2013 Volkswagen Golf problems
Owners have filed 67 complaints with NHTSA about the 2013 Volkswagen Golf. Engine is the most reported problem area, at 21% of complaints. Next are fuel system (21%) and air bags (13%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 67 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Engine 21% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 3 and 3
- Injuries and deaths
- 1 and 0
- Typical mileage
- 50,000 miles 53 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 | 19 |
| 20k to 40k miles | 6 |
| 40k to 60k miles | 8 |
| 60k to 80k miles | 6 |
| 80k to 100k miles | 10 |
| 100k to 120k miles | 1 |
| 120k to 140k miles | 3 |
| 140k to 160k miles | 0 |
| 160k to 180k miles | 0 |
| 180k to 200k miles | 0 |
| 200k+ miles | 0 |
What the data shows
Of the 53 complaints that include odometer readings, half describe a problem before roughly 50,000 miles. For engine specifically, the median reported mileage is about 50,000 miles (11 complaints with mileage).
Safety-related details: 3 complaints mention a crash; 3 complaints mention a fire; 1 injury reported.
Looking only at complaints filed within five years of the model year (so older and newer years are comparable), the 2013 ranks 13th most-complained-about out of 20 model years of the Volkswagen Golf with enough data (53 complaints in that window). It is also covered by 5 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.
When I turned the key to start the car , the dash lights flickered and turned dim. It sounded like it does when the car battery was dead but smoke started to come out from under the hood. As I left to get to the phone , flames started to come out of the hood. I got to a phone as soon as I could and called 911. The car was parked down the street from our house because of a snow storm. The fire department came and put out the fire but the car was destroyed.
After exiting the freeway, I was driving in stop and go traffic and the engine cut out without warning. I was unable to change lanes due to lack of power and power steering, so I tried to re-start the engine while coasting in the fast lane. The hud indicated that I had to put the car in park, so I stopped the car in the fast lane in order to do so. The engine started and I was able to drive away. The car was 6 weeks old at the time, and had about 1100 miles on the odometer.
The gti started making clacking sounds, and shaking while on but stopped. Then the epc and check engine lights started flashing. Afterwards, the car would not accelerate at all and would shake a lot more. When taken to autozone for diagnostics of the check engine light, the report read: "perform engine de-carbon procedure." the coil packs were fine.