VW will appeal court order to buy back customer's diesel car

BERLIN – Volkswagen says it will appeal against a court's decision that it should buy back a German customer's diesel car.

Nicolai Laude, a VW spokesman, said Wednesday that the company expects the Hildesheim verdict to be overturned. VW noted that other courts had reached opposite decisions in previous cases.

In its verdict Tuesday, the Hildesheim regional court ruled that the plaintiff was entitled to receive the full purchase price of 26,499 euros ($28,312) which he'd paid for a Skoda Yeti 2.0 TDI in 2013. If upheld, that could be a costly precedent for the automaker.

The judges said the automaker had acted "indecently," and compared Volkswagen's deceit to past cases of vintners mixing antifreeze in wine or companies putting horse meat in lasagna.