2013 Volkswagen Golf
This year drew an ordinary 43 complaints for a Volkswagen Golf — the model's median is 28. What they were about is the unusual part: 25.6% of them mention started, against 9.1% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 1 of the Volkswagen Golf, which began in 2010 and ran to 2014. 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 | 43 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 28 |
| Involving a crash | 2 |
| Involving a fire | 1 |
| Recalls | 5 |
| EPA combined | 29 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- started — 25.6% of this year's complaints, against 9.1% across the other years of this generation (2.8×).
- epc — 14% of this year's complaints, against 1.8% across the other years of this generation (7.7×). Owners wrote it as: epc, steer, off driving, loses.
- federal — 7% of this year's complaints, against 0% across the other years of this generation (34.9×).
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
THE EPC STARTED COMING ON, IT LOSES POWER AND SOMETIMES CUTS OFF WHILE I AM DRIVING. MY SPEED SLOWS DOWN TO 3 MILES AN HOUR.
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 ENG…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 18V329000 UNKNOWN OR OTHER Fixed free of charge.
- 18V148000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 16V078000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 15V483000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 19V862000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Volkswagen Golf 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 2013 Volkswagen Golf? What happened to yours?
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