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.
Epc light plus check engine light came on. Car would not start. Dealer replacing battery, but concerned it will happen again based on cases I've read in VW forums: Https://www.cargurus.com/cars/discussion-T73111_ds837472. vehicle was stationary, parked in a school parking lot.
Drove to husbands office and parked in lot. After about 5 minutes received a warning that I needed to drive to charge battery. Tried to go but car wouldn't start. Had to be towed to dealership. Service center said that battery was dead and needed to be replaced. Bought the car new in July 2018. Read online that this appears to be a known problem with 2018 Atlas.
Vehicle, inside our garage, will not turn on. Battery is dead, receive error message that 12V battery is low, lights flash and sounds happen, but will not turn over. Our Atlas is just over a year old. A couple weeks ago, various lights came on then went away and didn't return until today. Also waiting on recall for catalytic converter that was before christmas due to check engine light coming on over and over. Been at least 3 weeks waiting for that part. Disappointed in an expensive new car having this many problems right from the start. Calling the dealer today about the battery issue. For the record, this is the car that is driven on a regular basis for my husband's commute to work and kept in the garage.
Intermittent stalls, sometimes in traffic or at busy intersection during normal operation and caused by discharged battery and/or poor battery charging
Car died in the middle lane of traffic and won't start. Tried jumping with our portable charge but that didn't work. Gives multiple errors from airbag to 12 volt battery to low beams.
- Alameda, CA, USA
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I had 2 incidents when using the start-stop system. The first time was a couple of months back. I was driving to my work. When I stopped at a red light (very busy avenue at mathilda ave, sunnyvale with 4 lanes traffic in one way), when I tried to start, the car would not start. I had to restart the engine again to start the car. The second time, 12/2/2018 5:50pm. I was driving with my wife and two of our kids (one infant under 1). We stopped for the red light at the cross road of jackson St and meek ave, hayward (very busy intersection with 3 lanes traffic in one way). When I tried to start, the car completely stopped there and would not ignite at all. We had to call 911 immediately because the speed limit is very high and it put my family into a risk of being hit. The battery completely failed and I can not even put it to a N gear to push the car manually. We had to wait for the officers to come and helped to stop the traffic. The officer helped us to jump start the car and we were rescued. I can not imagine that what would happen if there were a hit accident. We were stucked there for more than 1 hour. Now that I am feeling very unsafe to drive this car again let alone that it put my whole family into a risk of being hit by running high speed traffic. The dealership service stated that the battery had low voltage reading at 62%, and battery defective was found. The battery was replaced 2 days after. I got the reply from VW custom care that the 2018 Atlas should be good to drive without being returned or replaced. I feel that is unacceptable. From the manual of 2018 Atlas, the start-stop system won't switch off the vehicle in case O the battery voltage is low. Why did the start-stop system shut down the car in case of a known low battery voltage at 62% ?
The battery on my vehicle has died multiple times. It is only a year old but it has died while driving in the auto start/stop mode and after parked at work and in my garage. Today it was -25 degrees F and it completely died on me after being at work for 4 hours, which was incredibly dangerous. Also, more often than not, my auto start on my key fob doesn't work either.
Car automatic start/stop function frequently fails to restart engine. This has happened over ten times with two of those almost ending in me being rear ended at high speed. Dealer says battery is defective and replaced the battery but issue is happening again. No way to permanently disabled start/stop function. This is a safety hazard.
The random problems we are experiencing are electrical related issues. When unlocking the car with the fob the car sometimes does not adjust the seat based on the fob, nor does it recognize the satellite radio, the radio gets stuck on the am setting, etc. Other times the car engine shuts off but everythiing else is on just like the auto engine shut off feature. Something is wrong with this car. It drives fine and the issue is random but frequent. I don't know what else to say.I am an it professional and the only thing I can think of is that my Atlas has some type of software/electrical bug. On Sunday morning the radio was not working after I started the car. I had to shut off the car and radio several times in order for it to work. This happens regularly, very random. Always when turning on the car.
The vehicle was purchased in November of 2017 and the battery cannot maintain it's charge. We have experienced a drained battery five times in the first year of ownership. The most recent occurrence happened on 12/2/2018.
My vehicle battery died after refueling. And I had to call for roadside assistance for a jump. Vehicle infotainment system showed 2 messages: 1) 12 volt battery low and recharge while driving 2) error start/stop system
Purchased vehicle in December 2017. In July, the check engine light came on. Fast forward to November and I am still having issues with the vehicle, and it seems that anytime the dealership fixes one issue, another appears. After having my vehicle at the dealership 4 times between July 25th and August 7th, it was finally discovered that I had a bad catalytic converter. After the catalytic converter was finally replaced in September, the check engine light came on again and this time I was told it was a bad oxygen sensor. After that was finally replaced, another error light came on that was identified as something else, and I had to wait for a new part to come in. After waiting several weeks, that part came in, repairs were completed, and another issue came up. My car has now been at the dealership for 21 days straight (this time), and I still have not received an eta on when it should be fixed. Problems have mostly been associated with check engine light and front assist (collision detection system) sensors, but now the issues have expanded to most of the car's internal computer system in general. Vehicle was in a wreck in May 2018 when another driver pulled out in front of me. Front assist errors are being attributed by dealer to the wreck, but the check engine and other computer errors, including issues with ABS control module (latest problem) are not and are being covered under warranty
The battery died in the intersection suddenly while I was dring waiting for a traffic light. It made me in danger. This is a one year old vehicle. I have driven 6 brand vehicles so far in my life, this is the first time the battery died. I think Volkswagen should recall for this problem.
On Oct 28 the car stopped at a red light on a busy intersection and the start-stop engine shut off, then when the traffic light turned green the battery didn't have enough power to crank the engine started again. I took car to the VW dealer where 7 recalls were serviced and I was told the problem should be corrected. 2 weeks later the same problem occurred. There seems to be a drain on the battery and the computer doesn't know to avoid start-stop braking when power is too low to start the car. I called the dealer again and they said they could look at it but they don't know of any other problem and couldn't recreate the issue when they had the car for 2 days. I searched the internet and found this thread: Https://www.cargurus.com/cars/discussion-T73111_ds837472 where this seems to be a very common problem and putting multiple people in dangerous situations without power.
I was driving my 2018 VW Atlas with 8,800 miles on it on 11/5/18. I was stopped at a traffic light and when the light turned green the car's engine did not turn back on from idling and all the lights on the dashboard started going off telling me various things. I do not think having an ecofriendly car is worth it turning off to not turn back on when it's supposed to. I had to have it towed to the dealership, who fixed the car telling me that there were software updates and that the battery was drained. The printout from working on it says that the battery charging system is good but the battery was defective internally, on a car that's a little over a year old. There was absolutely no warning, the car would not recognize my key, would not turn on, and essentially was useless in traffic and extremely unsafe. I am thankful my children were not in the car. VW claims the problem is fixed but reading others complaints I am doubtful and afraid that it's only a matter of time before this happens, without warning, again. I cannot have this happen due to safety reasons, being a single parent of two young kids, and I had to also miss a day of work to deal with a problem that should never have happened in the first place. I am also wondering if this problem has anything to do with my car having an oil spill after an oil change that the dealership did incorrectly in August. They did not tighten the cap to the extent it should have been tightened and oil spilled all over my garage, stained it, and it's never coming out. VW fixed that and gave a free oil change in the future? I really hope that did not mess up my new car and cause this new issue to happen. I cannot have any more issues happening with this car and the battery/computer issues need to be fixed so that they don't ever happen again.
Battery issue- the start/stop feature drains the battery. A 2018 Atlas battery died while the car was on at an intersection. Was in the middle of an intersection waiting to turn and the car shut down. It cause everything to try off and steering and braking were impossible. It is a known issue at VW and there is no recall.
The most concerning safety issue is the malfunctioning auto start/stop system. On four occasions, it has shut off the vehicle while in motion, pulling into a parking spot, resulting in loss of power steering. On a separate occasion, it shut-off the vehicle while stopping to pay the parking attendant but failed to restart the vehicle when I released the brake and step on the accelerator. I had to put the vehicle in park and manually restart the vehicle. I have also had multiple experiences when I have turned off the auto start/start when I started the vehicle only to have it reactivate itself and shut-off the vehicle when I stopped at an intersection. Other issues involve the "infotainment" system and climate control electronics. On multiple occasions, the radio has turned itself on after I have turned it off. As for the climate control system, it periodically deactivates the rear passenger compartment climate control and shuts off airflow to the rear passenger compartment and I have to manually reset the system through the button on the dashboard. These experiences indicate the vehicle electronic and software systems are unstable and the Volkswagen dealer has not been able to fix the issues, as they have recurred after the dealer claimed to fix the issues. I am concerned about my family's safety in this malfunctioning vehicle. The date below is the most recent event involving the auto start/stop system. The first occurrence was in mid-February 2018, approximately two weeks after purchasing the vehicle.
I have had this car two months and it has now been in service twice. As of today they have had it for two weeks. The autonomous break system is way too sensitive and the car stops going down steep inclines or going over pot holes while in motion. The car has stopped in the middle of driving at least 7 times. I take it to service, they say there is no record in the cars computer of the incident. The front sensors are always beeping. I pull up to a stop sign, the sensors go off. I do a U-turn and the sensors go off. Some days way too excessively, some days not at all. It scares me to death and I slam on my brakes because I am afraid I am going to hit something. I take it to service, they say there is no record of it in the cars computer. Front end collision alert, I was driving down the road and was the only one on the road and the front end collision alert went off. I of course slam on the brakes in the middle of the road with no traffic, thank god no one was behind me. I take it to service, they say there is no record in the cars computer of it. Service has been able to recreate the issue with the front sensors, but says there is no fix. The customer care rep for VW stated today on the phone that they recognize there is an issue with the sensitivity of the autonomous breaking but has no fix for it so I will have to deal with it. I live in houston, I will die if I hit a pot hole and stop. It's unacceptable and a huge safety hazard. I am reading all over the internet about this issue with the autonomous braking problems. It should not be allowed to continue. Someone is going to die. I was able to video the issue with the sensors and VW has the video and recognizes a problem but states that's just the way the car is going to work. States they see the issue there too, but there is no fix.
Vehicle stops suddenly and shuts off. Sloped driveways. Vehicle in motion approaching end of any driveway with certain angles will suddenly slam on the brakes and shut down, leaving stranded until restart. Possible to be rear ended or hit from any direction where traffic may be coming from. Sensors beep quickly right before this happens. The vehicle has plenty of ground clearance.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Renton, WA, USA