Dieselgate rumbles on with Portugal’s Institute for Mobility and Transport (IMT) reiterating that cars affected by Volkswagen Group’s massive fraud that have not received a vital software update, may not legally be driven on Portugal’s roads.
Consumer watchdog Deco recently launched a survey to find out how this software update had affected VW Group vehicles and was taken aback when of 10,584 owners, many said their cars were suffering from increased engine noise and were using more fuel despite having less power.
The survey was carried out by Deco and consumer protection associations in Belgium, Spain and Italy. Portuguese owners of those vehicles which are required by law to have the update, ended up paying an average of €957 to repair subsequent problems.
Of the respondents to the survey, 55% noticed an increase in fuel consumption, 52% noticed power loss and 37% noticed the engine was noisier.
Some owners complained of mechanical problems or errors in the onboard computer with most problems detected in less than a month.
As for the VW Group car brands, the owners of SEATs has the most complaints, followed by the owners of Skodas, Volkswagens and then Audis.
Of the owners in the survey, 13% returned their vehicles to the garage for the repair of damage caused by the software update. This second visit was usually for repair to the exhaust gas recirculation valve (34%), the injectors (23%) and the particulate filter (22%).
The desperation of some owners was too much and 13% have had the original software reinstalled to restore the car to its original and preferable state, something that can only be done unofficially.
Deco has contacted the Ministry of Economy to demand the mandatory software update is made optional as many vehicles seem to have ended up worse off, as have their owners.
