The article says that the estimated cost of buybacks is $7 billion. With 480,000 cars in play, that's an average of $14,000. Clearly they're accounting for depreciation here. I wonder if they're accounting for the dive in price I'm sure these cars have had in the secondary market since the scandal broke.
From what's said here, it's hard to tell if the owners will be screwed over or not.
Yesterday, Jalopnik reported an additional $5k compensation on top of the buyback, but I can't find the source anymore; they may have retracted it after the actual details came out. But the NYT article does mention "additional substantial compensation" for those affected, so there will be something extra on top.
I bought a 2012 Golf TDI for $26k, and I think I'll take the buyback partially because I feel wronged, and because I just moved back to SF and owning a car here doesn't make sense. If this scandal hadn't happened, I'd be looking at 13 to 15k on craigslist, so getting more than that from VW itself will definitely satisfy me.