400,000 UK Volkswagen Dieselgate cars NOT 'fixed' yet

400,000 UK Volkswagen Dieselgate cars NOT ‘fixed’ yet

It seems that of the 1.2 million Volkswagens in the UK which require a ‘Fix’ after dieselgate, almost a third – nearly 400,000 – have still not been modified.

Mary Creagh, chair of the Commons’ Environmental Audit Committee, has got a bee in her bonnet about the rate at which Volkswagen Group’s dieselgate ‘fix’ is going, and has obtained figures from the Department for Transport confirming that around a third of the UK’s 1.2 million dodgy VW diesels still haven’t had the dieselgate fix.

Ms Creagh is pushing the DfT to give VW an ear bashing to ensure they get on with the remaining fixes, but although the dieselgate issue is unquestionably VW’s fault, the outstanding ‘fixes’ aren’t necessarily of their making.

When the Department for Transport revealed the VW Dieselgate ‘Fix’ would be voluntary in the UK, we questioned why, if that is the case, would anyone actually have it done?

As we said at the time, the chances of the ‘fix’ being possible without compromising either economy or performance (something many owners who’ve had the fix have found out) made it not worth the risk of having the work done.

We asked the DfT why they hadn’t either made the recall compulsory or made it clear the unfixed cars would be re-rated on their real emissions (or banned as un-certified), and they told us they thought VW owners would ‘do the right thing’, and that VW could make not having the ‘fix’ a reason to invalidate the warranty.

Frankly, although we’re sure many VW owners are noble enough to have the fix and risk having a poorer car to ensure their cars are cleaner, it’s hardly a given. And the chance of VW getting away with invalidating warranties (many of which have now expired anyway) is probably nil.

So, short of direct action by the DfT, we can’t see VW ever getting the chance to ‘fix’ a big percentage of the dieselgate cars.