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 front seats go back and recline to an almost flat position randomly. This has hurt my kids' knees while they've been seating in the back seat. It is also very scary and they yell and scream in pain and panic. There is no pattern to the moving, it happens while stationary. Dealers have refused to look at it because they cannot replicate it at the time of the service call. I have pictures and videos of some instances but they are random. No warning or alerts pop up. This has been happening randomly since I bought the car one year ago.
2023 VW ID.4 S. After backing into our garage and parking with my Wife and two kids, my wife attempted to exit the passenger door. As she exited, our daughter immediately behind her began to scream as the passenger seat had completely reclined on its own. We panicked as we had no idea what was going on. My initial thought was to hit 'memory 1' on the passenger seat, only to find that memory 1 was now the fully reclined position. This continued on for 15+ secs as my Wife and I tried to pull our daughter away from the back seat. Unfortunately, her legs were pinched by the passenger seat and she was unable to move. Finally, I was able to dissengage the seat by manually adjusting the recline. This was an extremely scary situation that could have caused serious harm to our child. Additionally, this seems to be a common issue as reported on VW forums and Reddit. There were no warnings and we did not hear the seat reclining.
When the smart seat function was on we experienced the passenger seat automatically fully reclining up on exiting the car. Our child in the back seat had their legs pressed to the point of pain. The dealer claimed that the passenger must have been holding the button down, but they had fully exited the vehicle and the smart seats were reclining the seats. I have seen other reports of this in online forums as well.
Vehicle of Issue ID-4 2023 Vin # [XXX] As Reported to VW Customer Support 04/18/2023 The vehicle has a very dangerous problem, being the driver's seat Sensor. The Sensor triggers the Vehicle into park with a slight shift of body weight. This situation was not explained to me by the Dealership Sales Team. This has happened several times. Twice while backing up, as I went to look along side of the driver's door area to check clearance and the car jumped into park. The door was closed and slightly twisted left to view the area. Again as I approached a stop sign, I shifted my self to adjust the seat belt, another time as I was adjusting my pants it went into park. The latest incident caused an Accident. The accident occurred as I was going through a Car Wash. I shifted my weight to get my hand into my pocket to return my credit card and the car jumped into park. That caused the vehicle to jump into park in the middle of the Car Wash resulting in the vehicle behind me to strike my rear tailgate. North Port Police were called and recorded an incident report because it was on private property. The car wash declines responsibility. This is not a good safety feature, it is an unrealistic expectation of the consumer to sit perfectly still while driving. Will this happen at a higher speed"?"__________ Do all VW Vehicles have the same Seat Sensor (Issues)"?"__________ I brought the Car In for service 04/17/2023 asking the sensor be checked or for a Software change or an adjustment to the Seat Sensor to be changed to a different weight threshold or HAVE the sensor disabled. Sunset VW of Sarasota would not do any diagnostic without a VW Customer Support approval because an accident was involved. On 04/20/2023 VW Customer Support will not acknowledge or authorize a Investigative Service on this seat sensor issue. They said it was my fault the seat sensor triggers the car to jump into park This is not a normal characteristic for any vehicle. INFORMATION Redacted PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT
While in reverse if you turn to look back through the window instead of relying on the back-up camera, the car will turn off because there is a sensor on the seat that turns the car off if weight is not distributed correctly. The camera is not always reliable especially in situations with a lot of traffic or tricking maneuvering situations. I have had the car turn off on me at least five times, three of which was when I was in a busy parking lot. If the camera were to fail and I needed to solely rely on looking out the window, having the car turn off, creates a huge safety concern.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- San Diego, CA, USA