general problems of the 2021 Volkswagen Atlas - part 2

Broken hood release cable at 60,726 odometer miles on a 2021 Volkswagen Atlas 2021. 5 3. 6l v6 se w/technology 4motion.

I was driving my 2021 Volkswagen Atlas on a Friday evening that has under 55,000 miles and it stopped on me while I was driving. I have never had any problems with this vehicle. This was a huge safety issue, as my vehicle stopped at a light while in motion at an intersection and it would not go forward. I attempted to turn my vehicle off and back on, then put the vehicle into park, drive, and reverse and it would not go into any gear and made this loud noise. I had to place my foot on the brakes so the vehicle would not roll until the tow company arrived all while in the middle of the intersection. My vehicle was towed to the sutherlin Volkswagen of lithia springs georgia on 1-8-2024 and was told by an advisor on 1-12-2024 that my cv axle spline malfunction causing cv axle to back out of the transmission housing, and to repair this will cost me $1355 since I'm now out of the warranty. I have been without a vehicle since 1-8-2024 so I reserved a rental for 1 week paying $255. The dealer states the parts will take a few days to come so I will be down another week and with no vehicle and I can't afford to pay for another and pay for repairs. I'm filing an official compliant because this was a safety hazard that could have ended multi car collision. My vehicle had no warning lights. I also took my vehicle to the dealer on the regular for the oil change and multi-point inspection as preventatives measures with received indication that my cv axle needed replacement. I have included the analysis estimate received from the dealer and rental bill I paid for. I look forward to hearing from you in regard to this matter.

I am writing to inform about the ongoing issues I have been experiencing with the infotainment system in my Volkswagen Atlas 2021, which was purchased in March 2021 from mall of georgia Volkswagen. At the time of purchase, the drivers of this vehicle were using the following phones: iphone 13 pro max (2 drivers) and iphone 13 pro (2 drivers) all phones were kept up to date with the latest ios updates until November 2023. At that point, we upgraded to the following phones: iphone 15 pro max (2 drivers) and iphone 15 pro (2 drivers), these new devices were initially running ios 17. 1. 1, which was released on November 7, 2023, and were later upgraded to ios 17. 1. 2 upon its release on November 30, 2023. On December 8, 2023, the first driver encountered a significant issue with installed mapping applications (apple maps and google maps), where the apps would repeatedly reroute unexpectedly. When ios 17. 2 was released on December 11, 2023, all drivers upgraded their devices to this version no later than December 15, 2023. By December 16, 2023, all drivers began to experience the same rerouting issue. To troubleshoot, we disconnected each offending phone and connected another non-used phone until all four phones had been tested. However, the problem persisted with each device. This prompted us to bring the vehicle in for service on December 21, 2023. It’s important to note that this problem does not occur in our other vehicles, which include: 2021 Toyota cr-v, 2022 Dodge charger, and 2023 Dodge challenger. All do not use wireless carplay. We attempted to connect the vehicle using only a cable, but this was unsuccessful as it forces the phone to use wireless carplay. Manually turning off wifi and bluetooth on the phones results in wifi being automatically turned on by the vehicle, further complicating the issue. The rerouting problem continued, leading us to bring the vehicle back for servicing in January 2024 and March 2024, with no resolution as of today.

This Atlas has been stalling the last 2 weeks. It happens when going very slow like 5 mph or less. The car turns off and says turn on manually. You have to throw it in park and start the car. I looked online and it is a known problem with this vehicle, many complaints stating the charcoal canister or n80 valve was the issue. I took my car to the dealer and they did a software update and said they couldn't get the car to stall after that. It has stalled again after the software update for me.

I told faulkner that my truck often feels like the auto on/off switch is activated when its deactivated. Meaning, if im in bumper to bumper traffic. Stop, go, slow down the SUV acts as if uts going to stall. Which I have to push the gas peddle harder to give it momentum to go. Issue is if ur behind someone and you have to do this. You could hit them because it jolts forward pretty hard. The tech told me vw is aware of the issue and currently there isnt a fix. Had I known this was an issue upfront. I would have never purchased the vehicle.

2021 volkswagon Atlas, needed new oil pan after few months due to major oil leak. Had to pay out of pocket for rental 1 week. Wipers came flying off on driver's side hitting side window scratching car. Dealership said nothing wrong (my dad tightened bolts they were loose) heater in back started making horrible noise, said nothing was wrong. Needed new breaks, rotors numerous times. When backing up makes horrible noise, to this day. 10/7/23 driving down road at 28 mph my car stalled out. Did this numerous times w/in 3 weeks, brought to dealership said they couldn't find anything wrong. Kept happening brought it back. They change emission module & oil. Car started sounding like a tractor. Brought it to different dealership. Going down road at 45 mph with 4 kids in car. Car stalls out. No steering no breaks. Super scary. Car keeps stalling out, going down road at 58mph car stalls out, no steering no breaks again everything locks up. 18 wheeler behind me, 3 kids in car. Brought to another dealership, they stated never heard of car stalling out before. They stated other dealership put wrong oil in, they did another oil change and said my car was safe to drive. Car still kept stalling out almost every time I slowed down or came to a stop, or even when starting it before leaving had to restart numerous times. Fast forward car been in shop since 2/1/24. Said metal shavings in oil filter now needs new motor & theres bearings missing. (they told me car was safe to drive) we asked about safety issue, they said what safety issue? whycar keeps stalling? said never heard of this issue with the cars before. They want 9k for a rebuilt motor w/ way more miles than my car has now, ive been in rental for 3 weeks out of pocket pay. Dealership can't promise me this will fix car. Car is a death trap and I have precious cargo, I don't feel safe driving it. Research says lots of people having same issues. Vw rep says never heard of this. Called lawyers yup its a common lawsuit, lemon car.

The viechle appears to be having a very common issue of the hood latch being broken or snapping. I was left stranded with my car with a dead battery unable to access the battery to jump it.

1. Steering making noise during turn/revervse/ forward/parking etc. . Dealers triedd to fix it but not sucess. 2. Error: start / stop engine at certain situation and stalling while driving. Incident on various date.

When the weather is warm and the vehicle get washed or experience heavy rain fall and vehicle is exposed there is a strong mildew oder coming threw ventilation. Definitely a air quality problem.

The ac on driver side went out. I seen online where a recall was in the process. I want to know if this is true before I have to pay all this money out of pocket. I don’t understand how this can happen when the car is practically brand new not even two years old yet.

Got error: start-stop.

Atlas will just turned off while driving l at various speeds, you are forced to put in park and restart you vehicle. If you do not get off to side of road and person behind you isn’t paying attention we will be rear ended. Has happened 5 times in the last 2 weeks. Volkswagen clear lake had car for 3 days and claim that all test came back good and they could not recreate the problem. Although they only touched my car on day one and did nothing the last 2 days. They claim there will be a recall but are not willing to do anything right now because they can not re-create the problem driving it around the block for 2 minutes. Please help car is under warranty and dealership is no help. Only thing that shows up on dash is to put in park and restart. They also have no loaner vehicles and have put me in a bind the 3 days they kept it for nothing to be done.

Air is not working properly last year in August 2022 I has air pump replaced has not even been a year and same problem.

Vehicle’s electronic emergency brake system engaged while driving at low speed, below 15mph. Loud scraping sound repetitively heard from driver side tire.

The recall on my car says - safety risk: in the event of a side crash, when the side airbag deployment may be necessary, the side airbag may deploy later than designed. This may lead to an increased injury to vehicle occupants. Vw should, but refuses to buy this car back from me. It is unsafe to drive and/or put our children in the car in this condition.

After installing a software update, we noticed an issue with our Atlas where the parking brake is engaging suddenly at very low speeds, maybe around 4 mph but definitely before the vehicle is completely stopped. It feels very odd and has even come close to getting us rear ended from behind. It is intermittent and happens on seemingly random days/times, and at the same time as when the parking brake comes on, a bunch of audible alarms and warning messages pop up, and the drivers side windows roll down on their own about 4-5 inches. One of the dash warnings is saying something about a faulty door sensor.

Rattling or metal grinding sound coming from the right rear tire/wheel. I’ve had it checked out by two different dealerships and neither of them found a problem. The metal rattling noise occurs mostly while I’m doing in town driving (30-40 mph) but recently started doing it on the freeway as well. I don’t feel safe driving this car at all.

The shocks will all of a sudden come up with “parking brake fault”, “start/stop” fault, “driver door switch fault”, che j engine light comes on. It will then randomly throw on the parking brake while driving causing the vehicle to come to a complete sudden stop while driving then the back windows will roll down. It does this off and on….

Hello, I'm writing to share a safety concern regarding the 2021 vw Atlas. In January 2022, I was driving with my small children in the vehicle. The alarm went off for no reason when I first entered the car. Next, my passenger side windows went down on their own and would not go back up. All sorts of alarms/light went off in my car. Next, it started to throw my vehicle into emergency brake while driving. Very dangerous! this should be a safety recall. The vehicle has been in the shop for 2 months, waiting on a part.

There were multiple incidents where the windows would roll down and the error came on state "driver side contact error", once where the driver side door would not open, I had to crawl out the passenger side, and multiple times when the parking brake would not disengage. All of these issues have been said to be the drivers side harness kit, no rhyme or reason and lights and errors would go off after each incident. The main safety concern caused be this is when I was driving down a hill coming to a red light, I was reducing speed but was not stopped and the parking brake engaged on its own. I came to a dead stop in the middle of the road, luckily no cars behind me and on a clear road, the dash lit up with multiple errors but all disappeared before I a could write them all down. The dealership where my car current is has stated there is a parts bulletin out on this part causing all these issues with the door harness kit, but no recall. They also could not guarantee that my parking brake would not engage again while the car was in drive, but did not want to offer me a rental car because Volkswagen doesn't consider it a "safety issue". I know there are 5 other vehicles at the dealership with the same issue as mine (as of January 10th). This is happening in brand new cars, my car is a 2021 and have not even owned it a year.

Within seconds of starting the vehicle, error codes started appearing on the dashboard and beeping noise stating to park the car and not drive. The back window will roll down on its on and the parking break will engage if it wasn’t engaged already. I would turn off the car and it would go away but after a few minutes the car would start beeping and all kinds of lights and error code started appearing again. After getting this error message and the constant beeping, the emergency brake turns on and the window from behind driver's door lowers like 5 inches from top. At this point, I cannot lower window and I cannot turn off emergency brake. The code started appearing about a week prior to December 8 which was the final straw. It got to a point that while driving, if I took the foot of the gas pedal, the emergency break will engage automatically as I was going 10-15 miles per hr. Everytime I slowed down and was coming to a stop the car will engage the emergency break. I had to turn off the car and back on in order to keep going. This almost caused me to be hit multiple times until I was able to get to a safe location and away from the main road. I’ve read many others complaint similar and I think this should be a recall. It is a safety hazard when the emergency break engages once you slow down and foot is off the break. This particular car was fixed on Nov. 5 for a recall related to coupling rods. I was told that the issue now is called a “driver front door harness” fault which the wires think I’m opening the door while driving so it engages the emergency break. Vehicle is currently at dealership and has been since Dec. 8 with no estimated time of repair due to waiting on parts. Vehicle has been in my possession since Jan. 9, 2021.

Horn doesn’t work consistently and have to be pressed in certain areas. Bottom area of horn area works at times. Someone was backing up close to my car and I pressed the horn with my thumb and nothing happened after several presses. This has happened on more than one occasion.

Driving at freeway speeds between elko nevada and salt lake city utah car completely lost power shut off had to coast to a stop and restart the engine after several semi’s and vehicles passed us honking their horns.

The car started giving multiple warnings and the check engine light went on. When these warnings started, it would force the windows to go down and put the emergency brake on. It is a huge safety concern because when this issue worsens, it will throw the emergency brake on any time the car begins to slow down - so if a driver is actively driving the car and slowing for traffic - it will suddenly have an emergency brake trying to bring the car to a stop. The issue (driver door contact switch error) has been confirmed by dealership. Car has been in the shop for 2 months waiting for a replacement part but in the meantime the dealer has multiple Atlas's waiting to be fixed for the same issue and the problem is all over the internet. It is unsafe to have these cars on the road.

The below are known issues dating back to at least 2020 Atlas models, but this first appeared in our vehicle mid-November 2021; we purchased the car new June 2021. The driver door contact switch has failed. There are annoyances - the widows randomly roll down, lots of dinging, warning lights, etc. - but the safety issue is that the emergency brake will come on sometimes when you brake. We have a child and cannot risk suddenly being stopped on a highway. Because of this, the car is undriveable. Vw estimates the part will be available in 2023, so there are people driving around with this safety issue because they have no second car and people who are paying a loan on a car they cannot drive. These issues have been replicated by the dealer. The case has been escalated to vw and there is no sense of urgency. . Read more...

Drivers side wire harness. All sorts of alarms going off, windows going up and down on their own, parking break engaging on its own while driving!!! absolutely unsafe vehicle & vw was not helpful or cooperative.

Our car starting firing many warning every time we would drive it including breaking without us telling it to. We took it in twice for it to be fixed, the first didn't work and the second they replaced a door chasey and I hope it works long term. Very scary to be driving with 2 little kids in the back and a possessed car. Super dangerous.

My 2021 Atlas turned itself off while I was going down the road at 70 mph. I had over 1/2 tank of gas. I was able to get to the side of the road, put the car in park, and restart.

The sunroof exploded while driving with no external object impacts. The retracted roof exploded sounded like a gunshot. I was driving about 75mph on hwy 70 from colorado to utah. There were no vehicles around us.

My wife had just gotten onto interstate and tire light comes on. Was trying to get to next exit to check but heard a popping noise and then car started swerving. Got to side of road and all the tire was gone from right rear except rim bead area and about 1 inch of sidewall. New car with 680 miles using pirelli scorpion zero 265/45 r21 104t tires that were factory installed. After tow repair replace with spare tire I located all the tread tire against median wall on highway where it had stopped. Except for having separated from rim bead of tire it was intact. It was like a rubber band with no sides. Have had the 2021 Atlas for 10 days and only 680+ miles on tires.