London - Volkswagen has been inundated with complaints that work done on its cars after the emissions scandal left the vehicles faulty. In fact some motorists say their cars can no longer be driven.
Hundreds more say the vehicles are not working as well as before, complaining of poor fuel consumption, difficulties starting, weak acceleration and mysterious rattles.
Cars were recalled in Europe after it emerged in December 2015 that VW used "defeat devices" to cheat diesel emissions tests.
Last month lawyers said 64 000 British drivers are suing VW in the wake of ‘Dieselgate’.
Although VW says UK cars weren’t fitted with the devices, it offered a "technical fix" to make emissions readings more accurate and to give drivers "peace of mind".
Fewer than half of the 1.2 million VW, Audi, Seat and Skoda cars recalled in the UK have so far been returned to mechanics.
Some motorists complained to the Commons transport committee, which has been investigating VW over Dieselgate.
On Friday the committee’s correspondence with VW’s UK managing director Paul Willis was published.
The committee believes it is "not credible" that VW would recall 1.2 million cars at great expense if there was nothing wrong with them.
But in a letter Mr Willis, who was accused by the committee of providing misleading evidence in a hearing in February, said VW’s "rationale for applying the technical measure is to remove any doubt in our customers’ minds regarding the software in the affected vehicles".
He said VW would investigate all complaints free of charge.
He stressed he was confident the problems were an "exception", having previously said VW received 3500 queries from disgruntled drivers out of 470 000 technical fixes.
He added its customers are "at the heart of the business".