2019 Volkswagen Atlas problems
NHTSA has received 728 complaints about the 2019 Volkswagen Atlas, and 19% of them involve air bags. After that come forward collision avoidance (13%) and brakes (11%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 728 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Air bags 19% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 13 and 0
- Injuries and deaths
- 17 and 0
- Typical mileage
- 9,000 miles 206 complaints with mileage
Source: NHTSA owner complaints
Where the complaints are
Share of this model year's complaints by the part of the car involved. One complaint can name more than one part, so the shares can add up to more than 100%.
When problems show up
View the numbers
| Mileage | Complaints |
|---|---|
| 0k to 20k miles | 143 |
| 20k to 40k miles | 32 |
| 40k to 60k miles | 10 |
| 60k to 80k miles | 11 |
| 80k to 100k miles | 5 |
| 100k to 120k miles | 2 |
| 120k to 140k miles | 0 |
| 140k to 160k miles | 2 |
| 160k to 180k miles | 1 |
| 180k to 200k miles | 0 |
| 200k+ miles | 0 |
What the data shows
Among the 206 complaints that report mileage, the typical (median) problem appeared at about 9,000 miles. For air bags specifically, the median reported mileage is about 30,000 miles (28 complaints with mileage).
Safety-related details: 13 complaints mention a crash; 17 injuries reported. Its complaints are less severe on average than those of 88% of model years in our database.
Looking only at complaints filed within five years of the model year (so older and newer years are comparable), the 2019 ranks 2nd most-complained-about out of 8 model years of the Volkswagen Atlas with enough data (594 complaints in that window). It is also covered by 12 safety recall campaigns.
What owners wrote
A few complaints as filed, shortened and with personal details removed. The first ones are among the most serious reports for this model year; the rest are typical.
On 5 Dec 20212, at approximately 1:30 while driving to the Fairfield Inn & Suites, 1707 69th Street, North Bergen, New Jersey 07047, we turned onto 69th street but missed the right turn to the hotel, so I went up the hill and made a U-turn back and the accelerator got stuck somehow and the brake pedal did not work. We were going down the hill extremely fast pumping the brakes with no luck. Rather than hit the car waiting for the Red Light I turned my car toward a power pole, and crashed extremely hard.
Windows roll down by themselves. Parking brake applies itself without warning. Multiple warning lights saying parking brake error, start stop error, hill assist error, window sensor code, and constant dinging. Hill assist will come on even when not on a hill jarring you at higher speeds. Airbags deployed late during no fault Accident. The flaws in the vehicle didn’t cause the car accident, yet it wasn’t protecting me as it should have, but could very well cause an accident with the abrupt stopping, for no reason.
This is a consistent issue and I'm worried powertrain damage is occurring. When accelerating from stopped or at low speed there is a very loud screening / grinding sound coming from the powertrain / transmission - possibly the torque converter. It happens frequently and is is very noticeable, usually when the vehicle starts to accelerate or increases acceleration at low speed then it usually goes away.