Class Action vs Individual action of Many Complainants
The other thing that cracks me up is individuals' claiming they will personally sue VW. Best of luck with that.
While it might be more difficult to go up against the mega corp lawyers in a single person vs Corporate Canada, it is possible to file a small (<10,000 claim) at your local courthouse where you live.
Think of this
There are x number of Vehicles affected by the "Invalid Certification", of not meeting the existing (on date of manufacture) emissions law.
Most of the Vehicles Prices numbers (Valuations) were based on the Wholesale Price paid on Auction, in Ontario, as of September 2015.
If a significant number of customers tied up the local court(s) and the associated time, to resolve the issue of how much *should* the compensation be to each owner, then that would cost the individual province(s) justice department big bucks to even attend to these individual cases.
So, either the provincial courts have to decide if they will even entertain such a move, as that would impact the overall snails pace of court decisions for civil matters even more than usual, and if they should push the superior court (or higher level court) to come with a better 'settlement' for affected members.
This is the reason why 'class action' is even allowed as a type of suit in Canada.
When you consider, that you bought a car for $20-40K, and now (Jan '17) have 'lost' 20-50% of their value, that would add up to about 10-15K per vehicle. (2015 MY).
You could sue the selling dealer, who initially sold you the car,
AND VWoC, as they were the Importing Distributor, since none of the vehicles are Made In Canada.
This is assuming you want to get rid of the car now, and get something different (Different Manufacturer).
If you want to keep the car, and get a 'fix' if it ever becomes available, or you want to keep the car 'as is', non-compliant, but emitting emissions that may exceed a certain line in thermodynamic oblivion, there is nothing that says (so far), that you cannot drive and enjoy the car till the wheels rust away, and it would no longer pass any 'mechanical fitness' inspection. (Called a 'road safety' in mechanic speak.
As each month passes, and VW knows how this works, it is the same as an insurance claim, where the initial response is Deny, then the second response is Deny, then the third response is maybe accept.
Since the Canadian Black Book Wholesale values are based on 24,000 kms per year usage, it has a built-in Bias AGAINST high mileage cars such as VW TDis because they are the ONE exception of AVERAGE COST vehicles, where the majority of owners CAN expect greater than 250,000 kms life in the car.
Some individual cars, however, do not last as long, and have a variety of 'issues' that preclude their lasting that long, before they have overly excessive repair bills, and due to the badge as being 'foreign built' they get the disdain of not being produced domestically. (Honda, Toyota, and now Chrysler/Fiat being the 'new' kids in the sandbox).
Depending on your situation, a local judge may see things differently (in your favour) than one at a City far away.
