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Lawsuits Filed in Chattanooga against Volkswagen for Emissions Scandal

273 views · Published 28 September 2015 · 2:25 · Indexed 20 September 2026

Channel: WTVC NewsChannel 9 · 2015 · News & Politics

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Fraud, deceit and deception.
Those are accusations against Volkswagen by many of its owners.  Some of those owners say the value of their cars is now much less, and they want the company to pay up.

Local lawsuits have been filed, that are gaining steam, one of them filed by VW Jetta owner Bill Sonnenburg, whose 2009 Jetta has a TDI diesel engine, one of the affected models.
His Jetta is one of thousands that has software installed to cheat emissions tests and he's one of the lead plaintiffs in one of the lawsuits.
"I'm disappointed that would have been done at the corporate level" Sonnenburg told us in a phone interview, "that had to have been done by the engineers who designed the hardware and the software." 
Sonnenburg is not the only disappointed Volkswagen owner.  So far, at least four other affected owners have filed lawsuits against the world's largest auto maker who has admitted to installing the defeat device on many of its cars.  "People are literallyl going to lose thousands of dollars per vehicle off the resale of their vehicles," says Patrick.  "There is also a concern about what's going to happen in respect to the emissions test?"

The government estimates almost 500,000 Volkswagen Jetta's, Golfs, Beetle Convertibles, and Audi A-3's, including most every VW Passat made in Chattanooga that have the cheating software on them.
 If VW takes the devices off, will that eliminate the need for a lawsuit? "No it does not" says Patrick, "because if they do take the defeat devices off and refit the cars the way they should do, those cars will not perform the way they were represented to perform." 

That's not a safety problem, but a money problem.. per car.  "It's highly unlikely it would be less than a thousand dollars (per vehicle)," says Patrick, "but on the other hand if it is a later model, it could cost more than $5,000 per vehicle."
 Meanwhile, the loyalty of one VW owner, a loyalty that goes back to the early 1960's has now been shaken.  "It's going to be difficult to buy another Volkswagen in my future," says Bill Sonnenburg, despite my love of the brand."
 Attorney Patrick says, the next step will be for a federal judge to consider consolidating all the current and future cases into one class action lawsuit.

While that decision is being considered, depend on us to follow the VW emissions scandal and keep you up to date.

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