10.0
really awful- Crashes / Fires:
- 6 / 0
- Injuries / Deaths:
- 2 / 0
- Average Mileage:
- 266 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.
While driving my vehicle it shifts into -??park-??, not sure if it is an electrical issue, transmission, or breaking issue. I have taken to the dealership for repairs they worked on the driver seat sensors, was at the dealership for 10 days. Three days after repairs the same issue occurred, took back to the dealership and they informed me that they could not recreate the issue(possible electrical issue), the service advisor suggested that I should not move around in the seat while driving to correct the issue. Again about three days later the same issue occurred again, this time in heavy traffic and it was difficult to get into -??drive-??, I have returned the car back to the dealership. At this time, I asked the service manager to take a ride with me, he seemed very surprised when the issue occurred with him in the drivers seat, he also had a hard time getting the car into drive. This seems like a big safety concern for a vehicle to rear end my car.
- Lake Elsinore, CA, USA
After parking on a slope, front of car uphill, slope of about 15-20 degrees, placing car in park, the car would roll back once out of car. It happened once and went up against another car, minor scrape, but I was almost pinned. I moved the car to a different spot with similar slope, it happed again. The wheels were rotating, had to jump in passenger side and push hand onto brake. It had happened once before, but went up against a curb, but I had thought I had parked poorly. But in retrospect, likely rolled. Tried to call/contact VW, but it is a Friday and they do not accept safety calls Friday evening through Tuesday.
- Anchorage, AK, USA
When I am parking at 5mph in a medical center parking structure, the car suddenly got an uncontrollable acceleration that hit the parking cement and hit the wall in front of the parking area. I cannot imagine that if it is not in the parking structure with 5 mph, it will be fatal or injured and hit more people and cars on the freeway. I want a safe vehicle and spent over $55K for my daily chore. I lost confident on an electric vehicle, and hope your agency will iron all these out prior to introduce to the public. It is similar to the following case: An owner from Georgia describes what happened after getting into the ID.4, putting a foot on the brake, and then putting it into gear. -??The car jumped forward and I had to press brakes with all my strength to keep it from accelerating to full -??throttle.-?? It did the exact same when I put it in reverse. I turned the car off, got out, gave it a couple of minutes, and tried two more times. It did the same thing every time. -??It is like the accelerator is pressed to the floor as soon as you put it in gear without you touching it. I almost hit my house due to the wheels being turned before the first try.-?? Having had the car for only two weeks, -??I called a tow truck to take it to the dealer.-??
- Diamond Bar, CA, USA
As you pull to a complete stop, in the final speed between 2mph and 0mph, the brake will pull away from my foot and go straight towards the floor. The car will lurch forward and then come to a complete stop. This happens 2-4 times per month and the dealership can-??t find any service codes. My wife won-??t drive the vehicle.
- Plymouth, MN, USA
I have never been in an accident in my entire life, never got pulled over by a cop, and have only ever driven one car prior to the vw. I always have my car in -??B-?? mode. During the crash on 4/02 I was going about 40 to 35 mph coming off the highway tried to slow down more to 25 to go on the roundabout but it wouldn-??t, I had the brake collision assistance on, but unfortunately it did not assist me in trying to stop, even when I pressed down on the brake pedal completely. When I tried to turn the steering wheel, that had locked and I was unable to avoid hitting the sign and curb and going over the cement median which cause both my left tires to go flat. I got a call from the Volkswagen SOS and at that time the person was talking to me, I had to maneuver my car off the cement median to move it to a safer road as I was in the middle of a dangerous place and it needed to be towed. The road I had the incident on is the one I take to work every day and I have never had an issue. There was no issues with the weather on that day ether. I have only driven this car 703 miles.
- Mulwaukie, OR, USA
On April 22nd the car was in an accident when it struck the rear of another car at a red traffic light. I had stopped at the light with car in -??B-?? drive mode and the brake on Auto Hold. I was stopped at the light roughly 2 minutes with my right foot on neither pedal. The car was in Auto Hold brake mode as I recollect the Auto Hold indicator being illuminated. The car remained stationary during that period until it moved forward without any action from myself. I am convinced I did not hit the gas pedal. There was damage to both my car and the car in front. There had been no change of the traffic light light nor had the car in front moved when this occurred. I had not experienced this issue in my limited driving before the accident (1700 miles) or subsequent to the accident. I contacted the Volkswagen dealer following the accident and dropped the car off for them to investigate. They advised me to open a case with Volkswagen of America to get their involvement which I immediately did. Volkswagen CARE assigned a regional case manager. The dealer service department performed a 3 mile test drive and could not reproduce the problem. Volkswagen of America did not investigate the accident relying on the dealer service department to use the on-board diagnostics to read fault codes. They found two fault codes that required the replacement of the ICAS1 module (the vehicles primary computer) and the driver door handle -?" the latter was not related to the current recall on the vehicle. These were manufacturing defects and they stated were not the cause of the accident. I find it concerning that Volkswagen of America did not investigate the accident for product issues nor did they explain (when asked) why a faulty major component that controls the operation of the car could not be the cause of the accident.
- Mansfield, MA, USA
1) Brakes: Brakes decelerate and is difficult to stop the vehicle. This is not in all cases when I stop. When I need to do an emergency stop I have to push the brake pedal very hard and pedal pressure feels low. I hope I dont get into and accident when trying to stop. 2) Lane departing warning: The vehicle some times would interpret the street white lines or yellow lanes incorrectly. It would sometime jerk my steering to correct my driving. If a white line stops at an intersection and starts after an intersection it would try and correct my driving. I think this is very dangerous. Should have the option to switch off auto lane correcting and just flash a warning.
- Dallas, GA, USA
The driver door is randomly popping open, at low speeds and high speeds. At low speeds, when trying to back out of driveway or pull into driveway or slowly pull up to red lights or keep up with cars in a left turning lane waiting my turn to turn, the door will randomly pop open and the car slams into park and turns off of Drive. I then have to shut the door, put the car into drive again and try to pull forward without the doors popping open again. This cycles at times where I have to repeat. The car does not go into park when doors pop open at high speeds, speeds greater than 12 ish mph. However, the door will randomly pop open at high speed. I was going 51 mph on the highway and the door popped open. I documented that with a picture. I reached out to several VW dealer garages. They said that they could not do anything for me because there currently was no fix for the recall. I have an appointment call with VW America today at 2pm today. I filled out online surveys with VW to tell them how unsafe this feels driving the car and this happening. We drive the car ONLY when necessary between my spouse and I bc of how unsafe the situation is. I'm not sure what to do or what i can do. I'm stuck with a brand-new car with only 3000 miles that had doors that randomly pop open while the car is in motion. Please advise. Thank you.
- New Wilmington, PA, USA
I have never been in a car accident in my entire life. This was my first ever electric vehicle, and I really loved driving it for the one week I owned it before the brakes failed to stop it. On 03/31 I had to restart the software several times because it froze when i was trying to connect it to Apple Carplay, but it was fine the next day. During the crash, I had the brake collision assistance on, but unfortunately it did not assist me in trying to stop, even when I pressed down on the brake pedal completely. When I tried to turn the steering wheel, that had locked and I was unable to avoid hitting a sign and curb. The road I had the incident on is the one I take to work every day and I have never had an issue. There was no issues with the weather on that day ether. Not only did the brakes not work but the the brake assist failed, the collision avoidance system, the steering wheel locked, and the airbags failed to deploy. Both my left side tires became flat. If I would have known how unsafe this was, I would have never selected it in the first place. I chose this vehicle because I thought I would be safe and I wanted to save money on gas. I am so extremely terrified to drive this car and the dealership service center claimed there was nothing wrong with the car.
- Milwaukie, OR, USA
On Saturday, December 24th, I was leaving to go to the gym with my wife. I pulled left out of the driveway and we heard a loud screeching type noise, very high-pitched. Many lights came on in the vehicle at that point. Too numerous to document actually which ones. We also smelled burnt smoke and there was actually some smoke coming from the rear of the vehicle. I turned the car around which was difficult so I could get the car off the main road and back into the driveway where it was safe. Upon parking the vehicle I could see the rear, driver's side tire was damaged. The tire was not rotating and was locked there was about 20 feet of rubber marks coming out of the driveway into the street and back to the driveway. I called VW immediately and it was brought into service. See attached service report. Looks like the brakes were installed incorrectly at the factory. Imagine driving a car where the brakes lock on you and the tires do not move. Extremely scary. This incident could of been a lot worse. The electric battery could of seized and caused a fire.
- Hudson, MA, USA
The contact owns a 2023 Volkswagen ID.4. The contact stated while driving 40 MPH and approaching a traffic light while depressing the brake pedal, the vehicle started to shudder and vibrate. The contact stated that the brake failure warning light was illuminated. The contact stated that the vehicle started decelerating. The contact was able to park on the side of the road. The contact waited an hour and a half before restarting the vehicle and continued driving to her destination. The contact stated she experience the failure twice on December 29, 2022. The vehicle was not drivable. The contact towed the vehicle to the local dealer but was not provided a diagnostic result of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer had been informed of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 393.
- Venice, FL, USA
- Staten Island, NY, USA