TORONTO — Matthew Buccieri got bad news earlier this year. A benign, but recurring brain tumour was back: but this time, radiation treatment couldn’t stop its effects.
“It’s pushing on my optical nerve, I’m no longer able to drive,” Buccieri told Global News.
The 23-year-old’s licence to drive a vehicle has been suspended indefinitely by the Ontario Ministry of Transport.
READ MORE: VW Canada suspends sale of some models as emissions probe widens
That’s bad news for someone making a daily commute from Mississauga to Toronto, now stuck with a new vehicle they can no longer drive. Making matters even worse, that car is a Volkswagen Jetta TDI, one of the models caught up in VW’s emission scandal.
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“I believe Volkswagen should buy the car back because of the lies they’ve been hiding with consumers,” said Buccieri.
Buccieri contacted the dealership where he purchased the vehicle but says he was told it would “not take any responsibility in buying back the car.”
When he called Volkswagen Canada, Buccieri says the he got a similar message from a customer service representative.
Shortly after Volkswagen admitted its role in deceiving U.S. regulators about emissions in its 2.0 litre TDI engines built between 2009 and 2015, the German automaker has faced a spate of class action lawsuits.
MORE: VW chief ‘deeply sorry’ for rigging cars to violate U.S. pollution laws
Volkswagen Canada told Global News in September that “everything is on the table” to make things right with customers, including the possibility the automaker would buy back vehicles from dissatisfied owners.
Buccieri still has to make a monthly loan payment of about $550 on the Jetta TDI he can’t drive. He says he also had to purchase a condominium near the Toronto office where he works, because he can no longer make the approximately 80 kilometre return commute.
The diesel scandal, he says, has made it virtually impossible to get fair value for the Volkswagen he thought was such a good purchase just a few months ago.
“I’m looking at (getting) around $20,000 for my vehicle on the public market,” he said, a far cry from almost $38,000 he paid in the spring.
“I’m not willing to sell it for half the price I bought it for six months ago,” he said. “That’s not an option.”
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