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.
In June and early July of 2023 the vehicle-??s engine shut off while driving at least 4 times. Shut off occurred while driving at low speeds while in a parking lot, coming out of an intersection, and when approaching a stop sign. When the car shuts off you lose control of steering and braking is difficult. You have to shift the vehicle into park and restart the engine. We took the vehicle to VW dealership who inspected and replaced the charcoal canister and N80 purge valve. Vehicle operated normally for 10 months until late April 2024. In the past month the vehicle has shut off a dozen times while in operation. Similar to before it occurs at low speeds while starting, stopping, turning, and even while driving in reverse. The vehicle is currently back at the dealership to address this. Their initial response was that they couldn-??t reproduce this condition, and the check engine light doesn-??t come on for this issue, so there-??s nothing mechanically that they need to fix. I-??m escalating this issue with VW service. This issue has not caused an accident yet, but very likely will if not addressed. Some basic research online indicates that this is a somewhat common issue with VW Atlas models. Someone needs to look into this situation before someone is killed.
Volkswagen North America (VW NA) manufactured this vehicle with an incorrect HVAC refrigerant (R134A) low pressure service port. It does have the correct R1234YF high pressure service port. Besides this configuration being against federal emissions laws, it poses a public safety threat in that the incorrect system could be connected to the car and possibly ignite the flammable R1234YF refrigerant. VW NA has refused to correct this problem, even though the vehicle was brought into service under warranty, as the vehicle is currently a couple months out of warranty. A complaint with the EPA will also be filed as this vehicle was manufactured in violation of federal law.
I was driving the vehicle was in drive moving on the road and literally turned off. Completely disabled in the road. I purchased a new battery in September 2022, got the battery tested again and there-??s no issue with it. Mechanics can-??t find an issue. I had the engine stop feature off (the light is on when it-??s off) and it turned itself off prior to the car shutting off completely. I was unable to restart and someone had to assist in Pushing my vehicle out of the road then jumpstart my car. Again I had everything thoroughly checked and there are no active issues.
Recall requested on VW Atlas 2017 with statement not to use front seat, but we only have 1 car. How are we to proceed as a family? Recall remedy stated as not being available. Manufacturer Recall Number69FB NHTSA Recall Number23V215
Rear backup camera and overhead camera malfunctioning. Backup camera does not activate when car is in reverse. Overhead camera does not activate when button is pressed. Makes parking very difficult especially when reversing in parking lots. Problem appeared infrequently initially, but overtime it is now malfunctioning the majority of the drives.
Car hesitating and sounding as if it would shut down while lunging while idle. While braking downhill, car shakes violently, when either braking or coasting to a stop car begins lunging back and forth, while stopped or parked, car shakes back and forth from engine area. Fuel pump replaced, spark plugs and coils replaced. Did not fix the issues. Within 600 miles same issues started to come back. Check engine light started flashing again today and is now steady. Car seems to be extremely unsafe and of course all warranties expired. I started contacting the dealership before it expired and they did not return any of my messages. I was never able to talk to a person when calling the dealership.
Car has been automatically shutting off at slow speeds such as red lights and trying to park. Mainly happens at lights as you break. The car was taken first to Tire Plus, they ran a diagnostic where they received an error and instructed me to take the car to dealer. Took car to VW and provided them with the tire plus paperwork and they stated the car is fine and they do not see anything wrong. They asked me to take a video when it happens. My son who relies on this car just took a video at a stop light and it is now being sent to VW to see what next step is. Car is getting close to warrantee expiration. I believe I have about 6k more miles to go.
Engine stopped during on drive on highway and requiring to put in park to restart in the middle of the road. Dash board displaying -??Start- Stop error -?? with engine sign. So far car stopped three times while driving this time and a service is scheduled for June 17, with the dealership. Same thing happened and notified and serviced. At that time they have replaced the battery. I checked the battery in a auto shop and they told me the battery is good this time. Upon google search, noticed this is happening with other people as well.
Took my 2018 Volkswagen Atlas which I bought around 9/1/18 to my dealership for a failing battery. My car has 17,347 miles and I routinely take my car for the appropriate service. The test report on the battery states it is "worn out". Normally Volkswagen warranties this battery for 36 months and I was over this time frame for about 4 1/2 months. I feel that based on my driving and use for this car, that the battery is defective. I just want to make your agency aware of this particular part, as it is expensive to replace. $243 for the battery and $132 labor. Total $378.24 with tax. Perhaps other people have experienced this repair for a low mileage car and in my opinion not a very old vehicle. Thank you. [XXX] [XXX] INFORMATION Redacted PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6).
My 2018 VW Atlas came from the factory with the A/C condensation drain tube twisted. This is a known issue with almost 9700 2018 VW atlas vehicles. A safety recall was issued to replace the drain hose and the air bag module. Somehow my car was missed and the dealer and Volkswagen does not want to acknowledge the issue and replace the air bag module. The manufacture recall number is 87F9 the NHTSA recall number is 18V-537. The recall states that if the drain tube is twisted it and the module are to be replaced. I am trying to find out why my atlas was not listed in the recall. It appears to be in the VIN range listed on the recall.
Vehicle goes into emergency mode for 4th time. Happened twice in 2 days. A total of 4 times in 5 months. With no warning, multiple warning lights come on and the car applies emergency braking until the car is brought to a stop. There is no opportunity to choose a safe place to bring it to a stop. Driver is unable to accelerate until car is parked and restarted. The 4th time this happened, was on an interstate traveling at 75 to 80mph with vehicles around traveling at same speeds or in excess of that speed. Luckily there was an opening on the shoulder that I was able to quickly pull the car into and the car behind me didn't rear end me. This is the 4th time it's happened and could have caused bodily harm. VW does not care. A software update was performed in February that was supposed to fix the problem. Because it didn't, VW wanted to replace my entire ECM because they thought it was faulty. After threat of buyback did they finally start digging into the car. Techs found a faulty relay switch. They replaced it and said problem couldn't be recreated so it was fixed 'as far as anyone could tell' and didn't need a new ECM.
This has happened 3 times now. When driving, all emergency notification lights come on without warning and the car applies emergency braking. The driver is unable to accelerate and must come to a stop immediately or the car does it for them. The only way to then drive again, is to park it, turn the car off, and turn it back on. When that is done, almost all warning lights disappear and the car behaves as though nothing ever happened. The only error that the vehicle shows is an error with the start/stop system and says that the engine is on due to system failure. If you manually turn off start/stop, then all warnings are gone. Usually, when the car is turned off and driven a second time after that, no warnings (not even start/stop) appear. This has happened at 65mph on cruise control, at 10mph in a parking lot, and at 50mph. The first time it happened, a stored code for multiple passive MINIfaults appeared, but dealer could not recreate problem and I was told to drive it and call if it happens again. 3 months later, it happened again with completely different variables in driving prior to it happening. When brought in to the dealer, the same code was thrown in addition to a code about low battery output. VW warranty engineers determined it needed a software update. After software update was performed, the new code of the battery output level went away. 2 months later, the same thing happened again at a different rate of speed. No check engine light was ever on, nor is it presently on. There is no warning that this is going to happen. The driver has no choice but to stop the car immediately in its tracks and turn it off. The driver is unable to determine a safe place to pull the car over to until they have turned it off and back on and virtually all warning lights have disappeared.
The sunroof is leaking in my 2018 cpo VW Atlas sel. This is the 4th week since delivered. The vehicle is leaking water into the cabin, my visor lights are not working on the driver side, there is water leaking through the headline and a moldy odor is beginning to permeate the vehicle. It was noticed after 1 trip after being parked all night in steady rain fall.
I have a 2018 VW Atlas SE noticed this car does not have the ability to open the trunk or backdoor from within the car. This has to be done from the outside at all times. I called the manufacture VW customer care 1-800-822-8987 and I was informed I need to upgrade to the next trim to get the ability to do so. I thought this was a standard feature in all cars? this is a safety issue should a third row passenger need to use the door for emergency purposes. Upgrading to a lift gate which comes with the next trim is no excuse for VW not to have a basic manual opener.
Car was parked in driveway, turned car on and lights indicated low voltage and turned car off. Turned car back on so car could charge battery but A/C wasn't working and power steering wasn't working so put in reverse to see if it was a fault and start driving and everything died instantly and car had to be towed from spot.
Rear passenger window when rolling down would stop halfway down inconsistently then would just fall if you tried to roll it down. Took it into the dealership after diagnostics it is an issue with the pin.
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.
I forgot to add in my original complaint that when the faulty booster warning came on so did my emergency brake and I was haulted while driving and this really freaked me out as I have 4 children and the reason I purchased the car was for all the safety features and now I feel the exact opposite!
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Hollywood, FL, USA