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 recall on my car says - Safety Risk: In the event of a side crash, when the side airbag deployment may be necessary, the side airbag may deploy later than designed. This may lead to an increased injury to vehicle occupants. VW should, but refuses to buy this car back from me. It is unsafe to drive and/or put our children in the car in this condition.
Our car starting firing many warning every time we would drive it including breaking without us telling it to. We took it in twice for it to be fixed, the first didn't work and the second they replaced a door chasey and I hope it works long term. Very scary to be driving with 2 little kids in the back and a possessed car. Super dangerous.
The shocks will all of a sudden come up with -??parking brake Fault-??, -??start/stop-?? fault, -??driver door switch fault-??, Che j engine light comes on. It will then randomly throw on the parking brake while driving causing the vehicle to come to a complete sudden stop while driving then the back windows will roll down. It does this off and on-??
Drivers side wire harness. All sorts of alarms going off, windows going up and down on their own, parking break engaging on its own while driving!!! Absolutely unsafe vehicle & VW was not helpful or cooperative.
Hello, I'm writing to share a safety concern regarding the 2021 VW Atlas. In January 2022, I was driving with my small children in the vehicle. The alarm went off for no reason when I first entered the car. Next, my passenger side windows went down on their own and would not go back up. All sorts of alarms/light went off in my car. Next, it started to throw my vehicle into emergency brake while driving. VERY DANGEROUS! This should be a safety recall. The vehicle has been in the shop for 2 months, waiting on a part.
- Virginia Beach, VA, USA
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The car started giving multiple warnings and the check engine light went on. When these warnings started, it would force the windows to go down and put the emergency brake on. It is a huge safety concern because when this issue worsens, it will throw the emergency brake on any time the car begins to slow down - so if a driver is actively driving the car and slowing for traffic - it will suddenly have an emergency brake trying to bring the car to a stop. The issue (Driver Door Contact Switch Error) has been confirmed by dealership. Car has been in the shop for 2 months waiting for a replacement part but in the meantime the dealer has multiple Atlas's waiting to be fixed for the same issue and the problem is all over the internet. It is unsafe to have these cars on the road.
There were multiple incidents where the windows would roll down and the error came on state "Driver Side Contact Error", once where the driver side door would not open, I had to crawl out the passenger side, and multiple times when the parking brake would not disengage. All of these issues have been said to be the drivers side harness kit, no rhyme or reason and lights and errors would go off after each incident. The main safety concern caused be this is when i was driving down a hill coming to a red light, i was reducing speed but was not stopped and the parking brake engaged on its own. I came to a dead stop in the middle of the road, luckily no cars behind me and on a clear road, the dash lit up with multiple errors but all disappeared before i a could write them all down. The dealership where my car current is has stated there is a parts bulletin out on this part causing all these issues with the door harness kit, but no recall. They also could not guarantee that my parking brake would not engage again while the car was in drive, but did not want to offer me a rental car because Volkswagen doesn't consider it a "Safety issue". I know there are 5 other vehicles at the dealership with the same issue as mine (as of January 10th). This is happening in brand new cars, my car is a 2021 and have not even owned it a year.
The below are known issues dating back to at least 2020 Atlas models, but this first appeared in our vehicle mid-November 2021; we purchased the car new June 2021. The driver door contact switch has failed. There are annoyances - the widows randomly roll down, lots of dinging, warning lights, etc. - but the safety issue is that the emergency brake will come on sometimes when you brake. We have a child and cannot risk suddenly being stopped on a highway. Because of this, the car is undriveable. VW estimates the part will be available in 2023, so there are people driving around with this safety issue because they have no second car and people who are paying a loan on a car they cannot drive. These issues have been replicated by the dealer. The case has been escalated to VW and there is no sense of urgency. See here for reports of others with the same experiences: https://www.vwatlasforum.com/threads/error-driver-door-contact-switch.6359/
Within seconds of starting the vehicle, error codes started appearing on the dashboard and beeping noise stating to park the car and not drive. The back window will roll down on its on and the parking break will engage if it wasn-??t engaged already. I would turn off the car and it would go away But after a few minutes the car would start beeping and all kinds of lights and error code started appearing again. After getting this error message and the constant beeping, the emergency brake turns on and the window from behind driver's door lowers like 5 inches from top. At this point, I cannot lower window and I cannot turn off emergency brake. The code started appearing about a week prior to December 8 which was the final straw. It got to a point that while driving, if I took the foot of the gas pedal, the emergency break will engage automatically as I was going 10-15 miles per hr. Everytime I slowed down and was coming to a stop the car will engage the emergency break. I had to turn off the car and back on in order to keep going. This almost caused me to be hit multiple times until I was able to get to a safe location and away from the main road. I-??ve read many others complaint similar and I think this should be a recall. It is a safety hazard when the emergency break engages once you slow down and foot is off the break. This particular car was fixed on Nov.5 for a recall related to coupling rods. I was told that the issue now is called a -??driver front door harness-?? fault which the wires think I-??m opening the door while driving so it engages the emergency break. Vehicle is currently at dealership and has been since Dec. 8 with no estimated time of repair due to waiting on parts.vehicle has been in my possession since Jan. 9, 2021.
Horn doesn-??t work consistently and have to be pressed in certain areas. Bottom area of horn area works at times. Someone was backing up close to my car and I pressed the horn with my thumb and nothing happened after several presses. This has happened on more than one occasion.
Driving at freeway speeds between Elko Nevada and Salt Lake City Utah car completely lost power shut off had to coast To a stop and restart the engine after several semi-??s and vehicles passed us honking their horns
My 2021 Atlas turned itself off while I was going down the road at 70 MPH. I had over 1/2 tank of gas. I was able to get to the side of the road, put the car in park, and restart.
The sunroof exploded while driving with no external object impacts. The retracted roof exploded sounded like a gunshot. I was driving about 75mph on Hwy 70 from Colorado to Utah. There were no vehicles around us.
My wife had just gotten onto interstate and tire light comes on. Was trying to get to next exit to check but heard a popping noise and then car started swerving. Got to side of road and all the tire was gone from right rear except rim bead area and about 1 inch of sidewall. New car with 680 miles using pirelli scorpion zero 265/45 R21 104T tires that were factory installed. After tow repair replace with spare tire I located all the tread tire against median wall on highway where it had stopped. Except for having separated from rim bead of tire it was intact. It was like a rubber band with no sides. Have had the 2021 Atlas for 10 days and only 680+ miles on tires.
Adaptive cruise control malfunctions and is rendered useless when vehicle is started utilizing remote start. Vehicle must be stopped turned off and started with push button in order to clear the malfunction and use cruise control. Volkswagen usa technicians told dealer technician that there is no fix for the issue.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Sea Cliff, NY, USA