rebuilt cars in the past.

BTW: I started this post to see if there are others who are having similar responses from VW.
 
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psd1

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Since this letter is addressed to you with multiple VIN's associated, VW knows you are in the business of buying qualifying vehicles. To me it looks like they are trying to change their rules to avoid payout.

No where in the settlement is their stipulations that titles be "Clean". Time to reach out to the lawyers that are there for affected consumers.
 

chief poncho

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Question for Mr Dan. Since he has a notarized offer letter accepted by VW claims, doesn't that constitute a binding contract to buy the cars back? This may be a simple clerical error on VW's part, but this seems like a hassle regardless.
 

740GLE

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Just like the judge siding with VW about "stripped cars" not meeting the "intent" of the buy back, it appears they are scrutinizing more recent claims, and may win on this one. Only thing on the OP side is the formal offer letter, and them claiming it was a clerical error on their part. Bank error in your favor collect $15?

Also think about the number of claims being submitted now vs 3 months ago, it's gotta be a snails pace coming in now compared to then. This should allow them to dig into digital trails.



BTW I have zero sympathy for anyone trying to gouge the system and gets hung out to dry, and IMO this is gouging the system, regardless of what legalese of the court settlement.
 

duratitus

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BTW I have zero sympathy for anyone trying to gouge the system and gets hung out to dry, and IMO this is gouging the system, regardless of what legalese of the court settlement.
I don't blame you, and I am not asking for sympathy from anyone.

I have zero sympathy for VW for their efforts to gouge the system, and I think it quite a work of art on their part to try to back out of the settlement they agreed to.
They agreed to it before the Judge even signed it...!!!

The settlement payout dollar amount was based on the number of vehicles they produced with the cheat software, so they knew they had this coming, regardless of who owns the vehicles, and agreed to it.

Whether they pay the money for 100 cars to 1 owner, or to 100 different owners should not be a factor, and was not a factor based on the fact that non VW dealerships were included in the settlements.

Let's say 100 different VW owners opted to sell their cars to me for a lesser amount so they could get the money right away instead of waiting for the settlement, and let's say I agreed to hold the cars with my money tied up for months on end, taking the risk of of the judge changing the agreement, or VW purposely delaying the process, or declaring bankruptcy..........

..............This may be gouging the system, or it might be capitalism, where one person of their free will sells their interest in their goods, and another of their free will purchases their capital accepting the risk.

The system was designed to be gouged........because it was based on the number of cars, not the number of owners.
 
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arcaidy

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Recently seen someone trying to unload a bunch of salvage TDI's on craigslist. Wonder if they ran in to the same thing?
 

VWMark

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My feeling is you are gouging the system, at least with the salvage title cars. The intent of this whole thing was to either fix the cars or get them off the road. A totaled car was already off the road, so buying it, fixing it and then selling it back to VW does not get another car off the road.

You are of course correct that according to the settlement documents you are entitled to get full buy back money. I can also understand VW trying to put a stop to it. The 2 cars with clean titles should of course have no issues. Also the fact that you have notarized buyback agreements should make all of this a non-issue and you should get the money. My guess is VW is stalling and trying to weed out people who are not willing to put up with the extra hassle. I think if you stick with it you will get the money. At the least, this may deter other people from trying similar stuff.

One other thought: The cars that don't have clean titles may have restitution payments in process for the previous owners, you may be screwing them over.
 

duratitus

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You are somewhat correct.

The agreement was to get the cars off the road that were on the road as of 9/18/2015.

Just a simple inspection, and the salvage title cars would be back on the road. That is why the buyback only applies to cars that run and drive. It's not hard to put a running car back into service.

The settlement applies based on 2 things.......past clean title status as of 9/18/2015, and current driveability, so it will never go back on the road.
 

surfstar

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BTW I have zero sympathy for anyone trying to gouge the system and gets hung out to dry, and IMO this is gouging the system, regardless of what legalese of the court settlement.
It may be zero sympathy, but I think its also 100 on the jealousy scale.

I know I wish I read the settlement docs when they first came out - could have made a nice side business out of finding market inefficiencies.
 

fredthe

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...The intent of this whole thing was to either fix the cars or get them off the road. A totaled car was already off the road, so buying it, fixing it and
just driving it DOES NOT GET THE CAR OFF THE ROAD. If a car is fixable, then the car is still potentially on the road. Some people like the VW diesels. If VW wants them off the road, then they should be expected to pay to get them off the road. It's their fault for not offering a $$ for totaled cars, just to guarantee someone wouldn't fix them and drive them. They didn't so they are now on the hook to get that repaired car back off the road.
 

VWMark

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The problem is people are now digging up totaled cars to fix and sell them back. If there was no buyback, most of the cars would not be brought back on the road.
 

duratitus

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^^^ Incorrect.

The real problem is that VW cheated when they made the cars to start with.

Just because someone wrecked the car after they purchased it from VW does not mean VW should get off scott-free for lying about the emissions when they sold it.

But to get back on topic, I'm still waiting to hear from others who are experiencing issues with non clean title cars. - The class counsel attorney has said there are over 500 of these in limbo with VW right now.......
 

VWMark

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VW is not getting off scott-free, they are still paying the restitution money on the totaled cars.

My guess is that's the hold up. People are filing restitution claims on totaled cars, then someone buys that totaled car, fixes it, and then puts in a buyback claim. That leaves VW paying double, I'm sure not something they want to do.
 

VeeDubTDI

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VW is not getting off scott-free, they are still paying the restitution money on the totaled cars.

My guess is that's the hold up. People are filing restitution claims on totaled cars, then someone buys that totaled car, fixes it, and then puts in a buyback claim. That leaves VW paying double, I'm sure not something they want to do.
Wouldn't the previous owner and the current owner split the restitution?
 

GoFaster

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It may take some time to sort that out. The person who "deserves" the payment is the person who owned the car as of 15 Sep 2015. I have little sympathy for people attempting to profit from VW's troubles.
 

Fourplay

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VW is not getting off scott-free, they are still paying the restitution money on the totaled cars.

My guess is that's the hold up. People are filing restitution claims on totaled cars, then someone buys that totaled car, fixes it, and then puts in a buyback claim. That leaves VW paying double, I'm sure not something they want to do.
Wrong. If you knew how the buybacks work, you'd know that it's literally impossible for this to occur. It's amazing that even though this has been ongoing for nearly 11 months, some folks still don't understand how it works, including a forum moderator.
 
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