Man Strips Car Before Trying to Get VW to Buy It Back

There's petty, and then there's Cincinnati car salesman Joe Mayer. Jalopnik reports Mayer had an appointment this week with Volkswagen to buy back the diesel Golf he bought just weeks before the company's massive diesel scandal broke. But before he took his Golf in for the court-ordered buyback, he decided to strip it for parts. “Why not make a bit of extra money?” he says. Mayer, equipped with pizza and beer, had a "surprising amount of fun" removing doors, bumpers, airbags, fenders, seats, trim, and more.

But in a followup piece, Jalopnik reports that just hours before Mayer's appointment, a Volkswagen representative—who must have seen the earlier story—called and postponed it indefinitely. Mayer says he was told that stripping his Golf "wasn't in the spirit of the buyback." He thinks Volkswagen wants time to consult its lawyers and figure out how to get out of paying him for the car. He plans to also talk to lawyers. The FTC Consent Order for the buyback only requires the car be "operable," defined in the documents as a car that "can be driven under its own 2.0-liter TDI engine power." Mayer says his husk of a Golf still drives. Furthermore, the condition of the car isn't supposed to impact the buyback price. But it remains to be seen who'll get the last laugh. (More Volkswagen stories.)