The heater core is clogged and the passenger side windows of the car, both windshield and door, do not defog/defrost for up to 20 minutes in southern California weather. It is a known issue online with many owners of VW's in the 2012+ range affected. I almost hit someone in the crosswalk twice recently due to the decreased visibility.

- Garden Grove, CA, USA

Windshield visibility defrost/defog failure: Defrost failed on passenger side of vehicle. No heat on passenger side of vehicle. Causes ice accumulation on windshield and fogs up due to insufficient heat. Causes safety and drive-ability issues in cold and extreme cold weather. Heater core failure matches similar failure reported NHTSA id #10079822. Repair is the exact same as NHTSA id #10079822 as well as same repair replacement part. Shop acknowledges that the same part manufacture failure exists but does not include this VIN. VW needs to expand part failure to include additional vehicles with same failing part. Failed part number 561.819.031.a and replaced with 561.819.031.B. diagnosis is identical to the 2013 gasoline Passat. I have also confirmed that this repair is only being offered for gasoline cars and not the diesel cars. I cannot confirm but I believe that it has to do with the diesel recall. This is rotten I am not offered a fix for the emissions and they will buy my car back but I would take a loss of $3000. In the mean time they are not offering extended warranty repairs or are only offering them on gasoline fueled cars.

- Hermiston, OR, USA

One of the actuators in the HVAC system prematurely failed and had to be replaced. I believe it was the recirculation actuator. I could not get the car to properly defrost, causing dangerous driving conditions as visibility through the fogged windscreen was drastically reduced. The dealership replaced the actuator (at my expense) and the issue was resolved. An actuator should not be failing this early in the vehicle's lifetime. I, the user, did not do something special to cause this to occur.

- Dearborn, MI, USA

This vehicle experienced a failure of the heater core due to clogging. Visibility through windshield was restricted due to heavy fogging and poor defroster performance over several months. Cleaning of the windshield was no help. The fogging would come and go during vehicle operation and was heavy at times. Diagnosis took some time due to the vehicle being only a few years old. Generally a 3 year old, well maintained vehicle will not have a clogged heater core. The gradual diminution of heat due to the progressive clogging caused the lack of full heat not to be apparent in the spring and fall months however heavy fogging occured during these seasons. It was not until winter that the lack of heat and defrost was apparent. After replacement of the heater core assembly the issue was resolved.

- Oregon, OH, USA