geniushanbiao

The EPA and CARB under Obama administration were on the track of setting the standard that all gasoline and diesel vehicles have to meet the emission standard of an EV. Sure they are doing their job.

Etienne Lau

CARB is state agency. Obama was trying to get EPA to align more with CARB, since he has no control over what CARB does.

Benzman444

Interesting to see the outcome in Great Britain on the same issue. https://www.just-auto.com/news/merce..._id196121.aspx

mellonc

Hagens Berman, the attorney firm representing the US plaintiffs, sent out a notification that they are still in the discovery phase of the lawsuit. they said it takes about 1 year for this process before either going to court of settling. from what I'm told the class action still isn't certified - no official "class action" you can actually join.

*edit: I should have said "possible" US plaintiffs.

bugelrex

The fact that it's taken this long (after VW) indicates the lack of a strong case. Any lawyers to chime in?

Etienne Lau

I am not a lawyer, but this is something I have been following.

I would agree. It's no longer an emissions violation lawsuit anymore. It's now a marketing lawsuit of some sort. It's no different than what they tried to do with Al Capone, can't prove him for murders, racketeering etc.. but hey got him on tax evasion..... Pretty much all the other law firms, and lawyers have dropped out at this point. And it is just this one law firm that is still clinging on.

Here is the quote from Hagens Berman law firm:

The suit alleges that Mercedes’ and Bosch’s actions violated numerous state consumer-rights laws, as well as the Racketeer Influence and Corrupt Organization Act (RICO). The suit also states that the automaker’s omissions and misrepresentations constitute fraudulent concealment.

Here is the link to the above quote: https://www.hbsslaw.com/cases/merced...edes-and-bosch

bugelrex

mb usa has settled for 2.2B
Its not clear what consumer gets. If a read correctly 700M is reserved for civil and there are approx 250k cars involved. So approx $3000 each diesel owner?

https://europe.autonews.com/automake...esel-emissions

mfab

Wow I'm actually surprised this happened. I guess I need to pay attention now.

/

listerone

Wow...I heard about this but wasn't sure if I was eligible.Now that I know that it could be $3,000 I will investigate. Anyone know,off hand,if it applies to a 2011 E350 Bluetec bought new and owned for about 2.5 years?

bugelrex

that's interesting, i wonder how ppl who have sold their cars will be handled. Hopefully someone on this forum have more info how to proceed

geniushanbiao

I'm interested as well. I have 2 bluetec vehicles both bought used so am not sure if I could be qualified. It would be interesting to see how they handle it if the car has been transferred a couple times. Also how they handle those leased vehicles would be another tricky question as well.

chassis

I had a VW dieselgate vehicle. Compensation for many claimants listed below. All are additive, not either/or.

- cash payment from VW
- cash payment from Bosch
- vehicle bought back from me by VW
- plus additional in-kind compensation that I don't recall (one free oil change, one free DEF fluid fillup, etc.)

The biggest benefit in my mind would be if M-B bought back Bluetec vehicles. I haven't seen in any articles where this will be the case.

bugelrex

since they reserved only 700M for civil, buy back is very unlikely. I wonder if the government is going to force them to reprogram all bluetechs? I would would demand an extendeded emissions warranty if so.

geniushanbiao

The extended emissions warranty would be a good thing but reprogramming might be the worst news we want to hear. It's likely going to trade off some performance if we go with the reprogramming.

chassis

Forgot to add that an extended warranty on emissions related equipment was part of the VW settlement. Read the Touareg forum www.clubtouareg.com and you will see comments about reduced performance with a "fixed" vehicle after VW performed repairs outlined in the settlement.

Claimants in the VW settlement had choices of compensation, one of which was a "fix", rather than a buyback. I chose buyback. Others chose the "fix". Some were owners were satisfied with the fix, some weren't.

bugelrex

i cant see the government allowing non-reprogrammed cars to stay on the road. But you correct, retune + 2-3k(guessing) + NO warranty is actually worse given how fragile the emission system can be.

chassis

VW set up a dedicated website for the settlement, and sent what seemed like dozens of letters. Bosch also contacted claimants directly.

The claimant was provided documentation on their options, claimants did not have to go searching for it.

It wouldn't surprise me if Bosch has financial participation of the Daimler settlement.

Etienne Lau

@bugelrex If they paid me $3000, retune and no warranty. I would turn around and take the $3000 and get a Malone Tune with all the required deletes (DPF, DEF, EGR) and move with life.

kajtek1

$ 3000 is about what DEF tank cost alone...
Still my 4 Bluetecs have between 130 and 260k miles. Don't expect much.

chassis

@kajtek1 VW bought my Touareg back with 238k miles on the clock. Price was more than fair. Far more than fair.

kajtek1

Well, the 4 vehicles could bring me over $100,000 in buy back.
Dream on....

Benzman444

It remains to be seen, but 3000 per car is nothing. They need to handle it like Audi did older cars buyback , (because warranty cost and new filters etc parts cost ) , but newer cars from 2012-2016 fix up and 15 gees per car. That would be ok.

bugelrex

since $700M has been set aside and everything appears to be settled (awaiting full details in Sept), the math cannot support more than 3k and that's assuming the lawyers don't take most of it.

bugelrex

Btw this is the best description of the entire saga.link below. Its from a law firm trying to convince you to opt-out of the class action but their description of the whole thing and options avail is awesome

Some highlights
- every affected vehicle ia automatically added to the class action. Unless you opt out, you will get "something"
- they claim that a reprogramming is going to be mandatory. Interesting, which means we'll we worse off if they only offering a few hundred bucks on top!
- i don't see how a buyback is possible with only 700M set aside. Perhaps they just offer the depreciation caused by the scandal which does come to low thousands dollars?

http://www.yourlegaljustice.com/merc...luetec-diesel/

geniushanbiao

I'm quite curious what the government will do if I don't respond to the settlement? Diesel emission is exempt in PA. I guess that payment is an incentive to bait us to do the retune. If we don't respond, then we don't get the payment. simple.

My guess is that the tune will simply increase the recirculation of air through EGR, which is the main method to reduce NOx emission. The SCR injection is probably not quite tunable.