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German Authorities Widen Diesel Investigation To 23 Brands

Affected owners must register for the package by April 30.

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The company, which owns nearly a third of VW’s capital stock, saw profits for the nine months to 30 September slip 52% to €1.19bn (£848m).

A source at VW said the executive and supervisory boards initially sought to have the whistleblower program run through the end of the year but, encouraged by recent positive feedback, chose to set the more ambitious end-November deadline.

ALSO SEE: How Will VW Fix My Diesel auto, And When?

Many owners are angry at the company for cheating because they paid extra for the cars to be environmentally sensitive without losing peppy acceleration.

They will then receive two gift cards: a $500 United States dollars Visa prepaid card and a $500 USD card that can be used at a Volkswagen dealership. In addition, they diesel vehicle owners can avail of free roadside assistance for three years, the report details.

The question, said attorney Patrick Bernal of Witten, Woolmington, Campbell & Bernal, P.C.in Manchester Center, is whether his clients in a class-action lawsuit against VW would be signing away their rights to a jury trial in the lawsuit by accepting the gift cards. There are no strings attached, the company told the news outlet.

Steve Kalafer, chairman of the Flemington vehicle and Truck Country dealerships in Flemington, N.J., said Volkswagen’s offer was a welcome first step after a long silence between the automaker and its customers and US retailers.

The European Union, which has been criticised for its silence during the VW diesel scandal, has significantly more power when it comes to carbon emissions, the pollution behind the greenhouse effect and climate change.

VW is still trying to determine how to fix 500,000 diesel Volkswagens and Audis in the U.S.to bring them into compliance with federal emission rules.

The TDI emission scandal affected almost 4,82,000 diesel cars in the US.

KBA has yet to announce which brands and models are under this investigation.

Volkswagen already is offering $2,000 to current VW owners to trade in their cars for new vehicles, and the gift cards and vouchers would add $1,000 to that.

Meanwhile, Germany’s Transport Ministry said Monday that of the 2.

A Volkswagen Australia spokesman said the carmaker had not yet outlined a plan locally to support owners affected by the recall.

Volkswagen has been mired in controversy since acknowledging that software sold in Golf, Jetta, Beetle and Passat models had been programmed to cheat on emissions tests.

The company says about 11 million cars worldwide have the deceptive software, but this offer is only for USA customers. “We are working resolutely to build up an affirmed solution for influenced vehicles”, said Volkswagen US CEO Michael Horn in an announcement.

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It’s the first time that people who own or lease the diesel cars have been compensated by the VW, which admitted in mid-September that its cars used software created to cheat emissions tests.

A protective cover is removed from a Volkswagen AG logo at the company's factory in Wolsburg Germany on Friday Feb. 25 2011