Board logo

VAG Diesel emissions claim advice
bi22le - 9/5/21 at 09:54 PM

I have a 2011 A4 2.0TDI. I bought it about 5 years ago and it's the frugal under powered one so probably worst hit by the scandal.

I'm probably going to claim compensation, I did genuinely buy the car of that spec because of my long commute.

There seems to be a lot of companies offering to manage my claim but I don't know which one to go for. Trying to get their rate of fees seems difficult and I bet there is small print leveraging up the" cheaper" ones anyway.

Any advice on who to go with? Any advice on this at all actually?

[Edited on 9/5/21 by bi22le]


SteveWalker - 9/5/21 at 10:31 PM

I've been quite interested in this. I'm not affected and have no claim, but I have wondered what people are claiming for.

I can see a number of possibilities:

1) Loss due to lower resale value.
2) Loss due to higher fuel costs as recall and software update reduced MPG.
3) Lower performance than expected as recall and software update reduced it.

Are there any others? Government has not (as far as I know) insisted on the emissions being amended and higher VED or registration fees being paid or problems with ULEZ zones, etc.. Not changed tax for company cars.

I can see an effect for someone like yourself that bought and might want to sell at some time, but even people who have leased have been advised to claim - and, unless updates have reduced the mpg or performance significantly, they are not really affected by any of the three.


steve m - 10/5/21 at 07:21 AM

A Friend of ours tried to claim for his 2013 Golf, and was refused, because he was the second owner of the car, So his Father claimed
for the golf, because he was the first owner, and refused, because he had sold the car on


Slimy38 - 10/5/21 at 07:24 AM

Can you do anything directly, IE not through one of the claim management companies? I think you'll have to deal with at least the original creators of the case, but I have the personal view that 'claim management companies' are the scum of the earth and I'd do anything to avoid giving them a share. I group them with ambulance chasers and personal injury companies.

I got financially hit by the Mercedes one. I got the car as a company car based on the emissions and MPG. On their numbers I worked out I would break even, but in the end it didn't come even close and I was paying a fortune for a car that I didn't use that much.

I do own a 2015 Skoda Superb with the same 2.0TDI engine, but I won't be claiming on that as it's a private car and I was much better informed with regards to the running costs. The software update was done before I got the car so it's not as if I'm missing anything.


steve m - 10/5/21 at 07:24 AM

I've been quite interested in this. I'm not affected and have no claim, but I have wondered what people are claiming for.

I can see a number of possibilities:

1) Loss due to lower resale value.
2) Loss due to higher fuel costs as recall and software update reduced MPG.
3) Lower performance than expected as recall and software update reduced it.


My take on the above, is none of these, they claim, because they can, its no different to the PPI claims

i honestly claimed on all my PPI, yet have no clues as to why, but got back 8.5k


AlexXtreme - 10/5/21 at 09:08 AM

I'm signed up for this action though I notice that it is now closed to new people joining.

https://www.slatergordon.co.uk/group-litigation/live-group-actions/vw-nox-emissions-group/

I have owned my VW which is affected around 7 years and did not get the software updated as I read about it, showed it lost torque low down and as a consequence reduce the Mpg.

at the time my thought that the re-sale value was reduced at the time and it probably was, though now with all diesel cars being so badly knocked down in value, it does not make that difference.


nick205 - 10/5/21 at 03:24 PM

I owned a VW which would have been afftected, but chose not to get anything done to it or make a claim. SWMBO owned an affected VW as well and we likewise chose to leave it alone.

Mine was sold on (privately by me) in 2015 and the buyer never raised the subject.

SWMBO's was sold on (privately by me) a couple of weeks ago and again the buyer never raised the subject.

As the seller, I certainly didn't raise the subject with either buyer. If they'd raised a question I'd have simply been open and said no action taken and cars unchanged from how they left the factory.

As I'd expect them to be both buyers were more interested in service history and maintenance.


bi22le - 10/5/21 at 05:53 PM

It's hard to understand how out of pocket I am as I don't really know the other side of the coin. I did get my car remapped but quite late on and by then most were saying that there is no difference. I have not noticed a difference.

Unsure if you can go direct. It doesn't seem so at the moment, it's being reported differently to PPI where there was a consistent "go direct" message with hotlines etc.


nick205 - 11/5/21 at 12:14 PM

To the OP

A 2011 TDI would be a CR (Common Rail) engine. The TDI's we had were the older PD type's.

The 2.0 TDI Passat estate I had if driven like a vicar would get close to 800 miles on a full tank of diesel. I do mean seriously trying, next to no braking and next to no accelerating.

By comparison the 1.9 TDI Cupra Seat Leon I had (again PD) 2004-7 if driven hard drank fuel at a staggering rate. It went through tyres and brake pads as well.


AlexXtreme - 11/5/21 at 12:24 PM

I do not know how much out of pocket I am now as my car is just over 10 years old.. however at the time I had only had the car for a year or so after forking out £13k for it so if I had to sell it at the time I would have definitely lost money as the VW diesel cars definitely had a loss of reputation (and still do now) So thought I had nothing to loose (other than a few mins filling in forms) and joined a claim. This claim merged with other claims to where it is now.
I have not done anything like this before and don't really agree with it (it is a bit too "American" for me), however, I felt that VW definitely tried to pull a fast one of the rules and the public by the cheat that they did so should not be able to get away with it.


steve m - 12/5/21 at 09:24 AM

I believe we are all being lied to, no matter what manufacture brand

My current Petrol Mondeo states that the Urban mpg is 33.4, however i have NEVER got more than 25 MPG
yet at cruise at 60, the book states 55 MPG average, yet my gauge says 70 MPG average

Now obviously, the gauges are inaccurate, and the published figures are manufactured to be disbelieving

My old Mondeo 2.0 TDCI that i had remapped, would average 55MPG, no matter what, even towing a 7 Metre Caravan, i could achieve 50-55 on cruise control also range on one tank was just over 900 miles

current range on my 1.5 Mondeo is around 300 miles


nick205 - 12/5/21 at 11:07 AM

quote:
Originally posted by steve m
I believe we are all being lied to, no matter what manufacture brand

My current Petrol Mondeo states that the Urban mpg is 33.4, however i have NEVER got more than 25 MPG
yet at cruise at 60, the book states 55 MPG average, yet my gauge says 70 MPG average

Now obviously, the gauges are inaccurate, and the published figures are manufactured to be disbelieving

My old Mondeo 2.0 TDCI that i had remapped, would average 55MPG, no matter what, even towing a 7 Metre Caravan, i could achieve 50-55 on cruise control also range on one tank was just over 900 miles

current range on my 1.5 Mondeo is around 300 miles



Steve - have to agree with you, pretty much all manufacturers must be playing the naughty game. I see it that VW got caught first and it made a big stir.

Manufacturers MPG test figures are known to be inaccurate. I don't think the tests are representative of real world road driving.


AlexXtreme - 12/5/21 at 11:30 AM

My VW is also not realistic against the on the metered mpg but is around 5 mpg overestimating on almost all situations. Every petrol car I have had has always been considerable worse around town compared to any predictions.. I have found diesel cars tend to be better

What VW did was cheat the system to get through the emissions as I am sure others have done.

What I was not happy with was the re-mapping of the engine to reduce the torque at low revs, which was where the engine previously excelled.
So I either have lower acceleration or it requires more use of the heavier use of the accelerator and this reduces the mpg.


Mr Whippy - 12/5/21 at 03:05 PM

Well if your only buying a car based on it's mpg performance and your round trip journey is 200 miles or less, all I can say is go EV.

I'm getting 120mpg equivalent. My sister has a 2ltr TDi golf and it's only managing 70mpg, she's now looking at getting an EV as well as are my folks and next doors just bought a Tesla M3, and our other neighbour across from us has a Leaf exactly like mine, even the same colour and wheels!

My wife's 2ltr petrol volvo is getting a miserable 28mpg, I'm hoping it explodes soon...go cam belt failure. Please break! While electricity costs for charging the car have been so low we haven't even noticed an increase, basically we're considering it irrelevant. Plus there's no road tax or congestion charges


David Jenkins - 13/5/21 at 11:06 AM

I used to be smug about my electric car, but I found that I got too much hostility from diesel and petrol vehicle drivers!

...so now I'm quietly smug.


Mr Whippy - 13/5/21 at 03:04 PM

quote:
Originally posted by David Jenkins
I used to be smug about my electric car, but I found that I got too much hostility from diesel and petrol vehicle drivers!

...so now I'm quietly smug.


probably true, they'll find out eventually...


nick205 - 13/5/21 at 03:51 PM

I see it that we'll all come round to EV's (or some other energy) in fairly short time (most of our lifetimes). Personally I think we're in an interesting/exciting/necessary time of change.


steve m - 13/5/21 at 04:21 PM

"I see it that we'll all come round to EV's (or some other energy) in fairly short time (most of our lifetimes). Personally I think we're in an interesting/exciting/necessary time of change."

We are !!

But for me, it will be Petrol, and probably until i stop driving, as i am not faffing about charging a scalextric car 2 times just to get too our holiday destination in Devon, and as its been discussed many times, range issues are still the biggest bug bear, unless we get a 100k Tesla, and thats not happening!

Also, as im the only driver in our house, we only need one car,


David Jenkins - 13/5/21 at 05:14 PM

quote:
Originally posted by steve m
But for me, it will be Petrol, and probably until i stop driving, as i am not faffing about charging a scalextric car 2 times just to get too our holiday destination in Devon, and as its been discussed many times, range issues are still the biggest bug bear, unless we get a 100k Tesla, and thats not happening!



I could go from Sussex to Devon on one charge... (Kia Niro)

...but I think that the main killer of ICE cars will be the cost and availability of diesel and petrol. As more and more people buy electric cars, and the early ones trickle down to the second-hand market (happening already) then fewer people will buy liquid fuel. The incentive to run a petrol station will also take a nose-dive - supermarkets near me have already installed chargers, and more will appear. As the number of ICE cars reduces, petrol stations will become less viable. Fewer people buying fuel will mean that the price will rise, perhaps to the point where no-one will want to pay for it.

Another good example popped up last week: Porsche brought out the electric Cayenne - a splendid car, super-fast, and very rapid charging - and no-one in the UK wants to buy their petrol-engined cars any more! Apparently Porsche are limiting the import of their electric cars to the UK so that dealers can clear their ICE stock.

One thing to note, if you haven't tried driving one, is that most electric cars are a delight to drive. Nippy, quiet, cheap to run. If I want a fun drive then then out comes the Locost, but if I have a long drive then I would always go for the most relaxing, cheapest option.


steve m - 13/5/21 at 07:09 PM

Dave, i did drive electric cars until March last year, (pre covid) we had Nissan leafs on the hire fleet, and i can honestly say, we never had one that could do more than 100 miles, infact we had at least two, that on a full charge couldnt go between depots from Horsham Sussex to Hitchin in Hertfordshire, a total of 80 miles, but 60 miles of motorway

I may be spoilt, as i drove everything from Ferrari's Astons Bentleys etc, and the only car in all that ive ever driven, that was worse than a Leaf, was a Nissan Micra

I am talking about brand new zero Mileage cars, or in some cases less than zero, when we leave the depot


David Jenkins - 13/5/21 at 09:43 PM

Steve,

I used to have a Leaf - latest model, 40kW - and its range display lied constantly. When I was looking for a replacement I wrote down everything I didn't like about it... it was a long list! Unfortunately Nissan made a major cock-up when they updated the Leaf - the original model was a decent car, but its replacement was a dog.

I ended up with a Kia Niro that has a 64kW battery. The worst range I've got was 220 miles in very cold, wet weather, driving at 70mph at night (so headlights, etc). In warm summer driving I get somewhere around 270 miles.


Mr Whippy - 14/5/21 at 10:39 AM

quote:
Originally posted by steve m

I may be spoilt, as i drove everything from Ferrari's Astons Bentleys etc, and the only car in all that ive ever driven, that was worse than a Leaf, was a Nissan Micra




what a truly laughable BS statement


steve m - 14/5/21 at 02:03 PM

Why BS Mr Whippy ?

I worked for Easi drive, part of the Edam group, delivering all types of cars vans and lorries all over the South of England, from the Horsham Branch

Please goggle Easi drive, Branches are Manchester, Bristol, Glasgow, Hitchin and Horsham

On fleet we had From Ferrari's down to poo Micras (the only car that actually made me sick driving to Margate )

The company buy and sell every year 3000 bmw's well they did until we had the past year, along with 1000's of other make of cars

I did this job for 3 years, and loved it,

Mr whippy, no apologies are needed, as i do know what my job is, with out snidey remarks, that you probably thought were funny

A couple of old posts i made, about driving exotic cars, and replies

posted on 25/2/21 at 19:43 Reply With Quote Report Post to Administrator
Ive driven the Benltley Continental many times, awsome piece of machinery, averages 12mpg, it has four seats, but the rears are only suitable for a Barbie doll, the engine sound of the W12 is awsome, and the one we had the rear tyres lasted about 3k

Apart from that, i would have one, and servicing etc was a lot cheaper than BMW, and they picked the car up from your house/work, all included
also, i am not aware of any of our cars ever had to go back once a month to the dealers, unlike a lot of cars we own



quote:
Originally posted by Mr Whippy
It's great to hear you like working on them cos you'll be doing that alot

HAHA

And when the bills come in, there immense!

Ive said this before, many many times, my job was !! delivering brand new cars to customers for non fault insurance claims, and on fleet we have Honda's BMW, Mercs, seat, volvo, Bentley, etc and many more variants,

The only garage that I have been to with a brand new car, or extremely low mileage car is BMW, and out of a five day shift, have been to the same Bmw garage 3-4 times, a week, normaly take a busted one in, and bring a crap on out, and these are 2019/20 cars, brand new, or under 12000 miles, when we scrap them, (only in my dreams)

Ive never been to Honda, Seat, Volvo, Nissan, nor any of the other manufactures Garages, nor has any of my drivers

BMW stands for overated, overpriced, and overhere

Just saying, as I wouldn't own, a piece of German engineering, if it was the last thing on the road,

steve