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VW ordered to pay customer back for a loan on a dirty diesel

A court in Germany is making VW responsible for money paid by Dieselgate car owners who financed their purchase.

Kyle Hyatt Former news and features editor
Kyle Hyatt (he/him/his) hails originally from the Pacific Northwest, but has long called Los Angeles home. He's had a lifelong obsession with cars and motorcycles (both old and new).
Kyle Hyatt
2013 Volkswagen Passat TDI

Volkswagen is being made to pay back interest to customers who financed cars affected by Dieselgate.

Volkswagen

Volkswagen has been putting vast amounts of money into electric vehicles in order to distance itself from the huge diesel cheating scandal that it wrought back in 2015. However, even now, that colossally bad decision is still having consequences.

The latest set of consequences involves people who took out loans to finance the purchase of a car that later became a part of the Dieselgate scandal. According to a report published by Reuters on Tuesday, a German court has mandated that VW must pay back customers who bought bad diesels.

This decision comes after Volkswagen appealed a previous decision and will see the company reimbursing a customer who purchased a dirty diesel in 2013 for interest charged on its loan. The amount it has to pay, in this case, is minimal -- just the equivalent of $3,926 -- but it sets an interesting precedent that Volkswagen would surely rather avoid.

It's unclear whether similar cases could be brought here in the US or if VW's various settlements would preclude this, but either way, it appears that the Dieselgate bill just keeps on getting bigger.

We reached out to VW for comment but didn't hear back in time for publication.

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