2021 Volkswagen Atlas
Complaints about this year name windows far more often than the other years of this generation — 13% of them, about 8× the usual rate of 1.7%.
Generation 1 of the Volkswagen Atlas, which began in 2018 and ran to 2023. Everything below compares this year against the others in that generation, not against a different car wearing the same name.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 454 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 123 |
| Involving a crash | 8 |
| Involving a fire | 1 |
| Recalls | 17 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 20.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- hood — 10.4% of this year's complaints, against 3.2% across the other years of this generation (3.2×). Owners wrote it as: hood, release, latch, cable.
- starting — 6.4% of this year's complaints, against 2.3% across the other years of this generation (2.8×). Owners wrote it as: starting, starting car.
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
Also unusual this year
- door — 16% of complaints, 3× usual
- daytime running — 6% of complaints, 16× usual
- harness — 10% of complaints, 5× usual
What owners wrote
Door harness replacement needed, car is only a few months old, less than 10k Miles. Various sensors go off indicating a contact door switch issue, and the parking brake will go off and windows will open. This happened to me with children in the car and snowy w…
I had the door wiring harness repaired in May 2022 as part of the VW Atlas safety recall. The replacement part is now failing and causing the same dangerous conditions (windows going up and down sporadically, parking brake engaging) but because the recall was…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 20V716000 BACK OVER PREVENTION Fixed free of charge.
- 21V026000 STEERING Fixed free of charge.
- 21V132000 WHEELS Fixed free of charge.
- 21V812000 WHEELS Fixed free of charge.
- 21V892000 VISIBILITY Fixed free of charge.
- 20V505000 SEATS Fixed free of charge.
- 20V504000 EXTERIOR LIGHTING Fixed free of charge.
- 20V702000 TIRES Fixed free of charge.
Showing 8 of 17. The rest are on NHTSA's site.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Volkswagen Atlas was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2021 Volkswagen Atlas? What happened to yours?
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