Two Volkswagen car owners filed separate federal class action lawsuits in Chicago and Newark on Tuesday alleging the company misled them into buying a "green" car that was actually rigged to evade emission standards.

The lawsuits were filed after the federal Environmental Protection Agency accused the company Friday for equipping some of its cars with a device designed to release less pollutants when undergoing emissions testing.

Micah Dorn, in Chicago, and Ari Levin, in Newark, are lead plaintiffs in the two civil suits against Volkswagen accusing the company of deceptive business practices that have left a financial burden on the two car owners.

"The whole purpose was for him to have the car for a long time and that it wouldn't pollute," Jay Rice, an attorney with Nagel Rice Law Firm, who is representing Levin, told BuzzFeed News. "The value of the car has gone completely downhill. Who is going to buy it?"

The Environmental Protection Agency and California sent the company a notice of violation of the Clean Air Act last week after it discovered the company had rigged certain diesel car models between 2008 and 2015 with sophisticated software designed to bypass emissions standards. The so-called "defeat device" controls the car's emissions only during lab tests and then turns down those controls during normal driving. As a result, the cars emit nitrogen oxides at up to 40 times the federal standard, according to the EPA.

Dorn, who bought a new 2013 Volkswagen Jetta, says he didn't get the "green" car he "bargained for due to the false statement and/or fraudulent misrepresentation of Volkswagen," according to the lawsuit.

Levin, a 32-year old New York City resident, told BuzzFeed News he researched green car options before he settled on a 2010 Jetta. He was living in Los Angeles at the time and was won over by Volkswagen's clean diesel system, which could lower harmful emissions without compromising the car's performance. He paid $51,000 for the car, but now says he "overpaid."

"I feel like I was lied to outright," he told BuzzFeed News. "Every reason I bought the car was based on this fraud - the good milage, the good torque, the efficiency. Ultimately none of it was true."