413 NHTSA owner complaints · 1 recalls · data-computed verdict. No opinions — public data only.
Complaints per year on the road: 34.42
Verbatim reports filed with the United States safety regulator (NHTSA) by owners of this exact model year. Public record.
Auxiliary Heater, Part# 1KO 963 235 H, Melted at the grounding post, potentially damaging wiring harness. Fire started in driver side footwell on 11/5/2025. Included is a photo of where the fire originated from. Medium burning to hands, and smoke inhalation from my passenger.
My cars consumes oil like crazy. I'd say every week I am adding a quart to two quarts of oil. I would lose power while driving. Sometimes the car would just shut off And then it would take a few times to get it started. I was in the middle of driving when the car just completely shut off on me and it will not start at all. It will crank and sound like it's going to turn over but it won't. I've been told it's most lik…
I was driving down the Highway at 65 miles per hour when my vehicle suddenly appeared to go into neutral and I lost power in the middle lane and almost was rear-ended. I was able to move over to the side shoulder just gliding. The vehicle starts but while driving it the transmission suddenly appears to go into neutral. The symptoms are consistent with the Recall 34J6 but when I look up my VIN it does not show any pe…
What the community is saying right now.
| Campaign | Component | Summary |
|---|---|---|
| 16V078000 | Air Bags:Frontal:Driver Side:Inflator Mo | Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. (Volkswagen) is recalling certain model year 2010-2014 Golf, 2007-2010 Passat sedans and wagon, 2012-2014 … |
EPA combined 32 MPG · estimated annual fuel cost $2,500
Re-priced automatically from your country's retail fuel, electricity and parts indices — change country in the bar at the top. Estimates; see methodology.
The most-reported issue in NHTSA complaint data is Engine (112 complaints in our indexed sample).
Our data verdict is AVOID with a reliability score of 39/100, computed from 413 NHTSA complaints and 1 recall campaigns. See the verdict card for the top reasons.
Yes — NHTSA lists 1 recall campaign(s) for the 2014 Volkswagen Jetta SportWagen, 1 of them touching fire, crash or stall risk, the most recent recorded 10/02/2016. Check this car's VIN at nhtsa.gov/recalls before you buy.
Fuel, maintenance band and depreciation — computed from public data in 10 seconds.
Open the true-cost calculatorComplaints & recalls: NHTSA ·
Fuel economy: EPA fueleconomy.gov ·
Scoring: our published methodology.
Maintenance bands are industry-average estimates (AAA Your Driving Costs, CarMD index) — labeled estimates, not measurements.
Last updated: 2026-08-20.