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.
Car turns itself off when stopped when still in drive. Happens even when the auto stop/start feature is disabled. It happens randomly, doesn-??t matter if engine is hot or cold or weather is different. First happened while sitting at bank or drive thru, happened twice in car wash rollers, now happening at stoplights.
The vehicle would start from the remote and upon getting into the vehicle the push start won-??t engage with the steering wheel locking and the vehicle being inoperable. The steering will will make locking mechanism sounds and the vehicle won-??t start. The vehicle will then not turn on and I am unable to drive. It has sputtered for weeks now yet it turns on and I am able to drive. When first purchasing the vehicle the engine had to be replaced as it backfired and went out the same start stop issue was present then.
Was driving on interstate 24 between Nashville and Chattanooga, sunday Sept 17th around 1 PM, temp was about 80 F, out of no where, there was a loud boom, like a gunshot, between my wife and I ( Im driving ) I look over at her to see if she was OK, then looked up, I saw the first section of my sun roof glass had shattered into a spider web appearance, then suddenly a chunk of the glass, about 4 x 6 in, departed the roof panel over head while i was trying to slow down and pull over. I was going about 78- 80 mph. Once on the side shoulder, I retracted the sun shade cloth shield, it was fill with numerous shards, one which fell and hit my knee, causing a cut. Numerous shared were within the vehicle and our open top drinks. Since I was not comfortable drive at highway speeds, with potential shards coming into the cabin and impacting those behind, I drove several miles along the shoulder of the road to a gas station. There I bought gloves and removed what was left of the remaining panel and used duct tape to contain any remain glass. Im currently in contact with my VW dealer as to the status of its repair
I have had an issue with my vehicle shutting off while 1) at a stop (red light/stop sign) 2)while coasting and also stuttering as I reverse. This has happened both while the start/stop was turned on as well as when it is turned off. I have taken it to the dealership three times and the best response I have received is that "it's a Germlin" in there. The car does not produce any error codes and they can't duplicate the issue. They have nothing they can pinpoint in order to fix it. However, this is a serious safety issue and as I research online I find MANY others with the same issue. Please see this thread on the VW Atlas forum: https://www.vwatlasforum.com/threads/atlas-shutting-itself-off.3005/page-2#post-34366
The passenger side airbag has been switched off due to a fault in something. So if I have a passenger in my front passenger side and am in an accident, the airbag will not deploy which could cause a multitude of safety problems and possibly cause a fatality. I took my car in 6/15/23 to the dealership and they did confirm that my car was effected by this recall, however, they did not have a fix for it. My light indicating that the passenger airbag is off has been on for over a month. I have contacted Volkswagen and their response to me was "just don't put anyone in the front seat". That response is simply unacceptable when my family and friends lives are at stake. This is approximately the 10 safety recall on this vehicle.
I was driving with my husband in the passenger seat and my 5 month old baby girl in the back seat. All of a sudden we heard a loud sound that sounded like a gunshot and our sunroof shattered. There were no other cars around and we were not driving under any bridges. We pulled over immediately and checked to see if we could find a something in the car but we did not find anything. There was a hole in our sunroof and shattered glass on us.
I own a 2019 vw atlas and I had called the dealership about low coolant level light that had came on and you know what I was told it-??s common in the atlas-??s and that they just use coolant and I-??m thinking to my self that cars don-??t just use coolant and I-??m finding out more and more a lot of people are having this issue the funny thing is that the had told me to just come on down and they will top it off with coolant
While driving along the interstate on a clear day, I heard a loud explosion that sounded like a very, very loud pop. It took me a moment to realize that my sunroof had essentially exploded. I have a large panoramic sunroof, and the front section was completely shattered, and a section toward the middle of the side that touches the middle panel was blown out, with a small section missing. I pulled over on the road and realized that the entire front section of glass was buckled up, bowing upward to the center to the point where it seemed to explode. I heard nothing before the pop and saw no object coming from the road or elsewhere. Traffic on the opposite side of the interstate was at a standstill and it's unlikely anything came from that side that I may not have seen. It looks like the sunroof bowed upwards under pressure and exploded in the middle. Fortunately, my sunshade was closed and this kept pieces of glass from falling on me and my passenger. Also fortunately, I was able to react with safety. A young driver may not have been able to maintain control of the vehicle with the loud exploding noise. Since it happened, the glass has continued to fall, so the hole now is bigger than what it was initially. I contacted VW and was told they could examine the car and send pictures to VW to see if they would cover it under the car's 72K mile warranty, but I would have to wait 7-10 days for an answer. They did not offer to provide me with a car while I wait. I am replacing it through my insurance glass coverage, but believe that VW should have been responsible.
We were driving down the road on a normal sunny day when the sunroof decided to spontaneously combust out of no where with no warning. There was not anything that hit the sunroof or would have caused the glass to shatter. All we heard was a loud pop like a bomb going off in our vehicle and we looked to the back seat to check our 2 year old daughter to find that she had glass all over her and the sunroof had perfectly shattered everywhere. Luckily my husband could think past the initial shock and close the fabric cover over the sunroof so that we wouldn-??t have more glass fall on our 2 year old. There is glass all over the vehicle in tiny fragments and I had to get the glass off my 2 year old and her car seat and have my in laws pick me and my daughter up because the vehicle is not safe to drive in this state. We tried contact the dealership we purchased the vehicle from as well as customer care and road side assistance with no luck whatsoever. The dealership just kept sending us to voicemail when asking for someone to help us figure out what to do and how to have the problem fixed and we didn-??t get any calls back from the voicemails. Since then my husband has tried to talk to the dealership and The vehicles customer care line with no luck when all we want is to figure out what to do now and how to get the problem fixed. This issue has happened to other people after researching online and there has been lawsuits for it already. We just want the issue fixed.
Vehicle is completely shutting down while in drive. Occurring during acceleration and deceleration. No warning given before car shuts down. Just immediately stops in road. I had to restart car and avoid traffic. Dealership has been notified. Service department has stated there is a solution but no availability of parts. Suggested appointment for service to inspect vehicle and to put order in for recall part. Will inspect car but says the vehicle issues seem related to the recall. Unable to provide loaner cars and unable to provide date that part will be available. Service department does not have date of when part will be available, anticipates one to two months. Dealership has been notified. Service department has stated that car should be safe to drive even with no remedy for recall at this time. Owner told its kind of just a faith thing right now and it should be okay to drive. False warning sensors illuminating when vehicle is being driven. Forward collision warning lighting up while driving but no vehicles or objects in front of vehicle. Dealership has been notified. Service department indicates it may be related to the recall. Driver side window hesitating to roll up and down. Window has moved without the driver pushing window button. Intermittent parking break sensors go off and emergency break automatically stops car. Message appearing that there is rear traffic. Occurs when no other vehicle, persons, and or objects are in the vehicle's rear area. When reversing I physically am using the vehicles mirrors and my own vision before making any attempt to reverse. This false alarm and sudden emergency break initiated by the car causes a major safety concern for the driver, passenger, as well as the safety of everyone in the area of the vehicle. Warning for Airbag error appears randomly and then dissapears. This is a major saftely concern for the driver and family. First recall for Front Stabilizer Coupling Rod completed 12/22/2021.
I had a routine oil change, the Manager asked me if I had been having any issues because an error code showed up in the inspection. I said I hadn't, so he said it must have been nothing. I drove across town, when all of the sudden alarms and warning messages started going off in my car (pictures attached). Additionally, my car unexpectedly had the emergency brake come on while I was driving through the parking lot. It was a frightening experience and I felt that the dealership let me leave in an unsafe car. They assured me it was nothing they had done, just a coincidence that it happened during the oil change. They kept my car and gave me a loaner while it was being fixed. I am now wondering if I have to go to back and have it fixed on the passenger side.
Windows- The drivers side window and back passenger windows rolled down while I was driving down the highway. I was going approximately 75MPH at the time. This happened on 2 separate occasions. My vehicle has braked extremely hard on numerous occasions. Two of those times I was traveling on Interstate 40 going at approx 65MPH. I have had taken my vehicle in for a "software update" on my cruise control and on my air bags. The unlock feature doesn't always work. This vehicle seems to have a lot of electrical issues.
Last Saturday, several warning lights appeared on the dashboard, including "ACC Not Available", "Error: Driver Door Contact Switch", and "Fault: Electronic Parking Brake". While in traffic I slowed to around 15 mph and the emergency brake activated, stopping the car abruptly. This same scenario of slowing and the emergency brake activating happened twice more while driving home. Vehicle was taken to the dealership who advised we were the 16th Atlas that has experienced these problems. We were told it would be 3-4 months before the parts to fix the vehicle were available.
When the car is turned on the Adaptive cruise control is not available, the error code fault is "driver door contact switch", fault code "electronic parking brake" appears, the rear drivers side window rolls down about 6 inches, the car beeps and alerts "the engine is running". When at a complete stop, the beeping and alert with "the engine is running" appears and the parking brake appears to turn back on as well. My car had this issue in Feb 2021 and a part was replaced, but now the problem is back again. This has been confirmed by the dealership and VW customer care that is a very known issue with Atlas. Unfortunately electronical issues are a huge concern because everything is connected. This is the primary car for me and my children. I have huge concerns of safety with my children riding in the car when it has such serious electrical issue.
I currently lease a 2019 Atlas and have had multiple problems with the vehicle during my lease. The front-assist/collision or whatever it is that makes brakes slam has nearly caused accidents multiple times and makes it scary to drive the car. This happens even when there are no cars around and I am aware of the class action lawsuit investigation into these safety concerns. Additionally, the infotainment system has had several issues which are not resolved despite bringing it in for service multiple times. It shuts off suddenly, the ApplePlay has numerous problems. I have brought it to the dealer multiple times and they do nothing despite it being a known safety issue with Atlas. In the additional details section, I am not choosing a date because it has happened so many times.
The rear window rolls down by itself with nobody touching any of the buttons. The light pops up on the dash and says faulty electrical. The vehicle was in motion, in the city. The vehicle will suddenly attempt to stop in the middle of a drive/middle of the road. Almost as if the emergency break has been pulled, only nobody has touched it. The emergency brake light does come on. Again, in motion, on the highway (has happened a few times). Now, the remote start does not work.
I have had multiple incidents where the front sensors slam on the Atlas' brakes for non-existent hazards. Several have been simply driving off the curb onto the road at load speed and apparently the sensors think the Atlas is driving into something. The other happened this week when driving 45 mph and a sprinkler head near the road was broken and water was shooting up into the air and onto the highway. The sensors apparently mistook the water for an object and slammed on the brakes. Luckily I was not rear-ended by the vehicle behind me. My wife had previously asked the dealer if the front sensors could be adjusted and they said no.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Rochester, MN, USA