This week I finally got rid of the ill conceived 2014 Passat TDI  SE 2.0 that I have driven for the last 2.5 years.

With its emission defeat device that VW installed into the Diesel vehicles to get around the more stringent US emission laws, they were found guilty and settled in court. The combined settlement is estimated to cost VW around $21 billion. A little more than $30000 of this money is mine. After the penalty and the buy back value of the car I was offered, I’m coming out ahead of what I had paid for the vehicle – including tax. That’s all I ever asked for from VW from day 1 when I learned about the cheat. Take back the car and give me my money back.

So in the end it was a free car, but nevertheless a depressing experience. Shame on you VW! It’s my hope that some of the responsible managers will go to jail for this for some time. There’s still a small chance for it.

Needless to say that you won’t find me in a VW in this life again.

VW screwed up one last time on the day of the re-purchase of the car by taking vehicle, keys and title but not paying out the settlement amount for another three days. The only alternative I had was rescheduling the buy-back another couple of months down the road. Brilliant completion to an epic skrew up. Rott in hell, VW! – Largest car maker of the world. Hopefully not for much longer. Until then I’ll educate everybody about your shitty German engineering cheat. You can go now.