105,000 Canadian VW diesel buyers to share $2.1-billion

• Volkswagen Canada must pay $ 2.1 billion — the largest commercial settlement in the country’s history — to affected Canadian customers as part of a class- action vehicle- emissions lawsuit that started in Windsor, Ont.

The eight- page decision handed down Wednesday by Superior Court Justice Edward Belobaba directs Volkswagen AG to pay owners and lessees of 105,000 2-litre Volkswagen and Audi diesel vehicles between $5,100 and $8,000 each in damages.

As well, owners have the option of having VW fix the emissions problem or selling their cars back to the company at what the vehicles were worth in 2015. Either way, the class- action members still collect the damages.

Matt Quenneville, who works at a Windsor-area car dealership and who was the lead plaintiff, called the decision great news.

“It’s good that we have it over and done with and we can finally return the vehicles and move on,” the 34-year-old said Wednesday. “It has been a lengthy process.”

Quenneville first went to a lawyer in 2015 after the emissions scandal broke. On Sept. 18, 2015, the U. S. EPA announced VW had intentionally programmed turbocharged direct- injection engines to activate more emission controls during testing — but to emit up to 40 times more nitrous oxide in realworld driving.

Volkswagen later admitted to rigging 11 million vehicles worldwide, in model years 2009 through 2015, including 500,000 in the U.S. — where last year the company agreed to pay about US$ 10 billion in a class- action suit.

“I felt it was wrong that I was lied to so I contacted a law firm and asked if there was anything that could be done,” recalled Quenneville, who plans to sell his 2010 Golf back to the company and buy a car from another company.

Harvey Strosberg, the Windsor- based lead lawyer in the class-action suit along with London- based Charles Wright, called the case complicated but important.

“It’s a fantastic result,” said Strosberg, 72. “It’s the correct result because Volkswagen misconducted themselves awfully. Volkswagen cheated and lied. They were dead in the water on liability.”