2008 Volkswagen Passat
This year drew an ordinary 174 complaints for a Volkswagen Passat — the model's median is 148. What they were about is the unusual part: 8.6% of them mention restart, against 3.3% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 1 of the Volkswagen Passat, which began in 2006 and ran to 2011. 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 | 174 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 148 |
| Involving a crash | 3 |
| Involving a fire | 6 |
| Recalls | 4 |
| EPA combined | 21 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- restart — 8.6% of this year's complaints, against 3.3% across the other years of this generation (2.6×).
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
WHILE DRIVING APPROXIMATELY 60 MPH, THE VEHICLE STALLED AND ALL THE WARNING LIGHTS ILLUMINATED. THE VEHICLE FAILED TO RESTART. THE VEHICLE WAS TOWED TO AN INDEPENDENT MECHANIC, BUT IT WAS NOT DIAGNOSED OR REPAIRED. THE [VIN] WAS NOT MADE AWARE OF THE FAILURE.…
SOMETIMES VEHICLE STALLS UPON STARTING AND THEN WILL RESTART. THE VEHICLE SOMETIMES SHAKES AND SPUTTERS AND THEN STALLS WHILE STOPPED. ALSO, MANY TIMES CAR WILL STALL WHEN VEHICLE IS MOVING SOMETIMES AT HIGH SPEEDS WITH NO WARNING AND HAS ALMOST RESULTED IN NU…
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.
- 16V078000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 08V235000 ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Volkswagen Passat 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 2008 Volkswagen Passat? What happened to yours?
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