2022 Volkswagen Golf
Complaints about this year name shift knob far more often than the other years of this generation — 22% of them, about 56× the usual rate of 0.4%.
First year of a new generation. The Volkswagen Golf was redesigned for 2022. 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.
| Complaints filed | 108 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 28 |
| Recalls | 0 |
What the complaints were about
- come — 32.4% of this year's complaints, against 12.9% across the other years of this generation (2.5×). Owners wrote it as: come, 3rd, eta, community.
- control — 24.1% of this year's complaints, against 7% across the other years of this generation (3.5×).
- camera — 22.2% of this year's complaints, against 6.5% across the other years of this generation (3.4×). Owners wrote it as: camera, software, backup, backup camera.
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.
Also unusual this year
- loose — 26% of complaints, 9× usual
- warning — 34% of complaints, 4× usual
- radiator — 23% of complaints, 8× usual
What owners wrote
driving along normally with 1600 miles on the car and a low coolant message and tons of other warning lights came on. Radiator came loose from its mount, causing a cooling hose to contact engine pulley and fail. Towed car to dealership and 6 weeks later they f…
The car has a manual transmission. The car has roughly 100 miles on it (brand new). The shift knob (gear knob, gear lever, etc) comes loose periodically and pops off of the gear selector, which is very dangerous as it makes it impossible to shift the car into…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Volkswagen Golf 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 2022 Volkswagen Golf? What happened to yours?
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