Audi In Talks To Buy Back 25,000 Q7 CUVs As Dieselgate Moves To Troubled 3.0-Liter Engines

About a-quarter of the Audi 3.0-liter V-6 turbodiesels involved in the Dieselgate scandal may be repurchased by Volkswagen, the automaker’s parent. The German weekly newsmagazine Der Spiegel, whose enterprising reporting staff somehow manages to find things out in Wolfsburg and Ingolstadt, weeks or months before other outlets, said Thursday that Audi plans to buy back diesel-equipped Q7 models.

Talks between Audi representatives and U.S. negotiators have apparently been gone on for some time. Similar talks were held between representatives of the owners of the nearly 500,000 2-liter diesel-engined vehicles and regulators. It took months of hard negotiating – the final approval is still waiting – but they hashed out a workable solution that will ultimately cost VW more than $16 billion.

The previous talks were an effort to settle the Dieselgate scandal which has rocked VW for more than a year. (Dieselgate is the self-inflicted emissions cheating scandal where VW used scamware to cheat on emissions tests to make it look as though the turbodiesels were able to pass emissions tests. They were not able to pass, in reality.)

The 3.0-liter V-6 VW diesel engine likewise could not meet the standards and the automaker used similar software to make it look as though each engine passed.

A total of 85,000 vehicles – mostly Audi, Porsche and VW crossovers – failed the exhaust tests. Like the 2.0-liter four-cylinder mills, there has been ongoing legal work in the U.S.District Court in San Francisco before Judge Charles Breyer. Judge Breyer is scheduled to deliver a final ruling in the 2.0-liter version of Dieselgate next week. That decision was delayed a week two days ago, while Judge Breyer considered last-minute arguments. He did say that he “felt inclined” to approve the Dieselgate class-action lawsuit settlement.

Meantime, said a Reuters report on the Der Spiegel report, initial discussions have revealed that 25,000 older generation Q7 crossovers cannot be fixed. They may be repurchased by Audi,
Audi said, in a statement yesterday, that it is “working hard with U.S. regulators to reach an agreement, an approved resolution for affected 3.0-liter V-6 TDI (turbodiesel) vehicles.” The automaker thanked its “customers for their continued patience.” Audi continued that the court has scheduled a “status conference for Nov. 3, 2016 to discuss the matter further.”

Sources: Automotive News, Der Spiegel, Reuters