BMW sued by US owners over emissions cheating

BMW diesel owners in the USA are unhappy with their polluting vehicles.

BMW has joined the list of automakers that are being sued by their American customers for installing emission cheating devices on their diesel cars.

The German company’s US-based customers, who own either the 335d saloon or X5 diesel SUV of 2009-11 model years, have filed a lawsuit against BMW in New Jersey federal court. As per the lawsuit, customers have blamed BMW for installing cheating devices in their cars that causes pollution up to 27 times above the permissible limit.

Additionally, BMW’s technology partner Bosch, speculated to be the common link between all carmakers and accused of using these devices, has also been sued. In addition to working with VW (including Audi and Porsche), Bosch is also accused of partnering with BMW and Daimler for ‘resorting to orchestrating a fraudulent scheme and conspiracy’.

'At these levels, these cars aren’t just dirty – they don’t meet standards to be legally driven on US streets and no one would have bought these cars if BMW had told the truth,' said the plaintiffs’ attorney in a statement, who has also filed similar claims against other major carmakers.

BMW has mostly escaped the scrutiny that has plagued most auto companies ever since VW’s Dieselgate scandal was exposed in 2015. Then, in February 2018, BMW admitted to have installed wrong software in almost 12,000 of its diesel vehicles, which ultimately led to prosecutors raiding its Munich headquarters and its powertrain plant in Steyr, Austria, to look into 7-Series and 5-Series saloons.