FTC reviewing VW's 'Clean Diesel' ads for fraudulent claims

WASHINGTON (AP) — "Aren't diesels dirty?" asks the grandmother in the passenger seat of the gleaming new VW Golf SportWagen.

The Federal Trade Commission is now reviewing whether that 30-second spot and others like it touting Volkswagen's "Clean Diesel" engines amount to fraud, adding a new avenue for U.S. regulators to punish the German automaker for its emissions-rigging deception.

FTC spokesman Justin Cole declined to comment Friday beyond confirming the commission's coordination with other federal agencies conducting a criminal probe into VW's use of a "defeat device" to hide emissions of smog-causing gases at up to 40 times the legal limit.

VW is now coordinating with the Environmental Protection Agency on an expected recall of the nearly 500,000 sold in the U.S. since the suspect software first appeared in its 2009 diesel models.

On Friday, VW also announced the launch of a new website for U.S. diesel owners to determine whether their cars are among those containing the problematic software.