One problem related to software has been reported for the 2012 Volkswagen Passat. The most recently reported issues are listed below. Please also check out the statistics and reliability analysis of the 2012 Volkswagen Passat based on all problems reported for the 2012 Passat.
This car has automatic transmission and from day one I wasn't un-happy with the fact that you could turn the engine off, without having switched the transmission to p. Every automatic car I ever had and I have driven many including hundreds of rental cars over the years. I reported this in 2012 to the dealer right away when the car was new but was told that this was as designed. I, in between, moved and did the same at 2 other dealers and got the same answer. In 99% of the cases I will not forget to put the car in p, but over the years several times I did. When I left the vehicle and saw it started to move I always was so lucky to jump back in the car and but it in p, or pulled the hand break or pushed the brakes. Unfortunately 2 weeks ago I had it again, tried to jump back in the car (I was at the trunk) was half in the car bit it accelerated into a ditch (in front of the car) and my left leg was pulled over the road with very serious scrape wounds. The front of the car was pretty bad damaged. I have never reported this to vw USA service because the dealers told me it had no sense. This must be a simple software fix, because the car has dst transmission which means everything in computer controlled.