Model years › Volkswagen Passat

2014 Volkswagen Passat

Complaints about this year name takata recall far more often than the other years of this generation — 25% of them, about 63× the usual rate of 0.4%.

Generation 2 of the Volkswagen Passat, which began in 2012. 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.

What the complaints were about

• takata — 29.7% of this year's complaints, against 3.5% across the other years of this generation (8.4×). Owners wrote it as: takata, takata recall, takata airbag, recall car.

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.

Also unusual this year

• amount time — 17% of complaints, 43× usual
• time recall — 16% of complaints, 40× usual
• air bags — 24% of complaints, 10× usual

What owners wrote

TAKATA RECALL. HAVE NOT HEARD ANYTHING SINCE APRIL 2016 ON THE AIR BAG RECALL AND I AM CONCERNED ABOUT DRIVING A CAR WITH FAULTY AIR BAGS.

TAKATA RECALL - WHEN WILL THE AIR BAGS BE REPLACED? I AM DRIVING WITH RECALLED, UNSAFE AIRBAGS AND THERE APPEARS TO BE ABSOLUTELY NO PLAN FOR REPLACING THEM.

Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.

Recalls for this year

• 19V389000 EXTERIOR LIGHTING Fixed free of charge.
• 18V148000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
• 17V309000 ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING Fixed free of charge.
• 14V182000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.
• 16V171000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
• 15V483000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
• 15V028000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Fixed free of charge.
• 16V078000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.

Showing 8 of 10. The rest are on NHTSA's site.

Own a 2014 Volkswagen Passat? What happened to yours?

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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.

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