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.
I drove the car to a meeting on Thursday evening, Jan 4th, 2018. Parked it in a residential home office parking area in Santa Fe, nm at 6pm. At 6:10pm another person arrived to the meeting and said she saw flames by a red car. It was my Golf. Several of us went out with pots of water and a hose to contain the fire. Moved the other vehicles away from it to avoid it spreading. The flames came down from the engine onto the ground in front of the bumper. It was smoky and smelt horrible. We were able to contain the fire. When the fire dept arrived they used a special tool to pry the hood open and used the residential garden hose to douse the engine to stop the smoldering and reduce the heat of the vehicle to assure it would not ignite again. The car was assessed as totaled. I just bought it from VW uptown abq. It was a tdi that had the modification for the emissions class action suit.
When I started my car, the engine jumped and the car shook. I tried to drive it but couldn't get more than 10 feet without it constantly feeling like it was both starting and stalling, and rocking back and forth. I had to park it, and even when completely stopped the car would shake and the engine made a terrible noise. My car started to smell really bad. The dealership tells me that it is a coil failure in the engine, which caused complete engine failure and left me stranded.
Very rough idle/dangerous loss of power electronic power control light illuminates. Car develops issue in 2 instances, will idle smoothly at rest and then epc light will illuminate and very rough idle will ensue with entire car shaking. Car must be shutoff and restarted to correct. Once restarted car will idle normally and light is off. Second issue is with car at load, driving normal speeds when epc light will come on and engine power is dramatically reduced making for extremely hazardous condition if pulling out or accelerating in traffic. Sudden loss of power can only be resolved if safe place available to pullover and restart the car. VW dealer says they can only repair car if it displays behavior at shop. Since light is off when restarted it is not running poorly when driven in for service they state no problem found. They claim the ECU fault code does not tell them the cause only that it happened even though other diagnostic tools describe throttle body issues or bad sparkplug coils may be at fault. White knuckle issue which eliminates confidence in day to day driving. There is no warning involved it just happens. Casual research into these symptoms results in an alarming number of owners who have experienced same issues. Car unsafe to drive when power loss manifests itself. Many others also describe a faulty wiring harness for throttle body for which there is an internal VW tsb but dealers say is time consuming and they are not reimbursed for in a timely manner by VW of na. Disappointment and then some.
- Plainview, NY, USA
Search CarComplaints.com for these popular complaint phrases...
The contact owns a 2015 Volkswagen Golf. The contact received notification of NHTSA campaign number: 16V647000 (engine and engine cooling, fuel system, gasoline). The contact made several attempts to reach the manufacturer and was referred to an authorized dealer, but was unable to reach a live agent for weeks. The dealer was unaware as to when the manufacturer would supply the parts to the dealer. The contact was not experiencing a failure. Parts distribution disconnect.
2015 Golf started experiencing problems with the engine/transmission after Feb 5, 2016 on three different occasions. Upon starting car the idle is extremely rough and then a warning message appears that starts out with "transmission..." goes off quickly but a highlighted exclamation point remains. The message goes off too quickly to capture a picture of it. The exclamation point and rough idle remains until the car is turned off. When the car is turned on again it is fine. The car is currently at a dealer to be repaired as they state: We have to replace the shifter assembly. I have been told I cannot drive it, that the car has to stay in the shop and wait for a part to arrive sometime next week. This problem is separate from the other problems I have experienced: 1). the right front seat heater come on and heats up to extremely uncomfortable degrees-- dealer says they cannot find a problem. 2). the navigation system goes blank-- doesn't work-- dealer can't find the problem 3). A warning and beeping that the front right seat belt needs to be fastened-- and no one is in the seat, just a cell phone. This Golf only has 10,600 miles on it.... did I purchase a lemon? the date below is the last time the problem occurred. It may or may not have anything to do with it but the car did not have this problem until after the transmission software update was done in February.
The contact owns a 2015 Volkswagen Golf. The contact received notification of NHTSA campaign number: 15V705000 (engine and engine cooling, service brakes, hydraulic) and was unable to determine when the parts would become available for longer than a month. The dealer and the manufacturer informed the contact to wait until the second notice was mailed to determine when the parts were available. The manufacturer was unable to provide a time frame that the parts would be supplied to the dealer. The contact had not experienced a failure. VIN tool confirms parts not available.
2015 VW Golf sportwagen tdi 2.0L the car has less than 5000 miles on it and already twice I get an engine malfunction indicator light (mil) to "reduce oil level." I haven't even taken it in for its first service yet and now this. Too much oil? I checked the level several times and the dip stick indicates the level is within tolerance.
The first time, backing out of a parking space in parking lot started to go forward and the car just shut off on its own. It has done this several times leaving me in in harms way trying to pull out into traffic it just shuts off arbitrarily no telling when its going to happen. Also have had people in the car with me when it has happened.[ kinda like playing russian roulette ] have had it to the dealers three times inside of 2300 and they have found nothing. First time 1 day second time 7 days, more than likely 3 or 4 more days at dealer now. Three of the times happened just starting to pull out on to the street. One in a parking space backed out started to go and it died. One time turning on city streets. To me might be fuel pump or something electrical.
I leased the E-Golf for about 4 months. I was driving down the street and suddenly car shut down. An error "error:electrical system. Stop!" appeared. Car stopped and blocked the lane. I called VW sos and they connected me to 911. Police officer came and helped me pulling the car to the roadside. The windows and multimedia worked. Tried to press the power button off and turned it on but same error showed. I waited for one hour to tow my car to the dealer. I got car back from dealer 4 days later, in their report stated " checked faults in system, found P0C0100 drive motor a current high. Contacted VW helpline. VW helpline advised these faults are related to customer pressing start/stop button while driving", I'm pretty sure I didn't touch the power button when driving. And they " cleared all faults, set basic setting for electric drive and road tested extensively for 90 miles and no malfunction occurred at this time". I like the car's design and still driving the car daily but just really really worry about the safety.
I was in hayward on the 880 freeway (flat, dry road) in rush hour traffic, in the hov lane going about 40 mph, and my VW E-Golf just shut down and showed the error "electrical system failure: Stop!". I had enough momentum to coast 5 feet over to the left side (center divider) I could not make it completely out of the lane. Cars were laying on their horn and speeding past me while my bumper hung out a foot into the lane. The car is 3 months old. It had a charge of 86 miles when it happened, I had it on a charging station it showed I charged my car accumulated (kwh): 29.523. The radio, windows, bluetooth and all other electrical powered instruments still worked. I pressed the power button off and turned it on again, the error still remained, and the car would not "turn on".
Two foam pieces, one on the left and the other on the right, in the engine compartment are wrapped in translucent vinyl. Since the vinyl cannot withstand the heat, it can cause fire. Below are pictures of the vinyl wrapped foam on the right side. The web folder addresses are case sensitive. Https://LH4.googleusercontent.com/-tajjewycj6E/vukqfq8mjpi/aaaaaaaab_E/4oz-cubffri/W1157-H868-no/img_3101.jpg https://LH4.googleusercontent.com/-apzjak01wim/vukqgsdf26I/aaaaaaaab_Q/pquvyq0ooky/W1157-H868-no/img_3112.jpg https://LH6.googleusercontent.com/-jixpgfg4D4Q/vukqfrdjgmi/aaaaaaaab_I/H5vkeokw2G4/W1157-H868-no/img_3104.jpg.
The paint near a bolt for engine support on this alleged new car is damaged, and bare metal is exposed. As the rust develops, the engine support may fail, and the engine block may go out of position. This can cause fatal accident. Below is the picture of the paint damage. The web address is case sensitive. Https://LH3.googleusercontent.com/-yviyisdzmdo/vuvsstkr7ui/aaaaaaaacbo/iepts_iak4C/W1219-H914-no/img_3189.jpg.
When I'm in traffic stop and go between 11mph to 18 mph at low RPM (1,100 to 1,800 RPM) the vehicle feels like shaking in the engine or transmission like I'm driving a manual car but my car is automatic. Now when going up a incline at 30 to 33 mph vehicle does the same problem.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Santa Fe, NM, USA