Volkswagen has been into a difficult period the latest 2 years, after being caught cheating on emissions, but now the automaker is selling cars with diesel engines in U.S. again. Customers lined up to buy two-year-old Volkswagen diesel cars when the automaker unexpectedly resumed sales in April.
Many VW customers may still want the fuel efficient diesels — also called TDIs — but the few thousand cars left at dealerships after the automaker resolved its emission-fraud crisis are the last ones the automaker plans to sell in the U.S. One dealership, in Troy, Mich., got five offers for every car it had. VW dealers had about 11,000 unsold 2015 model year diesels in stock when the U.S. government told them to halt sales in September 2015 because the company cheated on emissions tests. Volkswagen has paid billions of dollars in fines to date and faces further investigations in the U.S. and around the world.
The “new” 2015s now on sale include Beetle coupes and convertibles, Jetta and Passat sedans and Golf hatchbacks and wagons. It’s unclear how many are left after VW reprogrammed them to reduce their emissions to legal levels. And with incentives of $8,500 cash or $5,000 with interest-free six-year loans, they’re selling fast.
VW said the EPA rates the now-legal diesels’ fuel economy at 30 miles per gallon in the city, 42 mpg on the highway and 34 mpg combined with a manual transmission. For a dual-clutch automatic transmission, the fuel economy is rated 29 mpg in the city, 40 mpg on the highway and 33 mpg combined.
