9.8

really awful
Crashes / Fires:
0 / 0
Injuries / Deaths:
0 / 0
Average Mileage:
479 miles

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problem #65

Jun 162025

Atlas

  • miles
VW Atlas randomly shuts off when coming to a stop or slowing down. I have to put the car in park and then restart the vehicle. This is incredibly dangerous and scary. This has happened at least 5 times now, all while driving on the road and in traffic. No warning lights popped up. A few times it said I need to manually restart the engine. The most recent time it didn-??t say anything at all, my vehicle just slowed down and would not accelerate. I have noticed this issue both when enabling and disabling the Auto Start/Stop feature.

- Baltimore, MD, USA

problem #64

Jun 072025

Atlas

  • miles
Whenever I slow down at a light or go low speed in a parking lot my vehicle cuts off. This can cause a accident and the dealership said if there is not fault code there is no fix. It cuts off and say start the vehicle manually.

- Middleburg , FL, USA

problem #63

Feb 012025

Atlas

  • miles
Engine completely stalls while driving, I have to put it in park and restart it. It has happened 5 times in the last 2 months. All at low speeds. Milage 58,000

- San Pedro, CA, USA

problem #62

Apr 162025

Atlas

  • miles
Vehicle was stopped at a traffic light and running. Once the light turned, the vehicle shut off immediately after the accelerator pedal was depressed. Transmission had to be shifted to park to restart the engine. This happened three (3) times at the same light. This is the fourth incident in the last six (6) months.

- Lithia, FL, USA

problem #61

Mar 162022

Atlas

  • miles
When starting the car and backing out of our driveway, the car stalls it has to be put in park and then the ignition start button has to be pushed. This has happened several times.

- Oak Island, NC, USA

problem #60

Mar 282025

Atlas

  • miles
I was at a stop sign when I went to pull out from the stop sign the car stalled. I had to put the car in park press the start engine button again in order for the car to restart. This has happened at least 10 times since purchasing the car.

- Oak Island, NC, USA

problem #59

Apr 132025

Atlas

  • miles
On many occasions over the past few months have had our car start to die while driving along the road. We have taken to shop, replaced battery, and no one could replicate issue. Just today my family (3 kids and my wife) were driving 35mph when the RPM started to drop randomly. We lost acceleration and while we were turning across traffic the car died. Luckily we rolled across in time to not be t boned. We turn off -??auto start stop-?? each time we get in the car as we were told by mechanic that could be issue After it persisted randomly, we found maybe the battery was the reason, so we replaced that. Now we are one month on a new battery and keep -??auto start stop-?? off, and it happened again today! VW forums point to a vapor canister being the culprit, and now VW has extended the warranty for this issue supposedly. I didn-??t know about this at all. Very worried to have my wife and kids in that car I wish this was a recall,

- Worthington, OH, USA

problem #58

Apr 102025

Atlas

  • miles
There is an error with the start-stop feature and it causes my car to stall while driving it. This is very dangerous considering it tells me to put it in park and start the car manually. It's almost caused me multiple accidents.

- Cocoa, FL, USA

problem #57

Apr 022025

Atlas

  • miles
Engine shutting off in the middle of the road 3 times, no indicator showing any faults on the dash, the auto shutoff engine was disabled, has to put the car in park then restart the car.

- Palm Harbor, FL, USA

problem #56

Apr 032025

Atlas

  • miles
Engine shut down 4 times in one day. I'd have to put it in park, in the middle of the road, and restart the engine. It seemed to happen at very low speeds. engine light came on. Took it to a local mechanic who noted the error had to do with a sensor in the grill that allows airflow into the radiator - the sensor was blocked based on the code, but it was not. The thought was perhaps something had been blocking the sensor but whatever was blocking the sensor had naturally fallen off since the mechanic found nothing actually blocking the sensor. Drove around for a few days, no issues. Heading out on vacation - about 4 hours into the drive on the highway, it stalled again, again at lower speeds in traffic. Turned around to go home (no vacation), stalled again 3 more times, all in heavy traffic. It is now at a VW dealership. There is a new code having to do with the charcoal canister but they do not believe this is the issue causing it stall. I've been reading other threads on the Atlas and this issue has been ongoing for years with no real confirmed fix or recall as far as I can tell. How is this not a safety issue; on the highway, stalling out and you have to come to a complete stop, park, restart for the engine to kick back on. Over and over again.

- Chepachet, RI, USA

problem #55

Apr 012025

Atlas

  • miles
Vehicle idles and dies, dashboard error shows manual restart necessary. This happens at red lights, in carpool, on the interstate if traffic has slowed, potentially a huge hazard for being rear ended. You have to put the car in park and manually restart the vehicle. VW is inspecting today but has not been able to recreate the issue. VW forum online has many car owners with the same issue and concerns. Check engine light and auto start/stop errors are almost continuous now. Check engine light came on/off about 4 months ago and would clear and then reappear. I assumed maybe bad gas that needed to burn off, the auto start/stop also had intermittent errors.

- Shreveport, LA, USA

problem #54

Feb 252025

Atlas

  • miles
The start/stop system keep giving error and shut down the car and give a message " start stop error start manually " this can be dangerous as it happens in traffic or at stop signs and stop lights.

- St Cloud , FL, USA

problem #53

Jan 272025

Atlas

  • miles
Several times while driving the Atlas, the cars engine turn off unexpectedly while in drive. This has also happened while the car was in propulsion. Essentially, the engine kicks off thinking it is in idle. Clearly there is a -??start/stop-?? button issue.

- Lakeland, FL, USA

problem #52

Jan 022025

Atlas

  • miles
Vehicle stopped in the middle of a busy road after backing out of lot while changing from reverse to drive. It was a very dangerous situation as cars were swerving out of the way to avoid collision. No warning indicators, sounds or lights before nor after incident. Vehicle was inoperable and pushed into an auto shop. They concluded catastrophic engine failure due to lack of compression in cylinders with no observable cause. Had vehicle towed to authorized VW dealer which produced same findings. All services including oil changes were done in accordance with the VW manual schedule.

- North Tonawanda, NY, USA

problem #51

Apr 122023

Atlas

  • miles
The vapor canister (charcoal canister) and related parts have failed on 3 different occasions over the past 1.5-2 years. This caused the car to stall while operating without any warning from the vehicle. The cars has to be put into park and the engine restarted before it can be operational again. The dealer has inspected and replace parts of the system each time it has happened, and has explained that this is a known problem for the vehicle. No final solution has come from VW corporate to solve the problem, so they have been instructed to keep replacing the components as necessary.

- Tampa, FL, USA

problem #50

Jul 012024

Atlas

  • miles
On multiple occasions while driving the car engine will shut off - this has happened on the highway as well. I have taken the car to the dealer 4 different times and its the same thing every time - they tell me the charcoal canister has to be replaced. When they replace it the car is fine for a few months and then it happens again. If my family is in the car on the highway and the engine shuts off while in traffic this can be catastrophic. All they do is change the canister and send me on my way with no real fix.

- Lake Worth, FL, USA

problem #49

Oct 152024

Atlas

  • miles
Brought car in for a noise 12k miles ago and dealer said all was well. I then brought the car back and they heard the sound, wanted to explore and take apart the engine and found I have a collapsed lifter on the exhaust cam which if a defect, should be completely covered by the manufacturer not just a portion of the repair. Also, this could cause further issues and damage with the car which is concerning since it had been going on for some time. I am just looking to see what further resolution can be made in regard to this. My car is still in the shop since last week. The dealership has been great in allowing me to have a loaner vehicle but I just want to make sure I don-??t have more major issues form this not being taken care of as soon as it should have been.

- Canton, CT, USA

problem #48

Sep 012024

Atlas

  • miles
The car stalls and turns off when operating at a slow speed, both in forward or reverse. This is a serious and potentially deadly problem. With my two young children in the car, I was turning left across three lanes of oncoming traffic. When I began to accelerate, my car stalled in the middle of the first lane. I had to figure out what happened, put it in park, restart the car and finish my turn before being hit by oncoming traffic. This has happened 2-3 times each day since this started last week. This has nothing to do with Eco mode or automatic start/stop feature. I am familiar with both of those and disengage them when I start the car. The car has approx 28k miles and is well maintained. It is still well within warranty. The check engine light came on and the code it throws is P0496 for a bad EVAP system. I took it to VW dealer and they re-created and diagnosed the problem. Essentially, the EVAP system has faulty parts and it is causing the gas tank to collapse. The EVAP canister, the purge valve and the gas tank all need to be replaced. The problem is they do not have the parts to replace the gas tank. And they have no idea when they are going to get them. Literally, no time horizon. The VW service advisor admitted that they-??ve seen -??some frequency-?? with this problem lately, mainly on 2019-2023 models. It-??s a parts issue, not a wear & tear nor maintenance issue. If you look this up online, you-??ll see hundreds of posts about this issue with similar scary situations like mine. Couple this with the active recall already in place (passenger airbag may not deploy in an accident) and there-??s no solution for that recall, either. My family feels in jeopardy every time we drive our family car. Why is there not a recall for the gas tank collapse" How can we compel VW to produce a remedy in a timely manner" This is going to be a fatal issue for some family. Please help. I am happy to document and share photos/ videos of the situation.

- Palm City, FL, USA

problem #47

Aug 292024

Atlas

  • miles
Vehicle shuts off when driving. No faults pop up on the dash until 2 days ago when i was driving on the highway and it completely turned off. Message on the screen told me to manually turn it back on but i could not. The vehicle could not turn back on.

- Apo, NY, USA

problem #46

Aug 122024

Atlas

  • miles
The vehicle would turn off randomly when stopped at a Stop sign or traffic light. It the had to be put in park and restarted. The dealership Kelly VW in Danvers, MA diagnosed the problem and this is what the invoice said. "cel is on code p0461 is active. performed tsb hooked up battery charger and updated ecm per tsb" Si, in my opinion this is at the least a potentially serious safety issue that should have warranted a recall and/or something that would be covered under the 80,000 mile or 8 year Federal Emissions Warranty

- Haverhill, MA, USA

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