2009 Volkswagen Eos
This year drew an ordinary 84 complaints for a Volkswagen Eos — the model's median is 40. What they were about is the unusual part: 36.9% of them mention flashing, against 11.6% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 84 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 40 |
| Involving a crash | 4 |
| Recalls | 2 |
| EPA combined | 25 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- flashing — 36.9% of this year's complaints, against 11.6% across the model's other years (3.2×). Owners wrote it as: flashing, dashboard, speedometer, address.
- brakes — 19% of this year's complaints, against 2.5% across the model's other years (7.6×).
- slow — 14.3% of this year's complaints, against 1.1% across the model's other years (13.4×). Owners wrote it as: slow, blinking, slow speed, car off.
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
What owners wrote
WHEN THE TRANSMISSION GETS HOT, THE [VIN] SENSOR OVERHEATS AND AUTOMATICALLY PUTS THE CAR IN NEUTRAL WHEN YOU TRY AND CHANGE GEARS (FROM DRIVE TO REVERSE). THE DASHBOARD LIGHTS START FLASHING THE TRANSMISSION LIGHTS. THE CAR MUST BE TURNED OFF AND RESTARTED IN…
WITHOUT NOTICE THE TRANSMISSION DOWN SHIFTS AND THE CAR COMES TO A QUICK SPEED REDUCTION AND YOU PULL OFF THE ROAD AND IT WILL NOT GO IN REVERS. IT WILL MOVE THEN AT A VERY SLOW SPEED. ON BUSY STREET OR HIGHWAY IN TRAFFIC HARD TO KEEP FROM BEING RUN OVER.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 16V913000 SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC Fixed free of charge.
- 09V333000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Volkswagen Eos 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 2009 Volkswagen Eos? What happened to yours?
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