Over 20,000 rigged VWs polluting Sheffield

More than 20,000 rigged VW's are registered in Sheffield, The Star can reveal.
Some 1.2million rigged VWs have been imported and sold in the UKSome 1.2million rigged VWs have been imported and sold in the UK
Some 1.2million rigged VWs have been imported and sold in the UK

The DVLA says there are 20,554 diesels with an ‘S’ (Sheffield) postcode fitted with ‘defeat devices’ designed to cheat emissions tests.

The figure was released after The Star submitted a Freedom of Information request.

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In November, charity Brake said air pollution caused the premature deaths of an estimated 698 people in South Yorkshire in a year.

A DVLA spokesman said: “In October 2015 the VW Group provided us with details of specific vehicles so that the agency could provide the contact details for their registered keepers.

“From that list, DVLA has identified that 20,554 of those vehicles were registered at addresses falling within the S postcode area.”

VW has admitted selling 11million rigged diesels worldwide pumping out more noxious gas than tests would suggest.

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Volkswagen says it has launched technical fixes for some of the 1.2 million vehicles in the UK.

Affected vehicles are: Volkswagen, Audi, Seat and Skoda cars and VW commercial vehicles with 2ltr, 1.6ltr or 1.2ltr ‘EA189’ engines.

A spokesman said they hoped to gain approval for technical fixes for all models by the end of the year.

Where fixes had been approved - such as the Golf Blue Motion - they had sent four letters to each owner, so far. They would be followed by a fifth letter, email and a phone call if cars were not brought in.

Fixes take up to an hour and are free.

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Production of cars with rigged engines stopped when the scandal broke last September.

But production of some vans continued, he added.

In the US, VW has offered to buy back rigged cars.

But the spokesman said in the UK they were focused on getting affected cars fixed.

Sheffield has been missing EU nitrogen dioxide targets since 2010 and the council says it is ‘not likely’ to be below the legal limit until at least 2020.