California Air Resources Board Rejects VW Proposed Fix for 3.0L Diesels

Ten months since Volkswagen's dieselgate saga first broke, California's Air Resources Board (CARB) has rejected the automaker's proposed fix for its 3.0L diesel V6.

In a tersely-worded letter, CARB claims the VW proposal failed to meet the regulator's requirements on a number of levels by not adequately describing the "noncomformities" and defeat devices employed on the cars that use the engine, and by not providing a detailed enough description of how VW planned to fix the dirty engines.

CARB also says VW didn't say how they would ensure an adequate supply of parts to fix all of the affected cars (which include the VW Touareg, Porsche Cayenne, Audi Q7 and a handful of other Audi models) or mitigate the impact of the proposed fix on the vehicles' performance, fuel economy and safety. And CARB claims VW didn't say how its proposed fixes were "designed to correct the nonconformities."

CARB says this means it does not have a clear enough picture of how successful VW's plan would be in bringing its diesel V6 in line with emissions regulations.

With the ball very firmly back in VW's court, CARB said it would, along with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), "continue the ongoing technical discussions with VW and Audi" to figure out a workable fix. As for when that will happen, well, we'll have to wait for the next episode.