10.0
really awful- Crashes / Fires:
- 1 / 1
- Injuries / Deaths:
- 1 / 0
- Average Mileage:
- 10,510 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.
« Read the previous 20 complaints
Vehicles hesitates to start from a slow or dead stop. Will not accelerate as it should. Noticeable lag when shifting and accelerating. Engine misfiring at only 3000 miles. Very dangerous when turning into traffic or merging on to highways. Vehicle gives a false sense of accelerating then stops. This happens reliably over and over.
- Las Vegas, NV, USA
Guess I'm having the same issue a lot of others are having. Sitting at a red light and hit the gas and nothing happens. Smells like gas inside the cabin. It's been in service at the dealership for 15 days and they have no idea what the problem is and no eta on the fix. I purchased the car in December 2017.
- Las Vegas, NV, USA
Engine on this vehicle is very slow to respond. When I give gas, it struggles to start moving, feels like it is carrying 10K lbs of load behind. I push gas peddle to the floor at a signal light to get away from traffic. Car won't respond for about 1 or 2 seconds, then starts to move, but very slow, crawling, then starts to speed up. Turbo lag is very bad. I don't feel safe. This appears to be a recurring issue that is being reported from customers. To be frank, the size of the vehicle (larger than other models) does not seem to match the engine size. NHTSA needs to investigate for the safety of other drivers, particularly those who share the same fears.
- Atlanta, GA, USA
There is weird turbo/engine sound coming from engine compartment. When engine is cold, cold start, you hear grinding type of noise. It is very loud. Once engine is driven for about 20 minutes, noise is reduced, but still there. The transmission shift has clicking noise. You do not hear it when seating inside the vehicle, but you can hear it when outside and someone else is shifting. The noise is when car goes from either drive to neutral, or reverse to neutral. It's a clicking noise, like chime and metal banging mixed together.
- Chicago, IL, USA
Engine on this vehicle is very slow to respond. When I give gas, it struggles to start moving, feels like it is carrying 10K lbs of load behind. There are only two passengers, not pulling anything. Push gas peddle to the floor at a signal light to get away from traffic. Car won't response for about 1 second, then starts to move, but very slow, crawling, then starts to speed up. Turbo lag is very bad. Need to update software to help eliminate this. Audi uses the same engine, but response is so much better.
- Chicago, IL, USA
This vehicle has a drive ability problem. The car has a major hesitation and is very dangerous when pulling onto the highway. The car almost cuts out but doesn't stall and find it very dangerous. The dealer told me that nothing is wrong with it. Also, there was a recall on my ambient lighting on my sunroof. There could be a leak or humidity could affect the wiring and could cause a fire. There fix is to disconnect it. I have no sunroof lighting. I should get a refund for something they took away.
- Woodbridge, CT, USA
Engine oil will leak from intake camshaft adjustment valve. Leak was noticed first when parked. After first repair by dealer (11 July 2018), it started to leak again only after five days from repair. This represents a safety issue that may cause a fire or eventually engine to fail. Can provide repair report from dealer (first repair) and second once it is finalized. Thank you.
- Killeen, TX, USA
On 7/13/2018 we are on a family trip when we stop the vehicle to take some pictures the car on parking, start to make high and low aceleration with vibrations and then a light with epc show on dashboard. I turn off the car for a minute and then turn on, the epc light disappear, but the vibrations continued. The next day (7/14/2018) we are on the road and the vehicule starts the vibrations, then show the checkengine picture on the dashboard, rapidly 2 errors appeared on the screen 'error: Start-stop' and 'engine on due to system error'. we call VW center and we have a inspeccion of the vehicle this week. Also with less of 4,000mi we saw that the front brake discs have problems. They show a big mark with ditch. There's a problem with the pads or with the stop system
- BayamÓN, PR, USA
My everyday experience with this vehicle includes - hesitation when accelerating quickly, jerking forcefully when accelerating slowly, random jerking while driving. It seems as though, even as an automatic car, I can feel every gear change. Especially on the freeway, I feel extremely unsafe when I attempt a lane change. When I put my foot on the gas to quickly speed up, my vehicle hesitates and does not match what I am doing on the pedal. The hesitation is especially dangerous for other vehicles on the road. I am extremely anxious when driving my vehicle because I do not feel in control. I worry that, at any point, it will hesitate or jerk forcefully, and cause harm to me, my passengers, and/or those in other vehicles around me. Please note that this is an ongoing problem. This was not a one-time occurrence. This does not just occur when driving at certain speeds. The hesitation and jerking occur daily.
- Huntington Beach, CA, USA
While driving in a 50mph road during rush hour traffic, the epc light came on and the vehicle lost power. I didn't want to pull over onto a narrow bike lane. The vehicle could not keep up with traffic; other drivers were forced to go around me. At the next stop light, I restarted the car. The epc light did not come back on, and the vehicle behaved normally again. I called the dealership, and they told me that if it happens again, that I should bring it in. I got the impression that this is a normal reboot process for a Volkswagen, like having to reboot a windows pc if something goes wrong. I think the problem needs to be addressed before it happens again. Fortunately, I was driving the car, but after I told my wife what happened, she doesn't want to drive my car.
- Carlsbad, CA, USA
This car has a new "feature" called auto start/stop which, when is enabled by default. If not disabled, this feature will turn off the car when it's at a standstill and consuming little power, then turn back on when you hit the gas. Meant as a fuel consumption mechanism, this is very dangerous. A few times now, I forgot to disable it, and when perched in the median between opposite lanes, I had to accelerate rapidly and almost got slammed into because the car had to first start, then accelerate. I lost 2-3 seconds of reaction/acceleration time. When test driving the car, the salesman told me it was a fuel consumption feature, then turned it off for the test drive. If I had seen this in action, I never would have purchased the car. VW will not disable it permanently.
- Orlando, FL, USA
When the auto start/stop feature is disabled by toggling the button on the center console, the car drives very rough, especially at slow speeds. It feels like the transmission is having trouble shifting gears.
- Orlando, FL, USA
The safety alert that stops your car in case of a collision stops my car with none or thing in front or on the side of it. My backup camera stays on consistently when driving forward. The electronic middle console constantly freezes up and won't allow me to do anything or goes completely black. This has happened multiple times including the most recent in this complaint. The engine also jerks forward and is very dangerous trying to pull out onto a busy street. When I mentioned this to the dealership they said the car need to learn how I drive. It has 6600 miles on it?
- Port Charlotte, FL, USA
- Union, KY, USA