2018 Volkswagen Atlas owner complaints

I am reporting a failure by Volkswagen Group of America to provide a safe and timely remedy for Safety Recall 23V-215. Per the manufacturer's notice, the front passenger seat is unsafe for use until repaired. I physically surrendered my vehicle to Merced VW on Dec 29, 2025, due to this grounding safety risk. However, both the dealership and VW Corporate (Case #07228209) have refused to provide a comparable 7-passenger loaner or a direct-bill rental, despite this being my family's primary transportation for three children. VW Corporate has denied reimbursement, citing a '3-hour' labor time, while ignoring the actual grounding period caused by parts backorders. I am currently forced to pay out-of-pocket for a rental to ensure my family's safety because the manufacturer has failed to provide

The vehicle is a 2018 VW Atlas SE w/Tech 2.0T FWD. The manufacturer recall number is 69FB. The NHTSA recall number is 23V215. The recall status is incomplete because a remedy is not yet available. I have called several VW dealerships and they are all saying there is no remedy identified yet for this. This has been a known issue since April 2023. It has now been 8 months. How long does a manufacturer have to NOT remedy a SAFETY situation?

Volkswagen has been aware of a known recall since April 2023 and 9 months later has still not resolved a very serious recall rendering the front passenger seat completely useless.

There have been seven recalls on the 2018 atlas launch edition. Cook vw in fallston has refused to repair at least 5 recalls. It's been months and they haven't repaired anything. We took faith in these people and they could care less for my family's safety. Today we got a recall letter about the ignition. That makes 6 recalls they will not fix. Multiple occasions. Don't have dates but they should be in the database at this dealership. They all happened in 2018.

The contact owns a 2018 Volkswagen Atlas. The contact stated that the air bag warning light was illuminated. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 23V215000 (Air Bags) however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The local dealer was contacted. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The manufacturer was made aware of the issue. VIN tool confirms parts not available. The failure mileage was 50,000.

No use of the airbags in the front passenger seat in my atlas it makes it soo that my seven seater is really a 6 seater that doesn’t have a front passenger seat it’s unbelievable

My vehicle was recalled 3/29/23, and no attempt has been made to fix the problem. At this time, the dealer has no remedy. I do not have full use of my vehicle as the manufacturer suggests that no one ride in the front passenger seat due to the potential fault in the system. The extended wait to have a fix for the problem is unacceptable. No dealership will want to purchase this car with the current recall so I am stuck. The NHTSA should immediately do something about this manufacturer recall. VW should be made to repair the problem ASAP and pay for the loss of the full use of the vehicle.

The contact owns a 2018 Volkswagen Atlas. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 23V215000 (Air Bags) however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The dealer was made aware of the issue and confirmed that parts were not yet available. The manufacturer was made aware of the issue and confirmed that parts were not yet available. The contact had not experienced a failure. VIN tool confirms parts not available.

The battery on my vehicle has died multiple times. It is only a year old but it has died while driving in the auto start/stop mode and after parked at work and in my garage. Today it was -25 degrees f and it completely died on me after being at work for 4 hours, which was incredibly dangerous. Also, more often than not, my auto start on my key fob doesn't work either.

I had 2 incidents when using the start-stop system. The first time was a couple of months back. I was driving to my work. When I stopped at a red light (very busy avenue at mathilda ave, sunnyvale with 4 lanes traffic in one way), when I tried to start, the car would not start. I had to restart the engine again to start the car. The second time, 12/2/2018 5:50pm. I was driving with my wife and two of our kids (one infant under 1). We stopped for the red light at the cross road of jackson st and meek ave, hayward (very busy intersection with 3 lanes traffic in one way). When I tried to start, the car completely stopped there and would not ignite at all. We had to call 911 immediately because the speed limit is very high and it put my family into a risk of being hit. The battery completely f

Engine shuts down unexpectable at a stop sign/light and when driving in parking lots. A message on the dashboard comes on "Manually restart the vehicle" This has happen several times (at least 4 times) in the past few days

The contact owns a 2018 Volkswagen Atlas. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 23V215000 (Air Bags) however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The dealer was contacted. The contact stated that the air conditioning system would activate unintendedly. Additionally, the windshield wiper blade speed would fluctuate while functioning. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 45,000. VIN tool confirms parts not available.

Both low beam headlights went out within two weeks of each other and the vehicle just hit 100,000 miles. Dealership states that replacing the entire headlight assembly is the only fix and will cost $3,000. So now both headlights (safety issue) are out and the vehicle cannot be driven safely. Other VW Atlas vehicles are having the same issue around 50-60K miles. There should be a recall on the head lamps for safety concerns and liability reasons.

Car was purchased new 2/15/2018. Has 41000 miles and dealer maintained. My wife was at an intersection with a 1 year old and 4 year old in the car when auto shutoff occurred. Vehicle would not restart in a busy intersection. My wife had to be pushed to the edge of the road with the kids in the car and be jump started. Dealer says it is all due to a bad battery. Upon research this is a frequent and hazardous issue. *bf consumer replaced the battery.*jb

Problems with fuel injector where the manufacturer advise to change the all injectors after 100k miles . Where they sending me to pay for this expenses. The acc automatic cruise control also failed where they charging $600 to reprogram the system for some reason stop working how can this happen with a new car.

Sunroof glass exploded for no apparent reason.

I came to a full stop as I was about to exit a driveway. Since there were no vehicles approaching from either direction and there were no obstacles in front of me, I stated to pull out of the driveway when the autonomous emergency braking system suddenly and abruptly stopped my vehicle with no justification. This type of system failure can result in injury.

Rotars are warped after reporting problems with the brakes to the dealer on oct 6,2017 current mileage is 27,000

Battery has been dying and was dead this morning. 2 year old car in san diego temperate weather. 18k miles. From forums, it seems this car has faulty stock batteries that cannot sustain the start/stop strain on the batteries. Having to take to dealership for replacement. Uncertain they will properly cover it.

Hello, this vehicle (2018 VW Atlas) does have defective headlights (headlight stopped working), High beam works fine but low beam doesn't. I did a thorough research and looks like this issue is very common on All VW Atlas, dealer is telling us that the whole assembly needs to be replaced since the design of this headlight does not have a bulb that can be replaced, the cost of each headlight is over $1,000 each and over $500 in labor and they are on backorder since a lot of people are having this issue. Please assist us on getting this resolved since it is a SAFETY Hazard, people cannot drive their cars without lights, VW should be able to do a recall on this bad design/quality headlights.