2018 Volkswagen Atlas
Complaints about this year name battery far more often than the other years of this generation — 14% of them, about 4× the usual rate of 3.7%.
First year of a new generation. The Volkswagen Atlas was redesigned for 2018. A first year carries problems nobody has found yet, and they are found by the people who buy it — which is worth knowing before you become one of them.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 459 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 123 |
| Involving a crash | 8 |
| Recalls | 16 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 20 mpg |
What owners wrote
AFTER STOPPING AT A RED LIGHT AT THE TRAFFIC THE CAR WOULD NOT RESTART, THE BATTERY OF ENGINE DIED.
BATTERY WILL NOT TURN ON, CAR IS ONLY 12 MONTHS OLD, THERE WERE NO ISSUES FOR THE REASONING FOR THE BATTERY TO NOT WORK.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 18V536000 SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC Fixed free of charge.
- 20V057000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 18V904000 SUSPENSION Fixed free of charge.
- 18V375000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 18V369000 SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC
- 19V389000 EXTERIOR LIGHTING Fixed free of charge.
- 18V284000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Fixed free of charge.
- 18V824000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
Showing 8 of 16. The rest are on NHTSA's site.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Volkswagen Atlas was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2018 Volkswagen Atlas? What happened to yours?
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