Irish Volkswagen owners may face wait for a fix

For some of the 106,752 Irish motorists affected by Volkswagen Group’s emissions scandal, it’s likely to be 2017 before the issue is resolved.

At a British Transport Committee hearing yesterday, VW UK boss Paul Willis (pictured) outlined a projected timeline to fix the estimated 1.2 million cars on UK roads. According to Mr Willis, given the number of work bays and ramps across the VW Group's UK network and the number of technicians available, while the objective is to have the work completed by the end of 2016, "there is some risk involved in that [timeline], there really is."

We await a more detailed Irish timeline from the group's managing director here, Lars Himmer, who is due before the Oireachtas Transport Committee on Thursday. It's clear, however, the same physical constraints and skilled labour shortages apply across the Audi, Skoda, Seat and VW service networks here.

While the car firm has introduced a dedicated website to help motorists identify if their cars are affected or not – campaigncheck.ie – once they know they are amongst the 106,752 they are then left in a sort of limbo, awaiting news of the potential fix still being worked on.

Asked whether any potential remedy may lead to a change in fuel consumption and consequently carbon emissions (CO2), upon which Irish cars are taxed, Mr Willis said: “The brief the engineers are working to is that there can’t be any change to the miles per gallon.”

That’s the brief, but there’s no certainty it can be achieved. Though the scandal centres on a cheat device software fitted to a specific diesel engine type, EA189, that encompasses three engine variants – a 1.2-litre, 1.6-litre and 2-litre – with a variety of transmissions and across multiple car models in four brands. All of these differences could impact on any revised official fuel economy and emissions figures.

And whenever a final fix is proposed by the car firm, it’s certain to be inspected by various national and EU regulators. It will also have to undergo durability and quality testing. All this virtually guarantees little will be done to remedy the issue for owners until early next year.

Motorists affected can take comfort this scandal is not one about safety. However they are right be angry that for the next few months this scandal will taint what for most is the second biggest investment after a house and potentially impact on any resale or trade-in value.