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VW Will Pay Dealers $1.2 Billion as U.S. Judge Approves Settlement

SpinKix

Passed Driver's Ed
Location
SoCal
Don't know if this is old news, but on Jan 23, 2017 a judge approved the VW dealers' class action settlement.

Dealers will receive an average of 1.8 million paid over 18 months.


VW also agreed to maintain volume based incentive payments to dealers.

What this means to anyone (like me) shopping for a GTI is that the dealer will have additional "dealer cash" to work with to help them meet sales quotas to earn more profit on every car they sell (or sold during the quota period).

BTW, this volume incentive doesn't show up on invoice pricing websites like Truecar, Cars.com, KBB.com, etc.

What is listed as "Invoice Price" on these sites is fictional. The dealer earns an additional rebate for every car they sell (including ones they sold before) based on how many units they move during a certain period. They end up paying less than "Invoice" for the vehicle.

If you happen to be shopping at a dealer who needs to move a car or two to hit an incentive target, they can sell a car to you at a loss and more than make it up from the incentive they earn hitting the quota. This might account for the "always shop at the end of the month" advice. I don't know if this is true for every month, it might be a quarterly thing. Anyone know for sure?

This settlement might be what prompted claytonbrown's "Prices Dropping #getsharky" post two days after the final ruling. http://www.golfmk7.com/forums/showthread.php?t=27468

What I'm curious to know is if VW will offer additional incentives to clear out 2017 models when the 2018 models arrive.

I'm hoping VW announces 2018 pricing at the New York Auto Show in April.

One more thing.

Why does it seem the East Coast is getting better deals than we do in California? The Washington DC dealers seem to be selling 5-6K off MSRP, and we seem locked at 4K in CA. Could it be CA specific emissions equip?
 
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