The Napleton Automotive Group of Illinois tread a well-worn path to its lawyers yesterday, this time filing a suit against Volkswagen for damaging its business model.
Three Volkswagen dealerships owned by Napelton filed the suit, which seeks class-action status, alleging the automaker’s diesel emissions scandal amounts to “criminal racketeering,” Automotive News has reported.
In addition to Napleton, the Seattle law firm Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro is representing thousands of individual Volkswagen buyers who are looking to recoup financial losses. Napleton recently sued Fiat Chrysler Automobiles for allegedly falsifying sales, a charge FCA has called a “smear” job.
One element of Napleton’s suit involves the ill-timed purchase of an Illinois Volkswagen dealership just three days before the diesel scandal broke. Napleton’s attorney, Steve Berman, called the situation a “sickening display of VW’s disregard for its dealer franchisees,” adding that the automaker would have known the dealership would soon lose value.
Napleton’s lawsuit flies in the face of recent efforts by a committee of dealer owners who’ve attempted to stop angry Volkswagen franchisees from taking their grievances to court. The committee hopes to negotiate a reparations package out of the automaker.
Volkswagen brand chief Herbert Diess added his own tepid attempt to calm dealer acrimony at last weekend’s National Auto Dealers Association meeting in Las Vegas.
While Volkswagen faces a new legal challenge in the U.S., the German Federal Motor Transport Authority has wrapped up an investigation into European diesel producers, concluding that VW was the only automaker to install an emissions-cheating “defeat device” in its vehicles.
Volkswagen has until April 21 to outline a comprehensive plan to U.S. regulators concerning how it will fix that country’s 580,000 affected diesels.
Just plug in the emissions fix Game Genie to your diagnostic port and you get nice clean airz.
Word
“…adding that the automaker would have known the dealership would soon lose value”
Maybe. What did VW know, and when? That’s TBD, but there is lots of damning evidence.
That’s not so nice, being sold a dealership with the proverbial sawdust in its transmission.
VW was first informed of the “issue” in 2014 by the EPA, which resulted in the 23o6 emissions campaign that was sent out to TDI owners in early 2015 (which was a flash that apparently does a lot of micro re-gens and drops fuel economy and performance).
It still didn’t do enough and VW wasn’t exactly showing much interest in complying, so on Sept 18, 2015 the EPA made the announcement.
Can you imagine being the guy who bought a VW dealership three days before the diesel cheating came to light?
If he used my bank, the check wouldn’t have cleared yet and he could have cancelled the purchase.
It could be worse – they could be a Fiat dealer that FCA required to build a shiny new showroom, to be filled with new vehicles that never came.
I actually legitimately feel somewhat bad for that guy. Hopefully he also has a profitable franchise in his portfolio, like anything else besides VW (and Fiat).
Let the VW death watch begin. Wow, they really stepped in it.
I wish my local VW dealership sold Hondas, so I could keep going there after I dump my Golf TDI. They are actually nice people who I like.
They may be forced to start selling Hondas to stay in business.
When I look at that photo, I can’t help but think of the Simpson’s establishing shot for the nuclear plant with the crow’s caw in the background. Either that or the establishing shot of Snake Mountain in He-Man.
VW won’t go bust. They could shut down VW USA but they won’t go under. My bet is they will close VW US and buy FCA. That’s cheaper than paying out like this.
They aren’t going to shut down VW USA either.
By then FCA will be able to buy VW.
Steph, not to be pedantic, but the past tense of “tread” is “trod”
I may not have bought a dealership three days before the announcement but, no kidding, I bought a Touareg TDI three hours before the announcement. Love the vehicle and they sent me $1,000, which I used to help fund the purchase of a 2015 CC R-Line with a manual transmission. In crisis there is opportunity……