Volkswagen to pay diesel owners up to $7,000 each, report says

If $1,000 in gift cards wasn't enough to satiate irked Volkswagen diesel owners, do you think $7,000 will do the trick?

On June 28, Volkswagen will reportedly submit a plan to a U.S. district court judge proposing the German automaker pay up to $7,000 to each owner of one of its diesel-powered cars affected by dieselgate, according to Bloomberg. Additionally, it will also finance a program aimed to offset air pollution. All told, the plan would cost VW $10 billion.

However, not every owner will receive the full $7,000. Depending on the age of the vehicle, along with other factors, owners would receive cash payments between $1,000 and $7,000.

The report makes no mention of a plan to repair the nearly 500,000 affected vehicles in the U.S. Presumably, since the California Air Resources Board and the Environmental Protection Agency rejected the German automaker's previous repair plan, it was unable to devise a better solution.

Without the ability to fix the cars, that produce as much as 40 times the legal limit of tailpipe emissions, VW figures it might as well buy its way out of the problem.

Based upon what current owners have said to me, I doubt very much that this relatively paltry figure will make them feel better about being tricked by VW. That said, short of a complete buy-back (the cleanest but most expensive solution), I doubt much can be done to win back owners' trust.