2005 Volkswagen Passat
This year drew an ordinary 148 complaints for a Volkswagen Passat — the model's median is 152. What they were about is the unusual part: 33.8% of them mention oil, against 6.3% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 148 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 152 |
| Involving a crash | 7 |
| Involving a fire | 11 |
| Recalls | 4 |
| EPA combined | 21.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- oil — 33.8% of this year's complaints, against 6.3% across the model's other years (5.4×).
- tdi — 36.5% of this year's complaints, against 13.5% across the model's other years (2.7×). Owners wrote it as: tdi, passat tdi, gear, driven.
- noise — 27.7% of this year's complaints, against 9.3% across the model's other years (3×). Owners wrote it as: noise, shaft assembly, lead, 60k.
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
THE ENGINE BEGAN TO RATTLE VIOLENTLY IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE VEHICLE WAS STARTED. THE NOISE SOUNDED LIKE MARBLES ROLLING AROUND IN THE ENGINE COMPARTMENT. THE NOISE WAS LOUDER DURING START UP AND WHILE DRIVING LOWER SPEEDS. THE VEHICLE WAS TAKEN TO THE DEALER FO…
WHILE DRIVING 25 MPH, THE ENGINE BEGAN TO OVERHEAT AND DRAIN THE COOLANT. THE FAILURE OCCURRED MULTIPLE TIMES AND THE CONTACT HAD TO CONTINUOUSLY REPLACE THE COOLANT OVER A COUPLE OF WEEKS. THE CHECK ENGINE INDICATOR ILLUMINATED. THE VEHICLE WAS TAKEN TO AN IN…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 14E007000 ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING Fixed free of charge.
- 08V156000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Fixed free of charge.
- 07V063000 EXTERIOR LIGHTING Fixed free of charge.
- 04V586000 FUEL SYSTEM, DIESEL
How this was worked out
Every year of the Volkswagen Passat 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 2005 Volkswagen Passat? What happened to yours?
Loading comments…