2021 Volkswagen Jetta
This year drew an ordinary 66 complaints for a Volkswagen Jetta — the model's median is 201. What they were about is the unusual part: 12.1% of them mention myself, against 4.3% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 3 of the Volkswagen Jetta, which began in 2019. 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 | 66 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 201 |
| Involving a crash | 3 |
| Recalls | 4 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 33.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- myself — 12.1% of this year's complaints, against 4.3% across the other years of this generation (2.8×). Owners wrote it as: myself, hazard, safety hazard, warned.
- nor — 6.1% of this year's complaints, against 0.5% across the other years of this generation (13.2×).
- old — 7.6% of this year's complaints, against 2% across the other years of this generation (3.8×).
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
EPC light comes on and vehicle starts losing power while driving, you lose all acceleration. Check engine light has also illuminated I have taken in to have repairs done on this same issue 4 times in a span of owing this car for 7 months, this vehicle has beco…
Volkswagen corporate deployed a mandatory over-the-air (OTA) software update to the MIB3 infotainment system. The update failed mid-installation, entirely bricking the J794 information module. This failure completely disabled vital driver information systems,…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 21V038000 SEATS Fixed free of charge.
- 21V492000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 20V716000 BACK OVER PREVENTION Fixed free of charge.
- 22V514000 BACK OVER PREVENTION Fixed free of charge.
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 2021 Volkswagen Jetta? What happened to yours?
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