An “Emotional Volkswagen?” – VW’s new campaign ‘think new’ has dubbed the manufacturer becoming more emotional. So why are they refusing to pay compensation?

Volkswagen appears to have tried to change its image drastically.

In its recent Paris motor show display, they were shown to be “more emotional”. The tactic does not come as a surprise following the car emissions scandal last year, when the German manufacturer was found to be getting through car emissions tests by using the alleged “defeat devices” installed in over 11 million diesel engines worldwide.

So, is this a part of VW’s ambition to get back into everyone’s good books? If it is, why are they still refusing their UK emissions scandal victims access to the compensation they deserve?!

The Europe-wide campaign dubbed ‘Think New’ has reportedly relaunched the sales and marketing of its VW vehicles. VW’s Sales and Marketing Director Jurgen Stackmann made an undertaking to reconnect with its customers, one year on from the scandal. Stackmann continues to say that, with 40 million customers worldwide, “we want to stay warm and close to our customers”.

So, is this new campaign just a diversion strategy from the fact that VW UK has still not provided adequate compensation for their customers?

There is a strong suspicion to believe so.

Brushing over the issues…

As VW focuses on electric vehicles and tries to reconnect with its customers, we ask the simple question as to why they are neglecting their UK emissions victims by refusing them access to damages. VW is pledging to make ‘breakthroughs with technology’ as they shift their focus on to electric vehicles, but this may be a ploy to make their customers believe that they have changed as a company by shifting the focus on the trust issues surrounding the emissions scandal.

VW’s new marketing strategy centres around six new promises to their customers, which are: smart sustainability; human excitement; intuitive usability; connected community; always up to date and safe choice.

Now, let’s be fair, in terms of being at the centre of a worldwide emissions scandal that has put profits before people – especially when remembering the fact that NOx does kill people – these ‘customer promises’ are extremely questionable. Just because a company has marketed their new models as ‘smart sustainability’ does not mean it to be true.

VW marketed the vehicles affected by the emissions scandal as “eco-friendly” and “green” and look how that turned out!

Ultimately, how can we trust that VW are providing us with correct and accurate information? Vehicles polluting more NOx than they should do is certainly not a ‘safe choice’ for the environment and for human health at all.

Want to be more emotional? Offer your emissions victims’ compensation!

For the German manufacturer to be actually ‘more emotional’, we believe that real remedial action should be given to the victims of the scandal.

It’s all well and good trying to shift customer focus and their company image, but how can they ‘win back their customers’ when they won’t even pay damages to people affected by the very scandal they are responsible for?

It’s nonsense!

So many of our clients are angry that VW is refusing them access to fair compensation. People are losing out financially, and huge amounts of people who have had the recall are reporting serous problems with their vehicles.

This scandal is far from over, and VW need to be following suit with what they have done in the U.S. by providing fair compensation to victims here in the UK as well.

We remain confident we will win this action!

They may be trying to get away with refusing compensation at the moment, but we remain confident we will win our action as we continue to fight for the rights of thousands of victims affected here in the UK.