Judge: VW owners can pick buybacks, fixes in emissions deal

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The owners of nearly half a million polluting Volkswagens in the U.S. will be given the option of selling them back to the company or getting them repaired at VW's expense, under a deal announced by a federal judge on Thursday

Senior U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer, who is overseeing a tangle of litigation over the VW emissions scandal, gave no details on how much car owners would be paid but said the tentative agreement between the automaker, the U.S. government and plaintiffs' attorneys would include "substantial compensation."

The deal affects the owners of about 482,000 Volkswagens with 2-liter, four-cylinder diesel engines, most of them VW Jetta, Golf and Passat models dating to the 2009 model year.

[...] some Volkswagen dealers have sued over financial losses from diesel cars sitting on their lots that can't legally be sold until the emissions problems are resolved.

The Justice Department and Environmental Protection Agency also are weighing potential criminal charges against the company and senior executives.