2014 Volkswagen Tiguan
This year drew an ordinary 83 complaints for a Volkswagen Tiguan — the model's median is 132. What they were about is the unusual part: 34.9% of them mention steering wheel, against 13.5% 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 | 83 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 132 |
| Involving a crash | 2 |
| Recalls | 3 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 4/5 |
| EPA combined | 22 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- steering wheel — 34.9% of this year's complaints, against 13.5% across the other years of this generation (2.6×).
- spring — 34.9% of this year's complaints, against 13.8% across the other years of this generation (2.5×).
- column — 19.3% of this year's complaints, against 5.2% across the other years of this generation (3.7×). Owners wrote it as: column, steering column, phone, spend.
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 CLOCK SPRING IN THE STEERING COLUMN WENT OUT. I HAVE NO ACCESS TO UPDATE ANY MAINTENANCE ITEMS TO DO MY VEHICLES, INCLUDING TIRES PRESSURE UPDATE, SERVICE UPDATE, OIL CHANGES AND SERVICE MAINTENANCE. I CANNOT TURN VOLUME OR CHANGE RADIO STATIONS, I CANNOT…
One day I noticed that my horn wasn't working. Then a few days later I noticed that I couldn't connect to my phone from the steering wheel. The the airbag light came on. Garage said it is malfunctioning of electrical parts in the steering wheel column.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 18V329000 UNKNOWN OR OTHER Fixed free of charge.
- 15V483000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 14V441000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE 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 2014 Volkswagen Tiguan? What happened to yours?
Loading comments…