Palm Beach County Woman Sues Volkswagen For Violating Clean Air Act
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PALM BEACH (CBSMiami) – Lisa Lowrance is passionate about doing her part to help the environment. That's one of the reasons why the Palm Beach County woman purchased a Volkswagen Beetle in 2014 with its' Clean Diesel technology.
"It was the perfect car for me," she said, describing its' environmentally friendly engine, great gas mileage and performance.
When Lowrance learned last week that Volkswagen is accused of misleading consumers and regulators about the amount of pollution its cars emitted, she was beyond disappointed.
"My first thought was that I was betrayed and my second was that I was heartbroken because I love that car," she said.
Lowrance says she drove her car joyfully believing that with each passing mile she was doing her part to help the environment and trying to entice others to join her.
"I told everybody I could to buy one," she said. "I really believed in it. And now I am going to voluntarily impound my car because it's a rolling pollution machine. They've stigmatized it."
Lowrance's attorneys filed this class action lawsuit against Volkswagen this week.
The suit alleges that the automaker installed software in some of its cars that would hide the amount of emissions released during emissions testing but not during regular travel. The suit says the automaker violated the Clean Air Act since 2009 by allowing some cars to emit as much as 40 times the amount of pollution that the law allows.
Reports say Volkswagen has to recall the vehicles and that the company is halting the sales of some cars across the country. The automaker reportedly admitted that there are emissions problems in 11 million diesel vehicles and on Wednesday Volkswagen's chief executive, Martin Winterkorn, resigned as the scandal grew.
Lowrance says she isn't one to typically go before the cameras but she feels lied to and she believes Volkswagen needs to learn its lesson.
"It's diabolical," she said. "It's an evil act. There's no other way to describe this. What they did was intentional. It was deliberate. It was deceitful and they need to be held accountable for their misconduct."
CBS4 News reached out to Volkswagen for a comment for our story but did not hear back from them.