Volkswagen to Pay Car Owners Affected by Smog-Scam up to $7,000

Volkswagen will shell out the largest settlement in automotive U.S. history at $10.2 billion dollars for the development of a device that was created to sneak around emission tests, and successfully faulting said emission tests.

11 million vehicles were installed with this sneaky software, and about 420,000 Volkswagen drivers will get their cars fixed with no charge and, most importantly, will also be compensated between $1,000 and $7,000 dollars.

Their penalty was based in comparison to past government settlements, and this particular one was seen as the far worse than anything prior, as Volkswagen was ultimately polluting the air with 40 times the acceptable amount harmful nitrogen oxides.

In order to save face for their emission scandal, Volkswagen plans to add 30 new electric models to its lineup, however VW has destroyed a copious amount of loyalty from potential car buyers, so we’ll have to wait to see if the brand can continue to stay afloat.

Other notable disasters include BP’s $20.8 billion settlement for the Deepwater Horizon oilrig explosion, as well as the Toyota $1.1 billion gas-pedal recall, and General Motors’ $900 million ignition-switch defect. Anecdotally, none of these companies have completely reestablished trust among consumers, as these scandals are usually hard to forget.