Why are VW’s diesel issues still unresolved?

It’s been six months since news broke that VW rigged hundreds of thousands of its diesel vehicles to cheat on pollution tests. Government officials are still wrestling with what to do about those cars–including here in California.

Usually when there’s an automotive defect, regulators tell the carmaker to recall the vehicles and make them right, says Dale Kasler, a business reporter for the Sacramento Bee. But this time it’s more complicated.

CalPERS, California’s biggest pension fund for state workers has also joined forces with other major institutional investors from more than a dozen countries and filed a shareholder lawsuit against Volkswagen. The suit is asking for more than $3.5 billion dollars in damages, saying VW didn’t tell investors in a timely way that it was having problems with its diesel engine technology.

“They’ve come to find out that the rogue software is embedded so deeply into the overall emissions system software that untangling the web isn’t so easy,” said Kasler.

Additionally, car owners don’t want to let go of their cars. “The number one problem being that the car owners really like these cars,” said Kasler.

Here’s the full conversation: