2020 Volkswagen Tiguan
This year drew an ordinary 137 complaints for a Volkswagen Tiguan — the model's median is 109. What they were about is the unusual part: 30.7% of them mention console, against 11.1% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 2 of the Volkswagen Tiguan, which began in 2018 and ran to 2024. 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 | 137 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 109 |
| Involving a crash | 5 |
| Recalls | 3 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 24 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- console — 30.7% of this year's complaints, against 11.1% across the other years of this generation (2.8×). Owners wrote it as: console, overhead, overhead console, hanging.
- panel — 13.1% of this year's complaints, against 3.3% across the other years of this generation (3.9×). Owners wrote it as: panel, instrument panel, falls, booster.
- starter — 15.3% of this year's complaints, against 6% across the other years of this generation (2.5×). Owners wrote it as: starter, check starter, hot, ignition.
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
Overhead console fell out of ceiling. Hanging by wires. This poses a danger especially when it falls during driving. It is a known vw issue. The plastic tabs at each of the 4 mounting points of the panel had cracked, and snapped causing the entire panel to fal…
Tiguan overhead sunroof/bluetooth control console detached and fell down on its own and was hanging by wires. No one was in the car. Very dangerous if it had happened when driving. Had to drive it to dealer by rigging a bungee cord and paper clips to hold it u…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 20V505000 SEATS Fixed free of charge.
- 20V579000 SEAT BELTS
- 22V226000 STRUCTURE 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 2020 Volkswagen Tiguan? What happened to yours?
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