2011 Volkswagen CC
This year drew an ordinary 86 complaints for a Volkswagen CC — the model's median is 80. What they were about is the unusual part: 16.3% of them mention defective, against 5.1% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 86 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 80 |
| Involving a crash | 2 |
| Recalls | 4 |
| EPA combined | 25 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- defective — 16.3% of this year's complaints, against 5.1% across the model's other years (3.2×). Owners wrote it as: defective, column, steering column, column lock.
- error — 14% of this year's complaints, against 5.4% across the model's other years (2.6×). Owners wrote it as: error, extremely, little, diagnostic test.
- drove — 12.8% of this year's complaints, against 4.4% across the model's other years (2.9×). Owners wrote it as: drove, moved, blinking, 30-40 mph.
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
WENT INTO PARKING LOT AND CRANKED VEHICLE AND SELECTED REVERSE. THE VEHICLE WOULD NOT REVERSE. SHUT VEHICLE OFF, STARTED AGAIN, AND PUSHED ACCELERATOR HARDER. THE VEHICLE MOVED, BUT WOULD ONLY ACCELERATE TO ABOUT 30-40 MPH. DROVE CAR TO THE DEALERSHIP WHERE I…
STEERING COLUMN LOCK DEFECTIVE WARNING KEEPS COMING ON WHEN STARTING VEHICLE AND SOMETIMES WHEN VEHICLE IS IN MOTION.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 18V148000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 17V509000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Fixed free of charge.
- 15V483000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 16V078000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Volkswagen CC 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 2011 Volkswagen CC? What happened to yours?
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