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Dealers, owners feel betrayed by VW scandal

Bob Rand bought his Volkswagen Passat last year for its clean emissions and high gas mileage. He liked the car so much he convinced his son and a friend to buy one, too. Now, as Volkswagen comes clean about rigging diesel emissions to pass US tests, Rand is desperately trying to sell the fully loaded model with white leather seats for $10,000 below what he paid. His sole bite has been from a man who offered $7,500 on speculation that he could resell it in Mexico. "Volkswagen was somebody that you could rely on for cutting-edge products and quality and all those things and now you find out that they're not above lying just flat out," said Rand, who plans to join a class-action lawsuit against VW. "That's probably about as bad a thing as a company can do is lie to your face when you're buying a $35,000 car." Rand's anger at the world's top-selling car company was echoed Wednesday by private dealers, auto wholesalers and owners across the US as fallout from the smog test trickery mounted. The US Environmental Protection Agency first disclosed Friday that stealth software makes VW's 2009-2015 model cars powered by 2.0-liter diesel engines run cleaner during emissions tests than in actual driving. On Wednesday, CEO Martin Winterkorn resigned and took responsibility for the "irregularities" found by US inspectors - a scandal that has wiped out billions in the company's market value and raised the possibility of criminal investigations and billions more in fines. The revelations left dealers sitting on hundreds of diesel cars they could not sell. Many also dealt with a flood of angry calls, emails and tweets from Volkswagen owners who felt betrayed because they believed they had bought a car that polluted less without sacrificing the good gas mileage and performance that comes with a diesel engine. "I think their feet should be held to the fire." - Joe DeCarolis "I think their feet should be held to the fire. I think apologies don't mean anything when something is so premeditated," said Joe DeCarolis, of Cary, NC, who owns a 2012 TDI Jetta Sport Wagon — a car he bought after careful comparison shopping for its clean emissions and good gas mileage. Dealers can't give customers good answers because Volkswagen hasn't said a whole lot, said AutoNation CEO Mike Jackson, the leader of the largest auto dealership chain in the US.

VW Golf R pre-order sells out in less than 11 hours

Volkswagen fans had to be pretty quick if they wanted to ensure their pre-order for one of the first 500 units of the 2015 Golf R to enter the US. The German brand opened the books online at at 12:01 AM EST, and according to company spokesperson Leigh Anne Sessions speaking to Autoblog, by around 10:30 AM EST all of them were snapped up. VW's pre-order page currently shows these vehicles as no longer available, and the company confirms the news on Twitter, as well. There's still a chance to get an early Golf R by signing up for the waiting list and hoping one of the 500 orders falls through. VW Customer Care will contact people if there's an opening. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. This entire allotment of the Golf R comes in Lapiz Blue Metallic paint with VW's adaptive damper system, navigation, a six-speed dual-clutch gearbox and more. To further sweeten the pot, the company is also giving these folks a watch, key chain and certificate with their vehicle's VIN. The 500 models were priced at $39,090, plus $820 destination and delivery, but only $500 was required to reserve one online. The amount was refundable if a person backed out.

Volkswagen Golf Wagon caught completely uncovered

Without a lot of information to go with them, our camera-toting spies have captured some new images of a Volkswagen Golf wagon variant that is almost completely undisguised. In fact, the one piece of camouflage on the tidy wagon would probably have gone unnoticed to most casual viewers. Look closely at the rear three-quarter view of the car and you'll notice that the apparent taillight clusters are actually fakes - the outline of the real units is faintly visible behind the blue bodywork and the sticker-like fake taillights.
It's a good guess then, that this Golf wagon (called a Golf Kombi by our spy photographer) is a prototype that's pretty far along in the development cycle for Volkswagen. We can't be sure what impact this will have on the company's small wagon offering here in the US, but we'd be pretty surprised if something very like this didn't end up as the next Jetta SportWagen. We might well have more information on that front, after we visit Geneva next week.