2010 Volkswagen Passat
This year drew an ordinary 163 complaints for a Volkswagen Passat — the model's median is 148. What they were about is the unusual part: 11.7% of them mention cannot, against 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 | 163 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 148 |
| Involving a crash | 5 |
| Involving a fire | 1 |
| Recalls | 4 |
| EPA combined | 25 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- cannot — 11.7% of this year's complaints, against 3% across the other years of this generation (3.9×). Owners wrote it as: cannot, city street, plate, looks.
- clock — 6.7% of this year's complaints, against 0.8% across the other years of this generation (8.1×). Owners wrote it as: clock, spring, clock spring, second time.
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 SECOND TIME IN ONE WEEK I LOST POWER STEERING WHILE DRIVING ON A CITY STREET. LOSS OF POWER STEERING DUE TO CLOCK SPRING MALFUNCTION? IF THAT OCCURS WHILE DRIVING ON A HIGHWAY IT VERY DANGEROUS TO ME AND OTHER MOTORISTS. I PURCHASE THIS VEHICLE 9 MONTHS AG…
VEHICLE WAS RECALLED FOR AIR BAG/CLOCK SPRING REASON TWICE IN JUST OVER A YEAR. NOW, SHORTLY AFTER BOTH OF THESE REPAIRS, WE HAD A NOISE IN THE STEERING WHEEL, AS WELL AS AN AIR BAG FAILURE INDICATOR ILLUMINATE. WE CANNOT HELP BUT FEEL THIS IS RELATED TO THE W…
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.
- 15V483000 AIR BAGS 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 2010 Volkswagen Passat? What happened to yours?
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