Spoke with the head of communications at CARB

After being quite insistent at getting a call back, Stanley from C.A.R.B called me to discuss the status of the gen 1 cars. Try as I might, I could not pin him
down on an actual date for the fix but he assured me of a couple of things

1) There IS a fix being worked on by the EPA as of this date. They are working on what VW has given them. They are testing durability and of course if it meets emissions standards.

2 He assured me that VW is NOT giving up and letting this die.

3) He did mention that the 1st gen even with the relaxed standards would be harder to meet but did not say if it was the actual emissions or durability that was the issue at hand.

4) I could not pin him down as to how long this testing would be for. My best guess is that VW is submitting fixes and it goes back and forth between VW and the EPA until it is approved.

He did say it was the consumers that inserted themselves in the legal arena that complicated the whole mess. I can definitely see that as humans in general tend to mess up everything that they touch.. especially when they smell money.

So thats all I have... I tried and I did give him an earful ( politely mind you)

as to what I thought of the EPA and CARB. He went on to tell me that CARB is actually pro alternative diesel fuel and that CA is not anti diesel

there will be less than 10% of gen 1s on the road if when they approve it.

Where do you get that number from

Sounds to me like they're still trying to get a fix that works well for all parties involved.

-J

Looks like VW is definitely as hard as they can to spare the Gen 1's from the crusher, as the Gen 1 represents the majority among all the dieselgate TDIs.

Aah %$&* I just turned in my 2010 because it seemed less and less likely that a fix was coming and the restitution money was very helpful to us at this time. But I wish I kept it and said "the hell with the money, I could get a tune and carry on."

Thank you for sharing this!

Max Period said:

Looks like VW is definitely as hard as they can to spare the Gen 1's from the crusher, as the Gen 1 represents the majority among all the dieselgate TDIs.

Click to expand...

At this point (cf. another thread on the current turn-in reports), the fact that there have been 275,000 out of 480,000 cars turned in at present means that the word "majority" means less than half as much as it did when the buybacks started, and that number is getting fewer every day. And I don't care what Mr. CARB said in the OP, the smaller that number, the less incentive for VW or anyone else to care about a fix.

Keep in mind that VW is not doing a gen1 fix out of the goodness of their hearts, they are doing it because they are being forced to, like it or not. Whether they don't like it is irrelevant to a fix happening, unless the EPA and CARB totally bend over to VW, and that is not going to happen. A fix MUST and WILL happen, the only variable is how far from current complete NOX standards will VW be allowed, when factors such as durability and costs are concerned. I agree that the longer it takes to get an approved gen1 fix approved, the more likelihood that owners will throw in the towel and take the buyback. But does that really help VW in any great economic way (buyback vs. fix)? I don't know, but I think VW's primary objective is not current fix costs, but rather putting the whole dieselgate thing as far in the rearview mirror as possible, so that they can start restoring their brand equity. The really sad think is that VW has the ability to build first-class diesel vehicles, but likely feels that the scandal has so corrupted the consumer viewpoint about diesel cars that they will abandon them altogether, which is unfortunate for the consumers who appreciate the benefits of them.

Their primary motivation IMHO is to be able to fix and resell all of the cars they bought back. They would be fools not to

Rico567 said:

At this point (cf. another thread on the current turn-in reports), the fact that there have been 275,000 out of 480,000 cars turned in at present means that the word "majority" means less than half as much as it did when the buybacks started, and that number is getting fewer every day. And I don't care what Mr. CARB said in the OP, the smaller that number, the less incentive for VW or anyone else to care about a fix.

Click to expand...

You forget... The fix has already been submitted. The cost has already been done. They have 100's of thousands of cars sitting in huge lots that cost a lot of $$$ to rent. They also have lots of new ones sitting at dealerships ( 2014's of which I personally know where 10 or so of them are)

They want as much money back as they can get
They would have crushed them already if that was the plan
The EPA also has an interest in getting them fixed even if 15% of them stay on the road as that woulld mean 71K cars still not meeting ANY standard

Subscribed!

I'm in for a fix and the cash, so I hope it happens!

Thank you OP for what I think is hopeful information.

According to the Third Report of Independent Claims Supervisor
On the court's website and linked in the first post here: http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=478982

Page 17 shows when VW submitted the proposed fixes:
Gen 1 submitted on Jan 25, 2017