Good news for some U.S. consumers who own diesel Volkswagens:
The German automaker is expected to tell a federal judge in San Francisco Thursday that it has agreed to offer to buy back up to 500,000 2.0-liter diesel vehicles sold in the United States, the people said.
That would include versions of the Jetta sedan, the Golf compact and the Audi A3. The buyback offer does not apply to the bigger 3.0-liter diesel vehicles also found to have exceeded U.S. pollution limits, including Audi and Porsche SUV models, the people said.
Other details are scant, but Reuters reports owners will get compensation above estimated value:
VW will pay cash compensation to owners who either sell their vehicles back or get them fixed, a source briefed on the matter said. Owners selling back their vehicles will get an additional cash payment on top of receiving the estimated value of the vehicles from before the emissions scandal became public in September 2015.
The compensation fund is expected to represent more than $1 billion on top of the cost of buying back the vehicles, a person briefed on the matter said.