Calculator is online
It's not super intuitive to get there, but you can now enter your vin and mileage, and see your $ amount if you have trouble with the maths. Mine came up right were I calculated, except for the bit of estimated mileage to come that the calculator will add on.
From the TDI owners' sites, below the vin eligibility section that has been there for some time, there is now a section with radio button questions to determine your eligibility. Duh, we know we are eligible... You have to answer those radio button questions, though, to make your way to a window that says you are eligible and finally gives a link to the portal.
https://claims.vwgoa.com/#/case
In the portal, you aren't really finalizing your claim, but you do need to register and add details to get to the calculation part.
Once you activate your account via the confirmation email, you can then enter your VIN and mileage, preferred dealer, and a hypothetical return date
The earliest choice for that is 11/1/2016, but that's just for $ calculation purposes. Once the settlement is fully approved/final, it says you will get some sort of notice on how to set your actual appointment, guaranteed to be within 90 days of that point.
Also, everything in the portal, like choosing which dealer, choosing "I'm interested" in the buyback or the (cough) "fix," can be changed later and does not constitute a claim at this point. (To change between buyback and fix, though, you have to call some phone number.)
My buyback amount is enough that I'm very paranoid about my car getting totaled or having a failure that renders it expensive to get running again. So, I was in a hurry to click "I'm interested" incorrectly thinking that would actually set my ASAP buyback appointment. It might have been possible before I did that, but I did not get a chance to see if the site allows you to fiddle around with different figures for the mileage and/or hypothetical return date (that adds extra estimated miles based on typical drivers).
Like the proposed settlement (unless it has changed during today's tentative approval process) there was no further language on actual condition requirements beyond the lack of salvage title/junk yard history and that it needs to be running/driving. Also still notes they are using TRADE from NADA. There were no fields and no language at all in reference to the many options and accessories we were sold with our lie-on-wheels but that NADA-listed packages did not include.
My final screen with the buyback offer amount had only this footer:
Buybacks are available to Eligible Owners who choose to return their vehicles for payment. The total offer compensates you for your vehicle and the cost of purchasing another vehicle, and it includes two components: 1) your vehicle return amount derived from the September 2015 NADA Used Car Guide Clean Trade including manufacturer-installed options; plus 2) additional restitution, which is the sum of a set percentage of the vehicle return amount and a flat dollar amount.
