Driver assistanceEngine
Filed Jan 2, 2026
The contact owns a 2015 Volkswagen Golf. The contact stated that the vehicle jumped the curb while driving, but he was able to regain control. The driver turned off the vehicle and restarted it. Recently, while reversing out of a parking spot and placing the vehicle into drive, there was sudden acceleration, and he crashed into a fence in front of the dumpsters. The brake pedal was applied, but the vehicle continued to accelerate. The contact's neighbor was jumping up and down in front of my vehicle, waving his arms; the driver was able to stop approximately six feet in front of his neighbor. The vehicle was turned off. While reversing, the vehicle accelerated and crashed into a parked Jeep, causing damage to the driver's side front and rear doors. There was no police report filed, air bag deployment, fire, or injuries. Additionally, the EPC has been turning on. The engine was chugging. The vehicle was restarted, and the light cleared. On one occasion, the EPC light stayed on, and cylinder number 5 had stopped firing. The local dealer was not contacted. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was contacted. Additionally, the contact wanted to send the complaint copy to the insurance company and manufacturer to obtain the EDR to provide to the police and insurance company for his claim approval. The failure mileage was approximately 114,500.
- NHTSA ID
- 11708381
- Incident
- Dec 20, 2025
- Mileage
- 114,500 mi
Driver assistancePowertrain (other)
Filed Jun 2, 2023
Over the last two months, I've had over 30 incidences where the car will either randomly shift extremely hard into a gear or will hesitate, stutter, lose power while accelerating. Some of the shifts have been so hard that they've thrown me forward. Some of the losses of power are extremely dangerous as I'm accelerating at highway speeds. I have a full log of at least 30 of these incidents (and detailed as best I could) and they are attached. I picked May 11th because that was the hardest shift/loss of power which caused me the greatest harm. I've been able to reproduce the errors in drive, sport, and Tiptronic mode. The errors occur in all gears, but are most common in 2nd and 3rd (although the higher gears are involved as well), which leads me to believe it's not the transmission, yet the mechatronics unit or something outside of the transmission and engine itself. The troubling issue here is that the car is recording absolutely zero fault codes for diagnosis; that is, the car is shifting, stuttering, hesitating randomly and erratically and no diagnostics are being provided to resolve the issue. Technicians are able to guess what the issue is, but cannot give a guarantee what the problem is without the fault codes. This is the greatest safety concern, but luckily no crashes so far. I was interested to learn that there was a recall on the same model by the Australian government related to the pressure accumulator and I'd like to see if this could be the issue, since I'm experiencing the same symptoms as those described in the recall: https://www.vehiclerecalls.gov.au/recalls/rec-005369. The contact stated that the loss of power issue still persists. The contact stated the issue is a faulty crank trigger.
- NHTSA ID
- 11525100
- Incident
- May 11, 2023
AirbagsDriver assistanceElectrical
Filed Feb 23, 2023
Clock spring issue in VW golf’s should re reinvestigated. These are failing on these cars and companies are not looking into fixes or warranty help for these devices that should last. It’s shortsighted for consumers to continue to deal with this issue.
- NHTSA ID
- 11508805
- Incident
- Feb 3, 2023
AirbagsDriver assistance
Filed Sep 16, 2020
THE CLOCKSPRING BROKE ABOUT 1 YEAR AGO I HAD IT REPLACED. IT BROKE AGAIN LAST WEEK. THE AIRBAG IS DISABLED AS IS THE HORN AND CRUISE CONTROL.
- NHTSA ID
- 11355305
- Incident
- Sep 10, 2020
- Mileage
- 112,000 mi
Driver assistance
Filed Oct 13, 2016
WHEN VW UPDATED THE SOFTWARE TO CORRECT THE DEFECTIVE CAMSHAFT, THEY DISABLED THE CRUISE CONTROL FEATURES AND ARE UNABLE AND UNWILLING TO CORRECT, THE VEHICLE IS RUNNING WHEN THIS DISABLED FEATURE IMPACTS THE CAR UNDER ALL DRIVING CONDITIONS.
- NHTSA ID
- 10915886
- Incident
- Mar 1, 2016
- Mileage
- 11,000 mi
Driver assistance
Filed Feb 13, 2016
IN 3 SEPARATE INSTANCES, WHILE DRIVING AT HIGHWAY SPEEDS (65-72 MPH), THE CRUISE CONTROL HAS DISENGAGED, CAUSING SUDDEN AND RAPID DECELERATION OF THE VEHICLE. IN ALL INSTANCES, THE PAVEMENT WAS DRY, I WAS NOT TAILGATING, AND FEET WERE NOT NEAR THE BRAKE (I.E. I DID NOT ACCIDENTALLY HIT THE BRAKE). THIS IS A DANGEROUS SCENARIO. WILL BE TAKING THE CAR INTO DEALER IN A FEW WEEKS, BUT UNSURE THEY WILL BE ABLE TO REPRODUCE OR DIAGNOSE THE PROBLEM. SEVERAL OTHER OWNERS OF GOLFS HAVE REPORTED THIS SAME ISSUE ON THE TDI FORUM.
- NHTSA ID
- 10825932
- Incident
- Jan 14, 2016
- Mileage
- 16,500 mi
Driver assistance
Filed Jun 8, 2015
THE MODEL ABOVE IS A GOLF TDI WITH A 6 SPEED MANUAL TRANSMISSION....AS I WAS DRIVING IN 6TH GEAR AT 60 M.P.H. WITH THE CRUISE ENGAGED I CAME UPON A DOWN GRADE AND AS I HAVE DONE FOR CLOSE TO 50 YEARS AND NUMEROUS STANDARD TRANSMISSION CARS, DOWN SHIFTED TO 5TH TO ALLOW ENGINE BRAKING DOWNHILL. WHEN I LET THE CLUTCH BACK OUT THE CAR ACCELERATED INSTEAD OF SLOWING BECAUSE THE CRUISE NEVER CANCELLED. IT WAS TRYING TO BRING ME BACK TO THE SET 60 M.P.H. SET SPEED. TOOK THE CAR TO THE DEALER, GANLEY VW NORTH OLMSTEAD OHIO, ON 6/8/15, AND AFTER THEY LOOKED AT IT I WAS TOLD THIS WAS "NORMAL" THIS WAS NEVER "NORMAL" WITH ANY OTHER CAR I HAVE OWNED AND IF SO IT DEFINITELY IS NOT A SAFE FEATURE.
- NHTSA ID
- 10724109
- Incident
- Jun 1, 2015
- Mileage
- 7,500 mi
Driver assistance
Filed May 7, 2015
RURAL ROAD IN FLORIDA, CRUISE CONTROL SET TO SPEED LIMIT OF 45 MPH. APPROACHING A SHARP CURVE, I DOWN SHIFTED MY MANUAL TRANSMISSION FROM 5TH TO 3RD TO SLOW DOWN TO AN APPROPRIATE SPEED OF ABOUT 35 MPH. WHEN I RELEASED THE CLUTCH, AND BEGAN STEERING INTO THE CURVE, THE CAR'S CRUISE CONTROL RE-ENGAGED AND I FOUND MYSELF STRUGGLING TO STEER AROUND THE CURVE AT 45 MPH. EXACT MODEL IS GOLF SPORTWAGEN TDI SEL WITH MANUAL TRANSMISSION. VW'S OWN INSTRUCTION VIDEO SAYS THAT WHEN THE CLUTCH PEDAL IS DEPRESSED THE CRUISE CONTROL DIS-ENGAGES AND THAT THE DRIVER MUST PRESS THE RESUME BUTTON FOR THE CRUISE CONTROL TO BE RE-ENGAGED. IN MY 50 YEARS OF OPERATING AUTOMOBILES, EVERY CAR WITH CRUISE CONTROL AND A MANUAL TRANSMISSION HAS OPERATED PER THE INSTRUCTIONS IN THE VW VIDEO. UPON CAREFUL READING OF THE OWNER'S MANUAL I FOUND THE FOLLOWING DISCLAIMER: "CHANGING GEARS WHEN CRUISE CONTROL IS ACTIVE ... THE CRUISE CONTROL REDUCES ACCELERATION AS SOON AS THE CLUTCH PEDAL IS PRESSED, AND AUTOMATICALLY CONTINUE TO REGULATE SPEED AFTER A GEAR CHANGE." THIS NON-STANDARD BEHAVIOR MAY SOON LEAD TO PEOPLE BEING KILLED. *TR
- NHTSA ID
- 10715076
- Incident
- May 6, 2015
- Mileage
- 300 mi
Higher-selling and older vehicles accumulate more reports. Counts are not failure rates and are not directly comparable between vehicles that sold in very different numbers.