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.
My Atlas died in the drive thru while running (stationary but about to move when it died) without any warning. The vehicle has less than 25,000 miles and had just been serviced less than one month prior. When it died, the car dash was blinking different messages but one said, 'drive to charge 12V'. I couldn't turn the engine over; the windows would not go up; and I was stuck in the drive thru for almost an hour before someone was able to jump my car to get it to the dealer. Dealer said they had changed 4-5 batteries out of the same type of car that week. That was three weeks ago. No eta on when a battery will be available. I went nearly 10 ten days without a car and now I have a loaner. No information on cause of problem or whether a new battery will fix the problem. Neither the dealer nor VW have given me any information or guidance on whether the vehicle will be safe to drive after battery replacement'I repeatedly explained that my vehicle died while running 'thankfully not in an intersection or red light'but still no information on the issue. I also am not getting any information as to why it could take over a month to even get a battery.
Vehicle battery stopped working within less than an year, dealership service is hard to work unless the car is completely dead and will inform customers that the battery was undersized on the vehicle. It will suddenly die when auto start/stop function is engaged, it can happen while stopped at a red light.
Purchased new 2018 VW Atlas with now, 10K miles. The last 2 weeks the dash sensors have been randomly going off & on. Sunday 02/10 I was driving, the vehicle shut off while in motion. Brakes locked, no steering control, no electrical. When tried to restart the first time -T he sensor said to 'drive to charge 12V battery' but the car would not turn back over to do so. Towing company was able to jump it, the battery was running @ 15V which is too high for VW (confirmed with service tech this is abnormal). Was not able to keep it running, so we had it towed to the dealership. Dealership called & said "bad battery VW Atlas is known for chronic battery failure". I was told a new one is on backorder with no eta - but that my Atlas is sitting in the lot next to another Atlas with the same problem, that has been waiting on a replacement for 3 weeks. Will use a loaner car for a month until mine is functioning. I was also told the replacement battery may or not be a fix/solution but it's all they can do for now to get the car running. Beside myself there has been no formal recall to this to prevent catastrophic injury to VW Atlas owners who own a vehicle that fails while in motion. Located on a city street - did involve local law enforcement to prevent additional threats to danger in the roadways.
- Mequon, WI, USA
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Sitting at a red light and when it turned green, my start/stop function would not turn my car back on. The dash had all sorts of lights flashing and my car would not start. Said the 12V battery was drained. Had to push my car out of the way and get someone to jump my car.
I was driving the car on a city street when it suddenly just shut off and would not come back on. This is the second time this has happened, and there is no warning and no way to get the car pulled to safety.
Twice I have been stranded because the auto start stop is not providing enough power to the battery and therefor the vehicle will not start sometimes without being jumped. I have been stranded twice because the auto shut off has turned the vehicle off at a light and then the vehicle would not restarte.
I was sitting with my car parked in a school pick-up line, no-idle zone, so I had my VW Atlas running on it's battery. The battery died out of the blue after a few minutes. There seems to be an ongoing battery issue with my vehicle as it has had a hard time turning over this past week. This car is only 1 year old and shouldn't be facing this issue. I'm glad I wasn't in an intersection when it happened, as I've read has happened to others. I'm taking it in to VW for inspection, but it sounds like I'm one of many who is running into the VW battery issue and I wanted to make it known.
Battery ramdomly loses charge to start the vehicle. We dorve from salt lake city to vegas. We filled up on gas with some of the electronics running and the car wouldn't start. Dash says battery was drained. Happened again when vacuuming the car after a wash. Doors were open and electronics were off, but it then wouldnt start again.
The battery keeps dying. I believe it's because the start/stop system is too much for the battery. The battery dies if we stop the car and idle for more than 2-3 minutes, with the infotainment system running.
Engine warning light as well as epc warning light came on during normal city driving. Power and pick up of the vehicle became greatly reduced making travel over 15-20 mph impossible. Upon arriving home and turning car off, vehicle was nearly impossible to restart. Car was towed from home to dealership were it was found that electrical mechanism in vehicles high powered fuel pump malfunctioned and quit working. High powered fuel pump had to be replaced.
Engine warning light and red exclamation caution warning lights on vehicle come on from time to time without warning. These warning lights come on during normal city driving conditions. These lights usually go off on their own or after turning vehicle off and back on.
The battery died when the car was six months old while in a store parking lot. They said it was a bad fuel cell and replaced it with the same battery. 8 months later the battery died again in the snow with two young children in the car. We were unable to jump it. The battery dying is now a know issue and they will replace it with a different battery. But they are not recalling it yet even though it is a common problem. My friends Atlas died at a stop light due to the auto shut off feature. It is incredibly unsafe.
I have had issues with the battery dying on my Atlas for the last several months. I have driven it, gone into a store for 5 minutes and coming back out and the battery is dead. Or the car won't start the next morning after sitting my heated garage overnight. In my instance the car has been stationary the entire time but I know others have had this happen while in motion. This has happened 7-8 times recently and its unacceptable for this to be happening on a car this new. I have not had the car not restart in an intersection yet like many others have had happen but regardless its still a significant safety concern and VW needs to address this issue. I have read many items that people have taken their cars into the dealer to get the battery replaced and the problem still occurs. VW needs to recall 2018 Atlas's for this problem and find a permanent fix for this problem. It is clearly an issue that they know about and need to take action on it now. I can't have my family in vehicle that that I don't know when it will or will not start.
Had the car for 18months and have started having issues with the battery failing for no reason - car gives a message that the voltage is low and will not start. Happened after very short time of the engine being turned off a couple of times, no valid explanation from the dealer as to why suddenly started happening. Happened once on a highway, once at home. Now worried that we don't know when it will happen again.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Willards, MD, USA