2016 Volkswagen Golf Sportwagen problems
NHTSA has received 73 complaints about the 2016 Volkswagen Golf Sportwagen, and 23% of them involve air bags. After that come engine (14%) and fuel system (12%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 73 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Air bags 23% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 2 and 0
- Injuries and deaths
- 0 and 0
- Typical mileage
- 44,000 miles 39 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 | 2 |
| 20k to 40k miles | 13 |
| 40k to 60k miles | 8 |
| 60k to 80k miles | 12 |
| 80k to 100k miles | 3 |
| 100k to 120k miles | 0 |
| 120k to 140k miles | 1 |
| 140k to 160k miles | 0 |
| 160k to 180k miles | 0 |
| 180k to 200k miles | 0 |
| 200k+ miles | 0 |
What the data shows
Among the 39 complaints that report mileage, the typical (median) problem appeared at about 44,000 miles. For air bags specifically, the median reported mileage is about 41,000 miles (12 complaints with mileage).
Safety-related details: 2 complaints mention a crash. Its complaints are less severe on average than those of 93% of model years in our database.
It is also covered by 3 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.
I was in a very minor accident involving only the front end. I was a a complete stop at a traffic light and hit the car directly in front of me, I hit the car car going no more than 10 miles per hour. All of the air bags deployed, driver, passenger, as well as front and back side airbags. Additionally, when the airbags deployed the windshield completely shattered on the passenger side. Luckily my son was not injured with the extreme fore of the airbag deployment.
1. I believe the driver's side airbag may have failed or been disabled during a recent collision that occurred on 5/25/21. A deer struck the front end of my vehicle while traveling on a 55MPH state highway. The vehicle is currently at a collision repair shop getting an estimate. The sheriff's deputy who responded to the scene gave an initial damage estimate of $9000.00. 2. Immediately upon impact the airbag error light illuminated but did not deploy.
Clock spring failure in under 2 years (less than 20,000 miles on the car). When car was turned on alerts came up that the airbag had malfunctioned, and automatic cruise control malfunction, none of the steering wheel controls worked, and the horn was non-functional. A quick google search LED me to believe it was the clock spring, and I also noticed VW had a clock spring recall on cars from 2011-2014, seems like this might be a larger issue.
My fiance's vehicle has the common clockspring issue which rendered all electrical components of the steering wheel inactive (horn, cruise control, air bag, and radio controls). One day she started the car and saw the check engine light come on. I scanned the vehicle and it had the known "b10001 driver airbag igniter: resistance too high" code. The dealer thought it would be covered so long as it had the correct code but vwoa denied it.