Vehicle goes into emergency mode for 4th time. Happened twice in 2 days. A total of 4 times in 5 months. With no warning, multiple warning lights come on and the car applies emergency braking until the car is brought to a stop. There is no opportunity to choose a safe place to bring it to a stop. Driver is unable to accelerate until car is parked and restarted. The 4th time this happened, was on an interstate traveling at 75 to 80mph with vehicles around traveling at same speeds or in excess of that speed. Luckily there was an opening on the shoulder that I was able to quickly pull the car into and the car behind me didn't rear end me. This is the 4th time it's happened and could have caused bodily harm. VW does not care. A software update was performed in February that was supposed to fix the problem. Because it didn't, VW wanted to replace my entire ECM because they thought it was faulty. After threat of buyback did they finally start digging into the car. Techs found a faulty relay switch. They replaced it and said problem couldn't be recreated so it was fixed 'as far as anyone could tell' and didn't need a new ECM.

- Columbus, IN, USA

This has happened 3 times now. When driving, all emergency notification lights come on without warning and the car applies emergency braking. The driver is unable to accelerate and must come to a stop immediately or the car does it for them. The only way to then drive again, is to park it, turn the car off, and turn it back on. When that is done, almost all warning lights disappear and the car behaves as though nothing ever happened. The only error that the vehicle shows is an error with the start/stop system and says that the engine is on due to system failure. If you manually turn off start/stop, then all warnings are gone. Usually, when the car is turned off and driven a second time after that, no warnings (not even start/stop) appear. This has happened at 65mph on cruise control, at 10mph in a parking lot, and at 50mph. The first time it happened, a stored code for multiple passive MINIfaults appeared, but dealer could not recreate problem and I was told to drive it and call if it happens again. 3 months later, it happened again with completely different variables in driving prior to it happening. When brought in to the dealer, the same code was thrown in addition to a code about low battery output. VW warranty engineers determined it needed a software update. After software update was performed, the new code of the battery output level went away. 2 months later, the same thing happened again at a different rate of speed. No check engine light was ever on, nor is it presently on. There is no warning that this is going to happen. The driver has no choice but to stop the car immediately in its tracks and turn it off. The driver is unable to determine a safe place to pull the car over to until they have turned it off and back on and virtually all warning lights have disappeared.

- Columbus, IN, USA

Battery keeps dying. Seems to be a rampant problem with VW Atlas. Https://www.cargurus.com/cars/discussion-T73111_ds837472

- Fort Wayne, IN, USA

When the vehicle is in motion, specifically when accelerating but at a low speed (when the doors would normally auto lock) the locks attempt to 'unlock' repeatedly. There is also a light in the cargo area that doesn't turn on consistently and sometimes flickers when the car is running, in park, and the rear gate is open.

- Springville, UT, USA

Two weeks ago, our 2018 Atlas displayed faulty steering lock. Vehicle was disabled and towed to dealership. After $1,300 in repairs with new steering module, the vehicle displays this again, and won't move. Vehicle is at dealership again and is dangerous because if this happens when driving, the vehicle won't steer and is going inoperable.

- Albuquerque, NM, USA

Our electrical systems seem to have weird mishaps. Sometimes our lights stay on even if we close all doors and lock the car our check engine light comes on and off often. Sometimes the quick starter/electric start won't work. This all happens randomly and the engine light will be on when we start the car or while we're driving.

- Grand Rapids, MI, USA

The sunroof is leaking in my 2018 cpo VW Atlas sel. This is the 4th week since delivered. The vehicle is leaking water into the cabin, my visor lights are not working on the driver side, there is water leaking through the headline and a moldy odor is beginning to permeate the vehicle. It was noticed after 1 trip after being parked all night in steady rain fall.

- Coram, NY, USA

Atlas is on its 3rd battery in 30,000 miles. When the battery fails it will die in an intersection during auto start stop. After boosting electronic steering, brakes, adaptive lighting, regular lighting, blinkers all fail and often limits to 15 mph

- Springvale, ME, USA

Car randomly puts transmission into emergency mode

- Washington, DC, USA

Blind spot awareness sometimes does not alert tp cars on the drivers side of the vehicle. The blind spot light remains on after a turn signal is activated and comes on while on some roadways for no apparent reason. The vehicle is moving during these problems. Ongoing problem for over a year

- Spring, TX, USA

Car was parked in driveway, turned car on and lights indicated low voltage and turned car off. Turned car back on so car could charge battery but A/C wasn't working and power steering wasn't working so put in reverse to see if it was a fault and start driving and everything died instantly and car had to be towed from spot.

- Orlando, FL, USA

2018 Volkswagen Atlas. Consumer writes in regards to vehicle being unresponsive. Consumer states that vehicle has had several issues since purchasing it. On 05/07/18, while driving 55 mph, vehicle became unresponsive. Vehicle was towed to dealership. Vehicle was repaired. On 02/21/19 the vehicle's remote start stopped working and the coolant light came on. Vehicle was taken to dealer and the cylinder head and catalyst were replaced. On 05/30/19 the A/C unit would not blow out cold air and vibrated when turned on. The A/C blower motor was replaced. On 07/02/19 a light came on the dash and a rattling sound came from vents. Debris was found in the vents and traces of metal were found in oil. The oil was changed and parts were replaced. On 12/2719 the coolant light came on. Metal shavings were found in the oil. Vehicle received a new engine. On 02/17/20 a noise is heard when driving vehicle. Manufacturer has been notified of failures. Manufacturer offered to pay remaining balance on vehicle, so that consumer could trade-in vehicle. Consumer declined offer.

- Indianapolis, IN, USA

I own a VW Atlas which is 2 months old. Battery died all of a sudden 2 months back. Had to jump start the vehicle. Couple of days back battery was complete down again. I used the car everyday before battery went cold in my garage.

- Austin, TX, USA

Car was purchased new 2/15/2018. Has 41000 miles and dealer maintained. My wife was at an intersection with a 1 year old and 4 year old in the car when auto shutoff occurred. Vehicle would not restart in a busy intersection. My wife had to be pushed to the edge of the road with the kids in the car and be jump started. Dealer says it is all due to a bad battery. Upon research this is a frequent and hazardous issue. Consumer replaced the battery.

- Martinsville, IL, USA

Start/stop system or other electrical "feature" drains the battery to the point the engine won't start. Worse than that, the start/stop system doesn't deactivate itself even when the battery is too low to restart the motor. We were just stranded in a parking lot in a blizzard thanks to the car not starting back up.

- Crown Point, IN, USA

The contact owns a 2018 Volkswagen Atlas. While driving various speeds, the battery warning indicator illuminated and the vehicle seized. The vehicle was taken to three rivers Volkswagen (3694 Washington rd, mcmurray, pa 15317, (724) 941-6100) where it was diagnosed that the battery needed to be replaced. The battery was replaced, but the failure recurred eleven months later. The vehicle was taken back to the same dealer where it was diagnosed that the rear usb drive caused the failure because it drained the battery. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failures. The failure mileage was approximately 17,000.

- Beverfalls, PA, USA

Electrical issue causes the transmission to fail. As you press on the gas this issue does not allow the car to move forward. Has stopped on me now twice in 3 months. First repair took 20 days. Was very dangerous and scary because it happened on freeway the first time and on a hill the 2nd so the car began to roll backwards.

- Dublin, CA, USA

Battery died right after I bought car and it appears this is quite a frequent issue with this car

- Virginia Beach, VA, USA

While sitting at a red light for about a minute the car turns off due to the cars on/off feature. When the light turned green the car would not start back up. I had to put the Atlas in park and rest set to turn it on. It will not turn back on until after a few tries. This has happened to me about 5 different times now. I now drive with that feature turned off until VW can fix this glitch. Very unsafe while sitting traffic and car is stalled in the middle of the road.

- Chula Vista, CA, USA

I was driving on a busy highway and came to a stop in traffic. The auto start-stop activated, and the engine turned off while I was stopped. Traffic started moving again so I took my foot off the brake, which is typically when the engine restarts, but the engine was completely silent and the car was dead. I tried restarting it to no avail. I had this same issue two months ago, and Volkswagen replaced the battery. After the car died, I got an error message saying the battery was low and I should drive to recharge it, however at that point the battery was too dead to drive. I really wish this error message would have shown up before the car died. Why did the auto start-stop activate if the battery didn't have enough juice to activate the engine?? two different batteries, same issue.

- Sterrett, AL, USA