BGH limits the exchange period to two years

The Federal Court of Justice (BGH) has already negotiated a whole stack of cases relating to the VW diesel scandal. But time and again the judges in Karlsruhe have to solve new and sometimes more specific questions. This is also the case in today's procedure. Anyone who wants to exchange a new vehicle affected by the diesel scandal for a replacement vehicle of the successor model must have registered their claim within two years of the conclusion of the contract - otherwise they have had bad luck after a decision by the Federal Court of Justice (BGH). The judges in Karlsruhe set a clear time limit for subsequent deliveries, which did not exist before. A buyer's lawyer spoke of a "shock" after the verdict. (Az. VIII ZR 254/20 and others) The proceedings concerned four cases in which buyers bought brand-new cars in 2009 or 2010. After the diesel scandal became known, they asked for a new car instead of the software update. Since the models they originally bought were no longer in production at the time, they tried to get a newer model and to file a lawsuit. In two cases the lower courts ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, in the other two cases they were unsuccessful. The BGH rejected the plaintiffs' claims in all four cases. As a justification, the BGH stated that the vehicle models originally acquired would no longer be manufactured. In the present cases, the buyers would not have requested the subsequent delivery of the corresponding successor model until around seven or eight years after the purchase. This does not correspond to the period in which the contracting parties could normally expect a warranty claim and a corresponding claim for subsequent delivery to occur.