VW currently has 37 secure storage facilities across the US that are home to close to 300,000 cars, according to the administrator hired by VW to handle the emissions scandal. Factories, closed military bases, stadiums, and airports are just a few of the storage locations. The total numbers of bought back cars is impressive: 335,000 through Dec 31 of last year. Approximately 28,000 of these cars have been destroyed.
Cars that are older (2009 in particular), have very high miles, have been in accidents, or are in poor cosmetic condition are being destroyed, it appears.
Good news for enthusiasts is that VW has fixed and re-sold about 13,000 TDIs since January, in addition to the approximately 10,000 never-titled cars made available last Spring have also been sold.
But the math is pretty simple: if VW continues to sell the fixed TDIs at the current rate, it will take years to empty the storage lots. Some maintain that VW has initially offered fixed cars in smaller quantities because of its need to fix cars in service to meet the court requirement of having 85% of the cars fixed or bought back. Reports are that they are close to meeting that requirement now.
The costs add up: $7.4 billion in buybacks, $4.3 billion in federal penalties. And then there’s the cost of storing the cars (most lots have 24 hour security), fixing, preparing them for sale, and transporting them to dealers. Dealers can bid on fixed cars through an auction site available only to them.
Perhaps these storage facilities will start to empty at a faster rate in coming months.
