A federal judge issued a warning to Dieselgate-affected VW owners to not strip their cars before selling them back to the company.
US District Court Judge Charles Breyers warning came in Thursday, USA Today reports, following a story from Jalopnik about an owner who completely stripped his 2010 Golf before attempting to sell it back to VW.
The specific owner had stripped the car of his doors, seats, hood, bumpers, hatch and a large chunk of the interior with VW rejecting his attempt to participate in the buyback process. The owner would get between $14,897 to $15,557 for his 2010 Golf diesel.
VW attorney Robert Giuffra said Thursday at a court hearing that “a handful of owners have brought in vehicles that have been regrettably deliberately stripped of parts.” He then noted that one owner ripped out “almost every part,” “even the air bags”, in an apparent reference to the owner mentioned above.
“Clearly the purpose of the agreement by Volkswagen was to accept these cars in the condition that they were in as they were being driven on the road and not to strip the cars”, Breyers responded.
Jonathan Cohen, an attorney for the Federal Trade Commission, said the agency is “absolutely against bad-faith behavior by consumers” but also added that VW cannot reject buybacks based on “the vehicle’s superficial condition”, meaning normal wear and tear.
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