Germany's diesel uncertainty leaves 300,000 cars unsold

Dealerships in Germany are unable to sell 300,000 used cars equipped with Euro 5 diesel engines  because of fears that high NOx emissions may lead to older diesels being banned from cities such as Stuttgart and Munich.

"These vehicles can only be sold with great difficulty at the moment because customers are uncertain," said Thomas Peckruhn, head of the ZDK association of German dealerships in a statement on Thursday.

ZDK said it surveyed of 718 franchise retailers across all brands on Aug. 22. It said the survey was the first it has directly conducted among dealers, and as such there were no comparison figures.

Three-quarters of dealers responding to the survey said they have had to write down the value of some of their inventory. Nearly 85 percent claimed automakers were not providing enough assistance to help reduce the stock. As a result of slow sales, 77 percent of dealers said they had cut prices, the dealer association said.

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Top German Automakers Sued in U.S. Over Two-Decade 'Cartel'

German’s major automakers were accused in a U.S. lawsuit of acting as a cartel, colluding for nearly two decades to limit the pace of technological advances in their vehicles and stifle competition -- allegations that widen the scope of the latest scandal to hit the nation’s auto industry.

BMW AG, Daimler AG, Volkswagen AG and its Audi and Porsche brands shared competitive information about vehicle technologies with one another from 1996 through at least 2015 in violation of antitrust laws, according to a complaint filed Friday in San Francisco federal court.

The supplier of VW’s cheat software, Robert Bosch Gmbh, was also named as a defendant in the lawsuit.

“We consider this class action suit to lack merit,” Han Tjan, a spokesman for Daimler, said in an emailed statement. “We will defend ourselves by all legal means.”

BMW spokesman Kenn Sparks and VW’s Jeannine Ginivan said their companies had no comment on Friday. The other companies didn’t respond to messages and emails seeking comment after normal business hours.

The suit filed Friday is the second in the U.S. to allege the anti-competitive actions by the companies. Drivers filed a similar class-action suit in New Jersey federal court on Tuesday alleging German automakers created an anti-competitive culture in the U.S. and conspired over 20 years to increase prices of luxury vehicles while sharing technology to skirt emissions norms.

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