Mller: Volkswagen Recalling European Cars Starting in January

Aaron Cole
by Aaron Cole

Volkswagen CEO Matthias Müller told German authorities that the company would begin recalling cars in Europe in January and that fixes those cars take roughly one year to complete, Automotive News reported.

Müller told German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that the company found 9.5 million affected cars, not 11 million, that would need to be fixed. Müller didn’t specify what the fixes for cars would be, but said that the company was preparing “thousands” of solutions for its cars that cheated emission tests. Müller said the company would replace cars in certain circumstances.

It’s unclear when recalls for the 482,000 cars in the U.S. would start.

Müller said most cars would need reprogrammed software, some would need bigger injectors and others could get larger catalytic converters, CNN reported.

German authorities mandated Volkswagen present a fix for their cars today. Despite the lack of specifics on how the automaker would fix its cars, German investors responded favorably, boosting Volkswagen’s stock up 8 percent on Wednesday.

Volkswagen’s supervisory board was scheduled to meet Wednesday for “crisis talks,” Reuters reported. The board will be looking for evidence on who is responsible for the German automaker’s historic undoing. Müller told FAZ that all options for saving the company were on the table, including selling off brands such as Bugatti to save cash.

“We will turn over every stone and look in the well,” Müller said.

[Photo credit: Volkswagen AG [ CC BY 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons]

Aaron Cole
Aaron Cole

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  • Thelaine Thelaine on Oct 07, 2015

    Bond villain. Could use some melanin.

  • Lichtronamo Lichtronamo on Oct 07, 2015

    Why does it seem like this is going to be much ado about nothing and the world (and VW) will go on. Just like Toyota's floor mats and GM's ignition issues. Shrug.

  • Wheatridger Wheatridger on Oct 07, 2015

    Credit Where Credit is Due Dept.- Thanks, AC, for not headlining this "VW Wants your TDI in the Shop for a Year." But by your ungrammatical lead sentence, that might be the case. Remember, proofread twice, publish once.

    • PeriSoft PeriSoft on Oct 07, 2015

      I was going to approach this subject more lightly, but you stole my thunder. Curses!

  • 50merc 50merc on Oct 07, 2015

    Does anyone know how a TDI would perform in ordinary usage if the "defeat mode" worked all the time? Wouldn't it be amazing if defeat mode just resulted in another second for 0 to 60, or three fewer MPG.

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