6.9
fairly significant- Crashes / Fires:
- 0 / 0
- Injuries / Deaths:
- 0 / 0
- Average Mileage:
- 8,825 miles
About These NHTSA Complaints:
The NHTSA is the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints can be spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem. See the Back button — blue bar at the very top of the page — to explore more.
In 3 separate instances, while driving at highway speeds (65-72 mph), the cruise control has disengaged, causing sudden and rapid deceleration of the vehicle. In all instances, the pavement was dry, I was not tailgating, and feet were not near the brake (I.e. I did not accidentally hit the brake). This is a dangerous scenario. Will be taking the car into dealer in a few weeks, but unsure they will be able to reproduce or diagnose the problem. Several other owners of Golfs have reported this same issue on the tdi forum.
- Madison, WI, USA
The model above is a Golf tdi with a 6 speed manual transmission....as I was driving in 6th gear at 60 M.P.H. with the cruise engaged I came upon a down grade and as I have done for close to 50 years and numerous standard transmission cars, down shifted to 5th to allow engine braking downhill. When I let the clutch back out the car accelerated instead of slowing because the cruise never cancelled. It was trying to bring me back to the set 60 M.P.H. set speed. Took the car to the dealer, ganley VW North olmstead Ohio, on 6/8/15, and after they looked at it I was told this was "normal" this was never "normal" with any other car I have owned and if so it definitely is not a safe feature.
- Fremont, OH, USA
Rural road in Florida, cruise control set to speed limit of 45 mph. Approaching a sharp curve, I down shifted my manual transmission from 5th to 3rd to slow down to an appropriate speed of about 35 mph. When I released the clutch, and began steering into the curve, the car's cruise control re-engaged and I found myself struggling to steer around the curve at 45 mph. Exact model is Golf sportwagen tdi sel with manual transmission. VW's own instruction video says that when the clutch pedal is depressed the cruise control dis-engages and that the driver must press the resume button for the cruise control to be re-engaged. In my 50 years of operating automobiles, every car with cruise control and a manual transmission has operated per the instructions in the VW video. Upon careful reading of the owner's manual I found the following disclaimer: "changing gears when cruise control is active... the cruise control reduces acceleration as soon as the clutch pedal is pressed, and automatically continue to regulate speed after a gear change." This non-standard behavior may soon lead to people being killed.
- Ocala, FL, USA
- Hendersonville, NC, USA