2025 Volkswagen Atlas
This year drew an ordinary 40 complaints for a Volkswagen Atlas — the model's median is 162. What they were about is the unusual part: 22.5% of them mention transmission, against 1.5% across the model's other years.
Generation 2 of the Volkswagen Atlas, which began in 2024. 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 | 40 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 162 |
| Involving a crash | 1 |
| Recalls | 5 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 21 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- transmission — 22.5% of this year's complaints, against 1.5% across the model's other years (14.7×).
- back drive — 7.5% of this year's complaints, against 0.1% across the model's other years (37.5×).
- unable — 17.5% of this year's complaints, against 6.5% across the model's other years (2.7×).
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.
What owners wrote
VEHICLE TURNED ON AND QUICKLY SHUT OFF. VEHICLE HEALTH REPORT SENT A WARNING OF THE ENGINE AND TRANSMISSION AND POWERTRAIN NEEDING TO BE SERVICED IMMEDIATELY.
Our 2025 VW Altas had several engine lights come on at the same time after parking and would not shift out of neutral. Towed to the nearest VW for service and they stated it needed a transmission replacement. This vehicle had less than 16k miles.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 25V081000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.
- 25V100000 ENGINE Fixed free of charge.
- 25V334000 BACK OVER PREVENTION Fixed free of charge.
- 25V434000 SERVICE BRAKES Fixed free of charge.
- 26V473000 BACK OVER PREVENTION Fixed free of charge.
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 2025 Volkswagen Atlas? What happened to yours?
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