2012 Volkswagen Routan
This year drew an ordinary 63 complaints for a Volkswagen Routan — the model's median is 175. What they were about is the unusual part: 11.1% of them mention worse, against 4.1% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 63 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 175 |
| Involving a crash | 1 |
| Recalls | 1 |
| EPA combined | 20 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- worse — 11.1% of this year's complaints, against 4.1% across the model's other years (2.7×). Owners wrote it as: worse, seem, mentioning, harsh.
- position — 9.5% of this year's complaints, against 3.4% across the model's other years (2.8×). Owners wrote it as: position, limited.
- models — 7.9% of this year's complaints, against 2% across the model's other years (3.9×).
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
NHTSA Recall 14v396 is probably the best correction to this issue. My van has shut off mid-driving while my children are in the car with me. It is so dangerous in the road. I can't move the steering wheel. Mechanics can't seem to diagnose the problem because t…
SAME ISSUES AS OTHERS AS REPORTED FOR TIPM FAILURES IN VW ROUTAN / CHRYSLER VEHICLES. THE UNDERLYING COMMON PART IS THE THE PART NUMBER FOR THE TOTALLY INTEGRATED POWER MODULE IN THE 2012 VOLKSWAGEN ROUTAN IS VW 7B0937049. THE PART NUMBER IN THE VOLKSWAGEN ROU…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 12V147000 SUSPENSION Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Volkswagen Routan 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 2012 Volkswagen Routan? What happened to yours?
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