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Feds kick VW's can farther down the road, extending Dieselgate deadline

The March 24 deadline passes without an agreement, although all parties involved claim progress is being made.

Andrew Krok Reviews Editor / Cars
Cars are Andrew's jam, as is strawberry. After spending years as a regular ol' car fanatic, he started working his way through the echelons of the automotive industry, starting out as social-media director of a small European-focused garage outside of Chicago. From there, he moved to the editorial side, penning several written features in Total 911 Magazine before becoming a full-time auto writer, first for a local Chicago outlet and then for CNET Cars.
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In late February, the judge overseeing the $46 billion federal suit against Volkswagen gave the company until March 24 to provide a progress report on a fix for the company's over-polluting diesel cars. With that date in the rearview, all parties involved have agreed to a four-week extension.

Reuters reports that US District Judge Charles Breyer pushed the deadline back to April 21, despite sounding rather firm about the March deadline in the past. Volkswagen currently has a fix submitted to both the Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Resources Board, the two bodies overseeing any potential remedy.

CARB already rejected one submitted fix for a lack of specificity, but the automaker remains confident that a conclusion will soon be reached: "We continue to make progress and are cooperating fully with the efforts undertaken by Judge Breyer, working through Director Mueller, to bring about a prompt and fair resolution of the US civil litigation," Volkswagen said in an emailed statement. Regulators declined to comment.

Volkswagen's issues began back in September 2015, when the company admitted to equipping its diesel vehicles with software meant to bypass emissions regulations. Numbers would look good in lab tests, but the vehicles would pollute well in excess of legal limits once on the road. The US Department of Justice filed suit against the automaker in February for breaching US environmental regulations.