I have 5 of rebuilt titles as well-I am a dealer and I have been rebuilding tdi's long before the settlement.
The buy back approvals have been going smoothly until April-not one offer since even though the documents are approved and in one case have been green-approved since Feb 26th.BTW-had last buyback finished 2 days ago may 11th-no issues there and the car had rebuilt title-was "totaled" in Jan 2017.
I talked to 2 settlement lawyers and several times called the 844 # and I was told since there are multiple claims they need to decide who gets what,but nobody will tell you time frame.
In settlement it says:
If you owned an Eligible Vehicle that was functioning and operable as of September 18, 2015, but was
subsequently totaled (and the title was transferred to an insurance company), you will be eligible for
benefits under the Class Action Settlement as described in this notice at Question 19. There is one exception: if your car is totaled after June 28, 2016, but before the opt-out date (September 16, 2016), you
are excluded from the settlement class and reserve your rights and claims against the Volkswagen entities.
I think VW had no clue and we turned several rebuilt tiles in with no issue,until one of the previous owners pushed the issue and asked for money and now VW doesn't know what to do.
As you know these cars bring lots of money even wrecked,because of the buyback.
If you register the car with VW for buyback you will get :
Please print this page for your records. In the event that your vehicle is totaled between now and your closing appointment, you may want to reference this offer in negotiations with your insurance company."
So why would previous owner get paid twice.I watched the pay off amounts of some cars we bought and most of them got paid by insurance company about the same as VW would pay them as buyback,so if VW wants to give them any money from "our" buyback amount even if it's half of the compensation money-like the seller would get if he sold it after sept 2015,but before jun 2016,then they got paid more then anyone else and I would loose money,because after what I pay for these car wrecked and cost of fixing them-if you remove half of compensation-I would loose money.
I think both the lawyers and VW didn't think about this very well.
The EPA clean air act covers even salvage vehicle for emission warranty,so just because vehicle got transferred to insurance company doesn't remove it from commerce.
You can hit a deer and repair cost gets close to 50% of the value of the car and insurance company will buy it from owner-therefore it's totaled,because insurance had to pay the total amount.I guess some people don't understand the "totaled vehicle" term-they hear totaled and they think car got rolled into a ball-not true.
The clause about cars on branded title as of sept 2015 and sold by salvage or junk yard was put there,because they didn't want people go dumpster diving-taking cars that were already being dismantled and bringing them back on the road just for the payout.This is not the case-all these cars we bought have been on the road the whole time and they just got damaged recently and woud have been fixed and issued regular rebuilt titles even if there was no buyback.
Almost all states allow cars be put back on the road after fixing them and inspection,so manufacturers void the basic warranty,but are still responsible for recalls and emission warranty,because of the clean air act.
Bottom line-I own a tdi,that VW has cheated on emission ,so they need to either fix it or buy it back and pay me compensation as stated in settlement or exclude me from settlement and there are plenty of lawyers,who will sue on my behalf and will win.
