2009 Volkswagen GTI
This year drew an ordinary 167 complaints for a Volkswagen GTI — the model's median is 0. What they were about is the unusual part: 64.7% of them mention abs, against 0% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 167 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 0 |
| Involving a crash | 5 |
| Involving a fire | 2 |
| Recalls | 2 |
| EPA combined | 25 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- abs — 64.7% of this year's complaints, against 0% across the model's other years (323.4×).
- module — 53.3% of this year's complaints, against 1.6% across the model's other years (33.8×).
- control — 50.3% of this year's complaints, against 5.6% across the model's other years (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
FAILED ABS MODULE WHICH MAKES SPEEDOMETER, ABS, TRACTION CONTROL NOT WORK INTERMITTENTLY.
ABS CONTROL MODULE. ABS LIGHT, TRACTION LIGHT AND BLINKING E-BRAKE LIGHT. NO TRACTION CONTROL OR ABS WHILE DRIVING.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 16V913000 SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC Fixed free of charge.
- 09V333000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Volkswagen GTI 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 2009 Volkswagen GTI? What happened to yours?
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