Volkswagen's requiring repair overflowing at car dealerships

SANTA ROSA, Calif. (KGO) -- There's new fallout over that $15 billion Volkswagen emissions settlement and the big question is just how to get those cars fixed.

It's going to be more complicated than some might imagine.

READ STORY: VW settles emissions-cheating cases for up to $15.3B

A car lot in Santa Rosa is filled with mostly Volkswagen vehicles that can't be sold because of the emissions violations, but it's not just Volkswagen's in fact, it's a small portion of the problem.

It's a car lot to which no salesman will likely ever bring you.

They're not happy about the dust, the cobwebs on logos, or the weeds and it has been like this for months.

When asked how many cars there are at the car lot and how many cars can be sold, automobile dealership owner Henry Hansel said there's about 150 cars and only about a third can be sold.

Henry Hansel is the biggest automotive retailer in Sonoma County, he sells nine different brands of new cars.

But for now he can do nothing about these unrepaired, unsellable cars stuck in multiple lots due to recalls. "It just is what it is, we've never ever, in all the years I've been in this business, had the stop sale environment that we're in right now," Hansel said.

His lot is filled with supposedly clean burning, but now exposed as dirty, Volkswagen diesels, and many of them are brand new.

Tuesday's $14.8 billion settlement only begins the remedy process.

Volkswagen has said it will fix, take back or scrap the bad diesels. There are at least 71,000 in California, alone. Fixes might begin in late fall.

"So the big part of that will be what's the fix going to entail and how long will it take?" Hansel Auto Group Dave Demarinis said.

And that isn't the worst of dealer challenges. Millions more cars of many brands cannot be resold due the recall of Takata airbags. The parts don't exist yet nor all the extra technicians. "It is devastating. It is going to take to work out of this at least five years at the current rate," Hansel Auto Group employee Mike Weldon said.

In the car business right now, it's not the kind of job security anyone wants.

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