This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.
So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.
The brake booster light appeared, then the brake pedal became spongy, pulsed and the vehicle slowed down. Additionally, this happened on highways with light traffic with 4-5 car lengths within the same lanes moving 40 mph. The vehicle was in the service shop for nearly a month. The manufacturer sent technicians/engineers to troubleshoot and help resolve the issue. The vehicle was not going on a road that had an incline or decline. The weather was dry, cloudy, with no precipitation of any kind.
The brake booster failure light came. The brake booster light appeared, then the brake pedal became spongy, pulsed and the vehicle slowed down. Additionally, this happened on highways with light traffic with 4-5 car lengths within the same lanes moving 60 mph. The vehicle was in the service shop for nearly a month. The manufacturer sent technicians/engineers to troubleshoot and help resolve the issue. The vehicle was not going on a road that had an incline or decline. The weather was dry, sunny, with no precipitation of any kind.
I have a 2018 Volkswagen Atlas sel.. the breaks keep going out randomly and an alarm goes off that the break booster is faulty... it makes a horrible clicking noise like the breaks are trying to work but there is nothing for like 10-35 seconds. It has happened more times than I can count... I have taken it in to the local dealership (hallmark Volkswagen- cools springs, tn) and they told me to drive safe VW was working on a recall!? well I have almost hit a car and blown through a stop sign because my car won't stop' looking for more help bc the local dealer is useless. I do not feel safe in my car, nor do I feel safe driving my children in it.
Atlas is on its 3rd battery in 30,000 miles. When the battery fails it will die in an intersection during auto start stop. After boosting electronic steering, brakes, adaptive lighting, regular lighting, blinkers all fail and often limits to 15 mph
Driving on highway, engine and brakes stop working 2 times. Got the car in the VW shop, they said it was a loose fuse connector. They "fix it" and 2 days later we have the same problem. Car will be back on shop. Called VW each time, opened a case with them to.
I've had scary problems with brake assist and lane assist. With lane assist the vehicle has made sudden violent turns to stay in a lane. Sometimes if there's a gap in the road lines (such as a turn lane) lane assist can be unpredictable. Adaptive cruise control works fine but I've had several instances when traffic ahead stopped abruptly where it wouldn't have stopped in time to avoid a collision.
March 5, 2020. 2018 VW Atlas, 2017 mid-year delivery. There have been multiple occasions of emergency braking being performed by the car without driving condition needing the safety intervention. There have been five occurrences to date with the vehicle: 1. driving I-75 in to atlanta --while driving next to an 18 wheeler (18-w) [tanker], the car slammed on the brakes while at a speed around 75 until the car was behind the rear of the trailer. There was no condition for need this reaction (the 18-w and I maintained lane control.) 2. some random months later, the car performed a emergency braking while on I-20 while driving between two 18-ws [ 2 tanker]. the car speed were interstate speeds and no conditions that needed the intervention. 3. while driving in traffic closed to I-20 on a four lane secondary road, the vehicle slammed on the brake due to traffic backup at a stop light. It cased my cargo to slide forward to all the seat backs. 4. this was another braking action occurred with an 18W [flatbead]. 5. March 3, 2020, the latest was a similar emergency braking with no warning lights. The braking action was not as hard and released after clearing the rear trailer of the 18-w. since the cars do not generate an error code the common diagnostic tools are not able to find a fault. The safety systems should be modified to generate incident code when emergency braking occurs since the conditions are performed in a robotic function (non-driver condition). I generally talk to the VW service tech about this finding every time I am in VW service area to see if the condition is present in other vehicles.
The faulty brake boost warning continues to come on while driving even after being "fixed" by the dealership. The cars brakes locked up on me when I was reversing into a parking spot" then the car turned completely off?? I had to turn the car back on and continue to park?" there was also an auto start/ stop error warning that came on while driving!!
After 2 years of owning the car, and about 34K miles, I had to replace both the rotor and pads of the front brakes. The part of the rotor facing the interior of the vehicle were gauged about 2mm deep by the pads. Those pads still had about 2mm left of life according to the tech. The exterior side of the rotor was in good condition with the pads still having about 4mm. Having to replace pads and rotors after such a short amount of life shows inappropriate design. Additionally the fact that the rotor was more than worn out ( the pad created a grove on the rotor) shows: 1/ a huge difference of force applied between the inner and outer pad 2/ possible material issue on either the pads or the rotor
On many occasions, the automatic braking system and blind spot detection systems have engaged at inappropriate times. Most recently, the automatic braking system engaged when safely merging with proper signaling from the right lane, which was ending, to the next to the left lane when the only vehicle in the vicinity was fully in the left turn lane. There was enough space between our vehicle and the vehicle behind to avoid a rear end collision but the hard braking was unnecessary and could have caused damage or more serious injuries than those sustained by the driver and passenger caused by the seatbelt locking on the collarbone and chest because of the sudden application of brakes. Another recent incident was on the freeway when safely changing lanes with proper signaling from the far left lane to the center lane and the blind spot detection system prevented changing lanes when the closest to the right vehicle was in the far right lane, one lane further than attempting to change into. If this had occurred while changing lanes to avoid a collision with debris or another vehicle, it could have caused damage or injuries.
The car stops on its own while driving, all lights on dash illuminate, and car starts again as if nothing happened. Twice going up the driveway and three times while on back roads. No one was in front of or behind us for two of the times. One of the times, it was during traffic so the speed was slow enough not to have an impact. One other time it stopped about half a car length away from the curb when parking the car. While on the highway, going 70, with the blinker on to get over to the center lane, the car jerked me back to the right..I was in the right lane, a car in front of me, a car behind me, no cars in the middle lane, and two in the far left lane coming up. Absolutely no reason for the car to think there was a car to the left of me. The two cars in my original lane and the two cars in the far left lane remained in those lanes. I have taken the car to two different dealerships, a total of three times and they could not recreate the problem, so they are unable to fix the issues. My case was escalated to the SE regional case manager, who put the case in for review to buy back the vehicle and was notified today, 10/18/2019, that they are not going to buy it back but they will continue to service the vehicle under the warranty. How can they service the vehicle if they can't find anything wrong with the vehicle. I can't believe they expect to drive this unsafe vehicle until someone dies! I paid extra to buy this vehicle for the safety features, which is what is causing this to be unsafe. It would be unethical to sale the car, but too unsafe for me to drive and put my family at risk of getting in a vehicle accident and dying. Please have a recall issued to address the issues before someone dies and telling consumers to disable these functions is not the right answer either. I have had issues from the beginning, but thought it was hiccups. Date is approximate.
I was driving on interstate 95 and the car in front of me suddenly braked hard. I also applied the brake and felt confident that it would have stopped on time. The Atlas automatic braking system took over and put my car to a complete stop on the highway and I was unable to apply the gas to keep going until I put car in park, shut off car and restart, put back in drive and got out of there as quickly as possible hoping that no cars behind me would crash into me with 3 children in the back of the vehicle.this is unacceptable and extremely dangerous. I have since turned off the front assist mechanism. However, every time I start the car I must remember to do this because it defaults back to front assist.
While applying brakes to come to a stop at a stop light, the brakes would not work and then made a metal grinding sound. An alert went off and the brake light began blinking. The automatic brakes engaged and slammed on. The brake light went solid and then off, and was replaced by a "brake booster faulty" warning. After this incident, the vehicle returned to normal functioning.
Pulling out of parking lots where there is slight dip crash avoidance system will kick in while turn into traffic and will stop the vehicle almost middle of the road, almost got T bone few time, I have brought up to VW attention, dealer keeps saying nothing wrong with vehicle. To me it is safety concern, definitely for VW, thank you
When exiting a driveway into traffic, if there is a decline or hill, the automatic breaking causes the car to stall in the middle of the road. This has happened several times now in 2 different places. The sensors start beeping and the car will shut down where you have no control. You have to put the car back in gear and restart the engine. This is very dangerous. I let the service department at VW in devon know and they said they couldn't find anything wrong with it after running diagnostics.
My 2018 VW Atlas brake sensors that activate when they see something that may cause a crash slamming the brakes on. That would be good if it was reasonable but what happens is the brakes slam on just driving out of a driveway!! I have taken it to VW and they can't do anything because it was within the design settings. It always does it when you least expect it so when pulling out of a driveway it is a crap shoot whether it will activate the brakes or not, and it is going to cause a accident because you don't know when or where it is going to happen. I wrote a complaint at car complaints.com and I saw several other people having the same problem. I worry about the snow and what would happen it is a very unsafe condition please help with getting VW to fix this issue. Thank you, [xxx] information redacted pursuant to the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6).
Hi my wife drives a 2018 Atlas as our family car. We have had several incidents where the automatic braking has suddenly engaged when there were no cars near the vehicle. This has happened while parking on flat surfaces in an empty lot, parking in empty lot on a very slightly incline, and while cruising within a highway lane without a car immediately in front or behind us. Unpredictable uncontrolled sudden braking is dangerous and can actually cause collisions. The Atlas is a vehicle which is commonly used to Transport families and their children. I hope a NHTSA recall can be issued to address this problem.
As I was going straight through a busy intersection the car automatic braking turned on and caused the car to stop in the middle of the intersection. I was almost T-boned by another car. There are nothing in front of me. Clear day. 85 degrees. 9 am.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- San Antonio, TX, USA