general problems of the 2019 Volkswagen Atlas

1. What component or system failed or malfunctioned, and is it available for inspection upon request? the engine and the hvac systems. Specifically, a persistent "ghost misfire"—where the engine vibrates and shudders without triggering a dashboard warning light—and a total heater failure. The vehicle is currently held at the dealership; all service records (ro# 367641, 367891, 367980, 368179) are available. 2. How was your safety or the safety of others put at risk? the "ghost misfire" causes shaking and hesitation during acceleration, creating a risk of losing power or stalling in high-speed traffic. Because the vehicle's diagnostics do not trigger a warning light for this condition, the driver has no advance notice of a potential engine failure. 3. Has the problem been reproduced or confirmed by a dealer or independent service center? yes. Dealership technicians confirmed the misfire on Feb 9 (ro# 367891) and found a defective spark plug gap (. 024” vs. . 036”). On Feb 25, the service consultant confirmed the "ghost misfire" remained active. The heater failure was confirmed via a 'heater support pump dry run' fault code (ro# 367641). 4. Has the vehicle or component been inspected by the manufacturer, police, insurance representatives or others? the vehicle has been inspected by dealership technicians. Formal complaints have also been filed with the California bureau of automotive repair and the California attorney general. 5. Were there any warning lamps, messages or other symptoms of the problem prior to the failure, and when did they first appear? symptoms began following a service on Jan 30. Feb 8: exhaust malfunction light (mil) appeared briefly with severe shaking. Feb 9–present: exhaust malfunction warning lights appeared briefly and then disappeared, but the engine vibration and "ghost misfire" symptoms remain active and undetected by the vehicle's onboard diagnostics. Feb total loss of heat occurred during a highway drive without a dashboard warning lamp.

I’ve consistently had a coolant leak with my engine water pump. Constantly have to refill the coolant. The reason I’m making this complaint is because yesterday October 1, 2025 I filled up my coolant and I drove a few miles to the grocery store and my coolant was empty and I got a coolant, low warning light and the coolant pump was completely empty. This is becoming very expensive and should not happen on a certified preowned vehicle with only 75,000 miles.

Driving at constant speed on highway, vehicle either loses acceleration and / or applies brake for short moment. Tapping the accelerator appears allow the vehicle to resume to initial intended speed. Automatic braking, not intended by the driver is a safety risk for both this and adjacent drivers. The problem has been reproduced by a dealer service center. No other agencies have inspected the vehicle's problem. No warning lamps, messages or other symptoms evident. Dealer has had the vehicle to two weeks and has not provided a viable resolution.

Grinding and squealing noise when accelerating from stop to go as it last for up to 5 seconds each time.

The transmission at low speeds, while accelerating makes a grinding noise.

My Volkswagen Atlas transmission appears to be making a grinding, screeching or squealing noise when accelerating at low speeds. Sounds to me like a bad torque converter but its not a normal noise. It also seems to not accelerate when this noise happens and if it stops when I pull into traffic I'll get hit. I took it to a dealer in NJ, said he has had others complain and that there is nothing they can do. My car is till under warranty, but they refuse to fix it. Its not safe!!!.

Steering assist failure at low and highway speed. Lurching and speed fluctuating at low and highway speed. Adaptive cruise control failure at low and highest speed. Yes, it is reproducible.

I bought the car new 2 years ago and the issues began around 11k miles and have continued every several months to it is current 45k mileage. On 4 occasions my car has powered down while driving speeds approximately 60mph and began shaking with the epc and check engine light becoming illuminated. Of those occasions, 3 of which I was able to get the car to the side of the road and restart it to get to a servicer. 1 of those times I had to have to towed. On the fifth occasion the car began shaking and worsened with accelaration with both the check engine and epc light on. The dealer has only changed a coil to date. Other occasions they repaired recalls in hopes of stopping. Several times I have been told it was a misfire and they could not pinpoint the issue.

Military combat retired veteran, purchased cpo 2019 Atlas from vw dealer. Claim filed with vw customer care. Numerous issues with steering rack, and excessive vibrations at normal speeds. Vehicle has never sounded or handled like would be expected. First alignment and 4 wheel balance 1 month after purchase - 2 months later, steering rack replaced. 5 months and 5500 miles after rack replaced, brakes and tires worn 50% post-steering rack replacement. Dealer state 'steering rack retorqued', and ware on tires and brakes due to 'underinflation'. When asked what psi was on the tires, dealer did not take a readings. Tire ware does not indicate 'underinflation', or misalignment. Indicates issues with toe or camber - presumably from when steering rack was replaced. Dealer resolution was to replaced tires, brakes, and rotors at a cost of over $2000 - all of this without knowing exactly what is causing the excessive ware. . . Each time, dealer indicates that "underinflation" or "alignment" issue - of which tire tread ware does not align with cause. Dealer still 'unsure' of what has caused issues, but 'is confident that it is good now'. At this point, without knowing the 'why' something is happening, and with dealer unable to determine root cause of problems, do not feel safe with my family in this vehicle.

Since the purchase of this vehicle in 2019 I have complained that it was not shifting gears properly and upon first acceleration the Atlas would feel jumpy or hesitate. When slowing down even at 5 or 10 mph the vehicle would stay in 3rd gear. In June 2020 I had it documented, vw tech tested vehicle and stated performing to manufacturer's specs. It stayed like this and I took to another dealer in April 2021, Nov 2021, & Dec 2021 & was told transmission fine, then it began making a loud noise at 60 mph, car would softly shake or vibrate & took back to dealer in Feb 2022 and it was found that the transmission was faulty. Big chunks of metal scrap were found in pan by dealer tech. Vw advised dealer to change out transmission & cooler for a new one. Vehicle was returned to me with new transmission & cooler. I have since noticed that it continues to jump or hesitate at first acceleration and I am afraid that I will continue to have the issue and my vehicle will no longer be under warranty in a few thousand miles. No warning lights or messages ever appeared so to them it was fine until the sound was undeniable and big chunks of metal were found. This is unsafe for anyone to drive around with a faulty transmission.

The vehicle has had issues with the torque converter, head, head gasket, electrical system, gas cap door, seat belt. Vw has not been able to fix the issues.

The contact owns a 2019 Volkswagen Atlas. The contact stated that while operating the vehicle a squealing type noise was present when accelerating from a standing start. The contact indicated that the noise was present for approximately three seconds before dissipating away. The vehicle was taken to the local dealer who replaced an engine valve but the failure continued to occur. No further information was available. The manufacturer was also notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 13,000.

On several occasions, the vehicle has stalled completely while at red lights or stopped in traffic, both in the city and on major highways. (the date provided is the most recent, but the condition has happened since the purchase in August 2019). I've had to completely restart the car. This is dangerous because anxious drivers behind begin to move forward expecting that I should also, not to mention the horn honking and hand gestures that have occurred. I had a very near miss this past weekend in this exact scenario.

While exiting parking lots at low speeds, the braking system slammed on the brakes bringing my car to a complete stop. One exit had somewhat of a steep slope , the other one was almost flat. Thankfully no one was behind me or I could have easily been rear ended since nothing was around me and nothing else could have caused the brakes to slam on. Car is also very jerky while accelerating or braking. Jerks through the gears and then jerks while braking. This happens at low speeds, most prevalent in neighborhoods going over bumps or slowing for stop signs. Took my car in to get looked at, they preformed a "software update" and said it would most likely stop the jerking. When I was leaving, I was given a "vehicle emission recall-proof of correction-CA" form just in case the dmv asked me for this form. The "software" update seemed to somewhat fix the problem but not all the way. My car either drives super jerky or smooth, no in between. In my opinion, for a $40, 000 car, this is ridiculous. Haven't even made a payment on it and im not looking forward to it (unless it was actually driving correctly).

Car just stops when leaving a parking lot and my driveway , no other cars are in the area. Braking is jerky alert system goes crazy with no one around the car just stops. This happen to us a total of 7 times so far. I the first time I reported to the dealer was on June 8 the car had 500 miles. Went back to the dealer late June and they test drove the car with us. It didnt stop but the service manger did witness the sensitive alerts and stated that he would contact the field manager. No follow up from the dealer was received for three weeks . This dealer is not acting in good faith. Then he says that there is no updates to the collision warning system and told us to call customer care. I have a 43,000 car that I am afraid to drive.

Tl-the contact owns a 2019 vw Atlas 3. 6 sel premium awd. The contact stated that while accelerating at varoius speeds there an abnormal noise ( squealing) intermittently without warning. The vehicle was taken to the dealer timmons Subaru 3950 cherry Ave, long beach, CA 90807 (888) 496-9707 gearbox is faulty but no remedy are available for repairs. The vehicle was not repair. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 9,748.

When the vehicle comes to a stop and the auto start/stop activates, the vehicle will sometimes not auto restart and will display, "please manually restart the engine". In order to follow the prompts and start the vehicle again, you have to put the vehicle in park and push the ignition button. I was able to recreate this issue 100% of the time by coming to a stop, having the ignition auto stop and then removing my seat belt (like you often do in a drive-thru to get your wallet out of your back pocket). I've also found that even though the vehicle will display, "please manually restart" if you reconnect your seat belt and push the gas pedal, the car will take off in drive. I"ve had this happen unexpectedly on four different occasions now and some incidents have occurred in the street and occurred even when the seat belt was attached. This is a major safety issue that could result in a crash with serious injury or death. The vehicle has been to vw twice now over the issue and the dealer tries to claim that's how the vehicle is designed to operate. I showed them page 173 in the owner's manual which states that all three of the following conditions must be met for the vehicle not to auto restart: no pedal is depressed, the driver's seat belt is removed, and the driver's door is opened. The word all is in bold and capitalized in the owners manual. My vehicle is currently back at the dealership and I've also contacted vw corporate in reference to the issue. The loaner Atlas the dealer gave me performs in the same defective manner. I believe there's a computer programming issue and all Atlas' need recalled to correct the issue because they're not performing per the owner's manual; which could lead to serious injury or death. There is video of the issue and the dealer was able to recreate the problem as well even though they are fighting me to correct the issue.

First time I had a transmission leak was @215 miles. They replaced the transmission oil cooler adapter. Just rolled over 30k, and have had 2 other toca replaced since then. Called vw to ask about lemon law, was declined. My car has been all highway miles, never once off-road.

We bought this new vehicle on November 8, 2019. An extremely strong odor protruded from this vehicle inside the cabin when the vehicle was idling and when turned off. It smelled like burning paint or an engine burning smell. It was nauseating and made my six year old son very sick. This was our primary and most important, vital concern and worry.

Rough jumping shifting from 1st to 2nd gear. Vw states they do not have a fix at this time and that it is normal for the Atlas. This is a safety issue based on how the vehicle performs on the road from stop to go.

1) radar auto-brake: when parallel parking and backing ( going in reverse ) parallel to the curb, at maybe 2 mph and 10 inches from curb, I got yellow stop, stop !!!!!!! message followed by sensation of hitting an object and being thrown into the seat. Only there was no object. Ran out of a car, nothing and nobody there, at least for 50 yards. An auto-brake engaged. That is really broken. Interference caused it to do that ? overheated computer in 90 degree sun ? 2) transmission logic: unrelated to above, when going in slow traffic 2-10 mph, pressing gas shifts transmission into higher gear instead of lower, resulting in hit-like engagement and actual inability to rev the engine and accelerate. Slow and deep pedal movement does downshift and accelerate but too much. All cars are like that and I test drove several. 3) transmission logic: related to (2) above, paradoxically in sport driving mode, when trying to accelerate and merge highway from 10 mph, transmission shifted up several gears, not allowing to rev the engine, and resulted in rpm decay /power loss -- very scary. That launch was timely aborted, and driver later merged the road in manual "tiptronic" mode. 4) improper gas pedal calibration: compared to other german, japanese and american cars, vw Atlas has abnormal and unsafe gas pedal calibration. From a stop, only lightly feathering the pedal results in civilized controlled motion. Normal gas pedal pressure results in a car rocketing forward uncontrollably. Vw has to talk to some other manufacturers and get their gas calibration consistent with other cars, so it can be driven steady and safely at slow speeds when necessary.

A scandalous sound that comes from the engine area just below is played. This happens when I step on the accelerator after having slowed down when I am arriving at a stop or I am in traffic. When the accelerator is pressed the car does not respond and the sound is presented. This situation is also presented when I climb a slope. Take the car to the dealer and they confirm that the sound comes from the transmission and they tell me that it is normal in this type of car. Which is meaningless in my opinion.

Bought my Atlas on 3/24/19, a few days after I got the low coolant warning light while driving. Took it in to the dealer and they topped it off and said, "OH they come to the dealer sometimes a little low. " not sure why they don't check when prepping the car for delivery. On 4/3, light came on again while driving. Took it back to the dealer 4/4, no visible leak underneath or by the tank. A possible leak was found behind the engine near the firewall, I can see some pink pooling on something silver (engine or trans whatever it is). They determined that the coolant hose has failed and claim to have never seen that issue before. They ordered the wrong parts and couldn't fit. They are ordering more parts and it could be a few weeks before I get it back. I have also engaged vw of America. This should not happen on a new car yet alone the dealer take so long to fix it. The car has only 400 miles on it. Please investigate. Thanks.