SEATTLE — Local owners of Volkswagens say they feel duped into buying cars they thought were low-emission, but now they know the carmaker cheated federal emissions tests -- and they're suing.
Nearly half a million diesel Passats, Jettas, Beetles, and Audi A3s made since 2008 were sold in the U.S., and those people are mad and joining forces.
Volkswagen's clean diesel vehicles are so popular it took us one stop in a Seattle grocery store parking lot and less than 30 minutes to find two people who drive one and love it -- or used to.
"Great gas mileage, kind of sporty,” Karen Loen told us of the Audi station wagon she bought in 2010.
"I thought it was healthier for the environment,” explained Mary Margaret Thomas who owns a 2011 Jetta. So you can imagine how disappointed she was to learn her car is actually unhealthy for the environment, especially considering she's an environmental health nurse.
"It feels very manipulative,” she said. “[Volkswagen’s] whole campaign was it's better for the environment, you're going to save money on gas -- it feels like the whole strategy was manipulative and backwards."
Neither Thomas or Loen are part of the class action lawsuit just filed by Seattle-based law firm Hagens Berman, but so many want to be that attorney Tom Loeser says he doesn't need any more class representatives.
"Unprecedented. In the first 48 hours after we filed we received 2,000 inquiries through our website and telephone of people who own the vehicles and were mad as hell," he explained. "They felt betrayed, defrauded."
Loeser has been involved in countless class actions, many against automakers. He says this one rises to a new level because Volkswagen admitted it intentionally installed software in some of its vehicles that turned its pollution controls on ONLY during emissions tests -- turns out "clean diesel" was as much as 35 times dirtier than the EPA allows.
"I wouldn't be surprised if there were criminal charges,” Loeser told us.
The local dealers are in a real bind; their customers are calling and wanting answers as to what to do now but they don't have any, considering Volkswagen's CEO resigned Wednesday. One told us these vehicles make up half of the dealership’s inventory and they pulled all of them.