2010 Volkswagen Tiguan
This year drew an ordinary 109 complaints for a Volkswagen Tiguan — the model's median is 132. What they were about is the unusual part: 22.9% of them mention started, against 8.1% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 1 of the Volkswagen Tiguan, which began in 2009 and ran to 2017. Everything below compares this year against the others in that generation, not against a different car wearing the same name.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 109 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 132 |
| Involving a crash | 5 |
| Involving a fire | 4 |
| Recalls | 2 |
| EPA combined | 21 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- started — 22.9% of this year's complaints, against 8.1% across the other years of this generation (2.8×).
- valves — 6.4% of this year's complaints, against 0.5% across the other years of this generation (12.3×).
- seen — 7.3% of this year's complaints, against 1.7% across the other years of this generation (4.3×). Owners wrote it as: seen, smell.
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
MY HUSBAND WAS DRIVING MY VEHICLE AND I SAT IN THE PASSENGER SEAT TURNED ON THE HEATED SEATING AND AFTER ABOUT 2 MIN I STARTED TO SMELL PLASTIC BURNING MY LEG WAS BURNING AND WE SEEN SMOKE IN THE CAR AND PULLED OVER. WHEN I GOT OUT THE CAR MY SEAT HAD A HOLE I…
DEALERSHIP INFORMED US TIMING CHAIN NEEDED TO BE REPLACED AND MANIFOLD WOULD BE REPLACED UNDER WARRANTY. AFTER REPLACING TIMING CHAIN, THEY NOTIFIED US MANIFOLD WAS ALREADY REPLACED ON VEHICLE AND IT ALSO NEEDED NEW VALVES DUE TO BEING BENT FROM BAD TIMING CHA…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 14V441000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Fixed free of charge.
- 13V569000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Volkswagen Tiguan 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 2010 Volkswagen Tiguan? What happened to yours?
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