Car Giant Handing Up To $3,850 Per Customer Over Alleged Mechanical Defect

A car giant has agreed to pay its customers in the US and Puerto Rico thousands of dollars to settle accusations that certain vehicles were sold with defective turbochargers.

According to the settlement administrator’s portal, the Volkswagen Group of America will pay up to $3,850 to customers who incurred out-of-pocket repair expenses for “failed or malfunctioned” turbochargers on various VW or Audi models that had not exceeded 8.5 years or 85,000 miles at the time of the repair, and whose repair was done by an unauthorized Volkswagen or Audi dealer.

Various documents, including the original repair invoice, will be required to receive the payment.

For turbocharger repairs or replacements done by an authorized Volkswagen or Audi dealer, the Volkswagen Group of America will reimburse its customers half the costs for vehicles that had not exceeded 8.5 years or 85,000 miles at the time of the repair.

Among the cars the lawsuit claimed had defective turbochargers include the 2008 – 2024 models of the Audi A3, Audi A4, Audi A5, Audi A6, Audi Q3, Audi Q5, Audi TT, VW GTI, VW Golf R, VW Beetle, VW Jetta Sportwagen, VW Alltrack, VW Jetta Sedan, VW Jetta GLI, VW Eos, VW Passat, VW CC, VW Tiguan, VW Arteon, VW Atlas and the VW Atlas Cross Sport.

As part of the settlement, Volkswagen Group of America will also extend the warranty period of various VWs and Audis manufactured between 2015 to 2024 until they reach 8.5 years or 85,000 miles, whichever comes first. The extended warranty will cover half of the repair expenses for a turbocharger by an authorized Volkswagen/Audi dealer.

The settlement administrator, however, says that the Volkswagen Group of America will not offer reimbursement if the failures or malfunction of a turbocharger were “caused by abuse, misuse, alteration or modification, lack of proper maintenance, a collision or crash, vandalism and/or other impact or outside source.”

Claims must be filed by November 29th, while the final approval hearing will be held on December 4th.

Despite settling the lawsuit, the Volkswagen Group of America denies the claims and maintains that the turbochargers in its VW or Audi cars were not defective.

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