VW Diesel Owners Sticking With Their Cars—For Now

Despite a week of bad news about fake emission controls in 11 million Volkswagen diesel cars, only a trickle of recalled Volkswagen diesels in the United States are getting the official heave-ho from their owners.

Yahoo Autos has tracked over 800,000 trade-ins at independent car dealerships throughout the country since January 2013. Our findings? Out of over 6,700 vehicles that were traded in this past week, only six were Volkswagen diesel models that are part of the current EPA emissions recall.

All six Volkswagens were Jetta TDI models out of a weekly total of 241 Volkswagens. To put this in perspective, the Volkswagen brand has averaged 215 trade-ins a week over the past three years with TDI models averaging only 4% of that total—slightly less than 9 vehicles a week. So while the number of Volkswagens traded in remains at elevated levels due to the recent scandal, it appears that owners of Volkswagen diesels are still holding on to their keys for right now.

The Volkswagen diesel scandal: Complete coverage

This isn’t surprising given that Volkswagen diesel owners are well known in automotive circles for their “keeper” mentality. It’s not unusual to see a properly maintained TDI model reach well in excess of 300,000 miles. As an added help, the enthusiast sites that support TDI owners are also among the most popular of their kind, which has helped thousands of owners find unique solutions to complicated problems.

And the original selling points of the 482,000 recalled U.S. diesels—high fuel efficiency and 500 miles or more between fill-ups—haven’t been affected by the recall. The number may also be lower than usual because some dealers may be turning down TDIs as trade-ins, although one Virginia dealer has launched a buyback offer, essentially betting on the popularity of VW diesels rebounding.

However, while the company’s overall sales of diesels remained strong at nearly 23% of their monthly total last month, Volkswagen has failed to develop the software and components needed to legally sell TDI diesel cars in the United States. What makes matter worse for owners is that Volkswagen already failed to correct the emissions issue back in December 2014 with the cooperation of multiple American and international agencies. Despite the recent admission of Volkswagen of illegal and allegedly criminal behavior, over 11 million owners throughout the world now find themselves with vehicles that may be deemed illegal.

VW has vowed to make the recalled cars legal; doing so may require modifications beyond software that would cut the range, efficiency or power of the engines. It will be interesting if Volkswagen can find the special ingredients needed to maintain their loyal audience, or whether continued failures at finding a solution to the emissions problem will have long-term repercussions for Volkswagen and their owners.