Model years › Volkswagen Passat

2012 Volkswagen Passat

Complaints about this year name takata recall far more often than the other years of this generation — 28% of them, about 71× the usual rate of 0.4%.

First year of a new generation. The Volkswagen Passat was redesigned for 2012. 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.

What the complaints were about

• takata — 31.3% of this year's complaints, against 3.5% across the other years of this generation (8.8×). Owners wrote it as: takata, takata recall, bags part, takata airbag.
• bags — 23.4% of this year's complaints, against 8.4% across the other years of this generation (2.8×). Owners wrote it as: bags, air bags, amount time, time recall.

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

• air bags — 22% of complaints, 9× usual
• amount time — 14% of complaints, 35× usual
• time recall — 14% of complaints, 35× usual

What owners wrote

TAKATA RECALL - RECEIVED MY LETTER OF RECALL ON TAKATA AIR BAGS IN APRIL 2016 STILL NO REPAIRS DONE, SCARY TO DRIVE A SUICIDE CAR DAY IN AND DAY OUT, I'M A WIDOW, ON A FIXED INCOME AND CAN'T AFFORD ANOTHER CAR, PLEASE HELP! THANK YOU...

TAKATA RECALL. THE CONTACT OWNS A 2012 VOLKSWAGEN PASSAT. THE CONTACT RECEIVED NOTIFICATION OF NHTSA CAMPAIGN NUMBER: 16V078000 (AIR BAGS); HOWEVER, THE PART TO DO THE REPAIR WAS UNAVAILABLE. THE CONTACT STATED THAT THE [VIN] WAS NOT MADE AWARE OF THE ISSUE. T…

Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.

Recalls for this year

• 19V389000 EXTERIOR LIGHTING Fixed free of charge.
• 18V329000 UNKNOWN OR OTHER Fixed free of charge.
• 18V148000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
• 17V309000 ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING Fixed free of charge.
• 16V078000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
• 15V483000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
• 14V125000 EXTERIOR LIGHTING Fixed free of charge.
• 16V171000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.

Showing 8 of 11. The rest are on NHTSA's site.

Own a 2012 Volkswagen Passat? What happened to yours?

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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.

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