Model years › Volkswagen Golf Sportwagen

2015 Volkswagen Golf Sportwagen

Complaints about this year name airbag far more often than the model's other years — 14% of them, about 35× the usual rate of 0.4%.

NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.

Also unusual this year

• clock spring — 9% of complaints, 23× usual
• inside — 9% of complaints, 23× usual
• tdi — 8% of complaints, 20× usual

What owners wrote

THE DISPLAY SCREEN SAYS ERROR: AIRBAG, THEN IT SAYS ERROR: TRANSMISSION. ALL THE BOTTONS ON THE STREEING WHEEL DO NOT WORK CURSE CONTROL, BOTTONS FOR CHANGING THE DISPLAY TO SEE INFO ABOUT THE CAR, AND RADIO. THE CAR WAS DRIVING ON CITY STREETS WHEN THE MESSAG…

CLOCK SPRING FAILED AT 52,000 MILES--AFFECTING BOTH THE AIRBAG AND HORN. VW REFUSED TO REIMBURSE ME FOR THE REPAIR, DESPITE THEIR CLOCK SPRING RECALL ON MULTIPLE VW MODELS, THAT WAS INITIATED BY NHTSA INVESTIGATION.

Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.

Recalls for this year

• 19V679000 UNKNOWN OR OTHER
• 18V464000 STEERING Fixed free of charge.
• 24V110000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Fixed free of charge.

Own a 2015 Volkswagen Golf Sportwagen? What happened to yours?

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How this was worked out

Every year of the Volkswagen Golf Sportwagen 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.

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