PORTLAND, Maine — The biggest auto industry settlement in history could deliver as much as $20.3 million to drivers in Maine who purchased certain Volkswagen cars, model years 2009-2015, powered by the company’s 2.0 liter diesel engines.
The $15.3 billion settlement includes restitution payments of at least $5,100 for affected car owners, with 3,982 of those vehicles bought or leased in Maine before Sept. 17, 2015, according to the Maine Attorney General’s Office.
People who leased affected vehicles can terminate leases for no fee and will receive $1,529 plus 10 percent of the car’s base value. It’s not clear how many of the 3,982 affected vehicles in Maine were purchased and how many were leased.
Owners who have decided to hold onto the vehicles will have two options: accept a repair or sell the cars back to VW.
The settlement stems from the automaker’s admission in September that it intentionally misled regulators by installing secret software that allowed U.S. vehicles to emit up to 40 times legally allowable pollution. It covers 475,000 2.0-liter vehicles in the United States.
“Volkswagen groomed an image to lead customers to believe they were making a purchase that was environmentally sound,” Maine Attorney General Janet Mills said in a news release. “It turns out their ‘clean diesel’ technology was anything but.”
Mills said data revealed that marketing evidently worked in Maine, which was among the highest states for per-capita VW ownership.
Maine state government also will receive around $3.7 million of a $570 million payment to individual states and up to $20 million from $2.7 billion set aside in the settlement for environmental mitigation programs throughout the country.
Maine could also sue VW for violations of state law. Tim Feeley, a spokesman for the Maine AG’s office, said the attorney general would confer with the governor’s administration in the coming weeks about whether to pursue such claims.
Kevin Tesseo, vice president of operations at Darling’s Volkswagen dealership, in Bangor, said he doesn’t have many more details than have been reported through the settlement, but he expects dealers will be in the middle of the repair or buyback process.
“I do believe that even though we haven’t been given the details that we will be facilitating a lot of it for customers,” he said.
Tesseo said there are six Volkswagen dealerships in Maine that will be handling the repair or buyback process, with some of the proposed repair technology pending review by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
A lot of questions remain for affected customers who will have to wait to find out just what their options are for either a buyback or repair that could range from a software update to a complete retrofit of the engine, according to Car and Driver magazine.
The buyback and repair process is expected to begin in the fall.
Until then, Tesseo said he’s been answering questions from affected customers and directing them to the website VWcourtsettlement.com, which allows users to put in their vehicle identification number, or VIN, to see if their car is affected.
Eventually, Tesseo said, that site will be updated with more detail about the options each customer has for either a repair or a buyback, with the buyback price determined by the model, vehicle age, trim and region.
Since the Volkswagen’s emissions violations were revealed, Tesseo said customers at Darling’s have been understanding.
“Our general experience with customers is that they have been very respectful,” Tesseo said. “They’re not very happy with VW and I don’t blame them — neither are we.”
Despite VW’s admission of violating environmental laws, Tesseo said sales at Darling’s have kept pace with one year ago. Still, he’s less than thrilled.
“I’ve never seen [a recall] for this reason and hopefully never do again,” Tesseo said.