As we told you yesterday, a settlement in Fiat Chrysler’s diesel quandary could come any day. Today, we’re telling you it could come, well, today.
According to sources who spoke to the New York Times, FCA plans to settle a 2017 Justice Department lawsuit by making a collection of 104,000 trucks and SUVs greener, while adding an average of $2,500 to owners’ wallets.
Despite the automaker setting aside more than $800 million for the settlement, the sources claim it’ll only need to pay out about $650 million to free itself from the suit. The rest should cover the recall of affected vehicles. The report states that some $305 million will go towards making the company straight with the federal and California governments, with $260 million or more distributed to owners of the 2014-2016 Ram 1500 and Jeep Grand Cherokee EcoDiesels.
Civil penalties amount to $72 million, with another $6 million set aside to deal with other claims, the report states. FCA won’t admit guilt, the sources claim, nor will the settlement include an EPA finding of wrongdoing.
On average, owners should receive about $2,500. Because the company’s fix involves software only, owners shouldn’t expect a change in power or fuel economy from the 3.0-liter V6 engines. The company gained approval to begin selling EcoDiesels, now with a compliant engine, in the summer of 2017, but the fuel-sipping variants disappeared for the 2019 model year. A second-generation engine is in the works to compete with new light-duty diesels from Ford and General Motors.
[Image: Fiat Chrysler Automobiles]
Likely a pretty sweet deal for owners…I don’t see the values of these being impacted as was the case with the VW stuff so it’s just free money most likely.
Also, I don’t see it as out of the realm of possibility that “software” could impact horsepower, fuel economy, or drivability…or all 3. Hopefully not, but certainly not a given.
Especially since yesterday’s article mentions one of the smoking guns is an email between the engine supplier and FCA indicating that they wanted software designed to detect the testing conditions so they could achieve and advertise better fuel economy.
“FCA won’t admit guilt, the sources claim, nor will the settlement include an EPA finding of wrongdoing.”
Can anybody clarify what this means?
Why wouldn’t the EPA release it’s findings?
It means there was a deal cut where FCA agreed to pay this level of fines and make the fix, w/o going to court so they don’t get a “guilty” verdict.
The “device” didn’t increase power/economy or increase emissions, but would delay regen cycles when conditions were less than optimal, just to decrease the chances of damaged parts, like regen during high speeds, high temps or cold start.
So the “fixed” software will now allow regens under those conditions and increase the chances of damage? I’m not sure I would want to let the dealer “fix” my truck.
Seal pups will die if you don’t, due to Global Warming.
Meaning: Nothing to see here, move along Citizen.
“Because the company’s fix involves software only, owners shouldn’t expect a change in power or fuel economy from the 3.0-liter V6 engines.”
Most likely the software change WILL have a significant detrimental impact on fuel economy/power or both. The original FCA software was not programmed to solve world hunger!
Well under $1 Bil; pretty sweet deal, home cookin’.
The whole settlement brief is in excess of 80 pages, but the gist is that each truck is work $3075, which goes to the original owner of a 2014-2016 EcoDiesel, or is split if there have been multiple owners.
Also covers the majority of the engine and DEF/SCR components until 10 years/120k miles and 4 years/48k miles after the fix.
All predicated on you getting the fix done, which I will be doing for my 2014 with 54k miles. Haven’t had any issues personally, and am averaging just over 25 mpg combined lifetime.
“Because the company’s fix involves software only, owners shouldn’t expect a change in power or fuel economy from the 3.0-liter V6 engines.”
Wow! How do you get to be writing about modern vehicles and be so ignorant? Everything on these engines is software controlled. Fuel quantity, boost pressure, and temperature limits all affect power and economy and are directly controlled by software. One of the original complaints was a loss of fuel economy after a software change. I lost more than 10%.
The average of the options is $2500 or so. However most vehicles were sold before 2017, so most owners will be on the $3,000 payout. But the lawyers take their cut first, so no owner will see the headline amount.