Anti-theft Controller Problems of Volkswagen Jetta Sportwagen

My vw jetta tdi sportwagen was operating normally on the morning of the incident, but when I went to the garage to start it that afternoon, the display read "immobilizer active" and "safe". The car would start for about 1 second then die. Evidently, the built in anti-theft system had decided that my keys (I tried both sets of keys, plus the valet key) did not belong to the vehicle. It had to be towed to the dealership, where they performed a reboot of the computer to clear the problem. They cited a possible cause as being the recent electrical storms in our area. I personally think they should be ashamed to offer such a lame excuse because surely they have electrical storms in vws home country of germany, too. I hope this is the last time this problem occurs, but I have read other such incidents with the same year and model.

See all problems of the 2011 Volkswagen Jetta Sportwagen 🔎.