2016 Volkswagen Jetta
This year drew an ordinary 161 complaints for a Volkswagen Jetta — the model's median is 201. What they were about is the unusual part: 15.5% of them mention rail, against 4.7% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 2 of the Volkswagen Jetta, which began in 2011 and ran to 2018. 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 | 161 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 201 |
| Involving a crash | 18 |
| Involving a fire | 5 |
| Recalls | 5 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 29 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- rail — 15.5% of this year's complaints, against 4.7% across the other years of this generation (3.3×). Owners wrote it as: rail, fuel rail, strong, limp.
- epc — 6.8% of this year's complaints, against 2.3% across the other years of this generation (2.9×). Owners wrote it as: epc, epc light.
- keep — 6.2% of this year's complaints, against 2% across the other years of this generation (3×). Owners wrote it as: keep, 60k.
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
Fuel rail bolts loosened, causing damage to the fuel rail, as well as fuel injector seals, resulting in leaking fuel in the engine bay.
My car went into limp mode and smelled heavily of gas I went to a garage to have it checked out and they told me there diagnostic said it was fuel rail.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 20V648000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE
- 20E064000 SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC Fixed free of charge.
- 19V615000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
- 16V403000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Fixed free of charge.
- 15V705000 ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING
How this was worked out
Every year of the Volkswagen Jetta 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 2016 Volkswagen Jetta? What happened to yours?
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