Dieselgate

I'm seeing and hearing loads of averts encouraging people who had certain makes of diesel cars, whether bought or leased, to lodge compensation claims.

I'm not sure what these claims are for. It's not exactly as if the purchasers were inconvenienced - their cars passed the MoTs due to the 'defeat devices', after all, their cars were rectified and the manufacturers were fined heavily by regulators and paid the price.

I suppose it was a form of misselling, and thus the law on misselling must surely apply. US purchasers of said cars did indeed receive compensation payments and this is engendering lawyers in the UK to demand the same criteria to be applied here. The USA, however, has a massive compensation culture. 

Is it yet another example of rapacious lawyers and the compensation culture, or is there a genuine grievance? It could be argued that residual prices of 2nd hand cars so affected was lower because of the scandal, but prices have rebounded, although they dipped again when governments came out with their bans on new diesel cars and demand went down. Perversely, the dip in prices led to a resurgence in demand and prices went up again.

It's interesting to note that VW cars, which started off the scandal, are not alone. Lawyers are listing Japanese and French diesel cars in their claims.