What happens to Porsche's parked diesels?

LOS ANGELES -- Once Porsche has an approved emissions fix for its diesel-powered Cayenne crossover, the brand will sell the nearly 1,500 new Cayennes in dealership inventories as used vehicles.

Those Cayennes have been parked on dealership lots for more than a year because of a stop-sale order stemming from Porsche parent Volkswagen AG's diesel emissions scandal. Porsche awaits regulatory approval of a repair. Bloomberg reported in mid-November that Volkswagen AG had reached an agreement with U.S. regulators on how to handle the 3.0-liter diesel engines. But the court handling the case must approve arrangements.

Porsche Cars North America CEO Klaus Zellmer said he can't comment on any settlement. But once one is approved, Porsche will fix the 10,000 diesel Cayennes in customer hands and the 1,300 to 1,500 Cayennes in dealership inventories, Zellmer said. Porsche issued the stop-sale on the 2014 through 2016 model year diesel Cayennes on Nov. 3, 2015. 

"Then they're going to be sold as used cars," Zellmer said during an interview at the Los Angeles Auto Show. "They will be low-mileage, very attractive used cars, based on the age of the car. There's always a market for any car. You just have to get the price right." 

The discounted Cayennes should be attractive to Porsche's diesel fans, he said. 

Porsche Cars North America shed an undisclosed number of diesel Cayennes that had been allocated to the U.S. In the spring, Zellmer said there were diesel Cayennes in U.S. ports and elsewhere that would need to be dealt with once a fix was approved. But by mid-November, that problem had been solved. 

"They stayed in Germany," Zellmer said. "We don't have to take care of those. So we're actually in pretty good shape. Once we have the tactical fix, we're rather confident."