2023 Volkswagen Jetta Recalls, Ratings & Complaints

Incident: September 2, 2026 · Filed: September 3, 2026

The cars check engine light came on randomly at the top of the year but kept going away and returning. After getting it checked out, the code was P0456 for an evap leak. Owner took the car to VW and was quoted ~$3,200 for the repair and asked the service team how was it even possible for this to happen to a newer car, and they said it was a common issue. If the issue is common, it should have a recall because the risks of this ongoing is engine damage and failure.

Incident: July 13, 2026 · Filed: July 20, 2026

Car was started on afternoon of XXX and the Low Coolant alert sound and dashboard light came on. Opened hood and car was completely out of coolant. Took to Royal Automotive, Vestavia Hills, AL on Wednesday XXX to be fixed. Dealer assessment was “PERFORMED COOLING SYSTEM LEAK TEST. THE VEHICLE PASSED TEST. CHECK FOR VISUAL LEAKS. FOUND NO LEAKS, BUT FOUND SEEPAGE AT THE HEAD GASKET. VOLKSWAGEN SAID THIS WAS NORMAL PER 00-26-01 - DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FLUID LEAKAGE AND SEEPAGE. TOP OFF COOLING SYSTEM.” The car was purchased new by me in October 2022 and my warranty expires in October 2022. It has just over 17,100 miles on it. Further, Volkswagen published a Technical Service Bulletin 15-23-01 - Head Gasket Leakage on XXX documenting known problems with head gaskets for my car’s engine. Despite dealership stating the head gaskets is leaking, Volkswagen stated to the dealership it doesn’t warrant repair. I believe Volkswagen should repair at their expense the defect of their vehicle. The dealership acknowledged the head gasket is clearly “seeping” coolant. Coolant shouldn’t be leaking at all from a closed loop system. This is causing a potential safety issue for my [XXX] daughter who drives the car, as when the head gasket fully fails as documented by Volkswagen, the car could be in traffic and put my daughter’s life and other peoples lives in jeopardy from a blown engine or an overheated engine. It’s unacceptable that Volkswagen’s direction is for us to carry around a gallon of coolant and constantly check the coolant levels because they don’t want to fix their known defect. I called Volkswagen customer care and complained. They refused to assist, stating they stand by the dealership’s assessment. I reminded them that the dealership was doing what Volkswagen directed, but that didn’t change their decision. I asked for escalation, was told it was escalated twice and that their decision is not changing. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

Incident: June 22, 2026 · Filed: June 23, 2026

I bought car back in June or July 2024. Since then Ive had issues with vehicle. Bad breaks, bad wheel bearings that were replaced & car just never drove smooth. Since buying car & driving it around for months I have felt a jerk/pull when in drive mode from 0mi when stepping on gas. The Engine has completely shutt off at random at a light when in drive mode & Ive had to put in parking & restart engine while making a right hand turn & while pulling into a parking lot. I notified dealer & taken in but told nothing was found & they didnt seem to see the safety issue at hand or care. It has done this a few times since Ive had it. Very scary, thankfully no accident YET! The lane assist warning light randomly comes/came on before this happened. Dash read, error stop/start engine when it shutt off. It happened so fast I was unable to take a pic. I was able to take a picture of dash reading; please manually start engine in Drive mode at time of last inccident June 22, 2026. This issue seems to get worse the more I drive it.

Incident: April 29, 2026 · Filed: May 14, 2026

At only 24,000 miles, the rear brakes are already showing significant wear. When checked by the dealer, they were 2mm, while the front brakes were 12mm. The service representatives at the dealership have said this is a known problem with this model year, and they have already seen several cars with the same issue of brakes wearing out way too quickly. If a driver wasn't getting regular inspections, they would assume that their brakes would still be in great condition with this mileage, and it could pose a large safety risk.

Incident: April 4, 2024 · Filed: May 8, 2026

The SOS Module failed three times and was replaced three times under warranty. The failure mode is a battery that cannot be ordered due to manufacturer issues. The failed module limits crash reporting. I have attached the three work orders for this vehicle.

Incident: March 12, 2026 · Filed: May 6, 2026

Adaptive Cruise control stops working suddenly with message "Travel Assist currently not available". Warning goes after restart or have to go and cancel assist completely and start again and then it works for few minutes and appears again. The problem sometimes doesn’t show up for days but sometimes shows many times within hours. Happens usually on long drives. Once it occurs, it happens multiple times if I try to reset within the drive.
 It gets disabled sometimes on high-speed free ways and adaptive braking suddenly goes away in middle of on ongoing braking or sometimes car suddenly starts slowing down on high speed. Happening for 18 months now. Previous dealership said we could not replicate the issue and did not provide any fix. Same goes for Front Collision Avoidance Warning, it beeps loudly up randomly with no obstacles in sight . When complained this to dealership during first service, they said it could be dust but i still have this issue ongoing intermittently showing up with no fix from dealership.

Incident: April 28, 2026 · Filed: April 30, 2026

About 6 months after I bought my car the check engine light came on, took to vw still under Warranty. And they said it was just a harness on sale about 4 months later, it came back on and they kept my car for a week. And when I got my car back about 2 to 3 weeks later, it came back on again, and they cound't figure it out and said its something wrong with the emmission and now it's back on so I don't know what's wrong with it, I took it to a different shop and they said they couldn't read the codes and I have to take it to Volkswagen dealership. Car is new and fail emmission.

Incident: August 30, 2023 · Filed: April 14, 2026

The control unit for the Emergency SOS button and car microphone has failed and needed replacement multiple times in my car. My Volkswagen dealership has replaced the unit several times, and each time it fails after replacement. My safety is put at risk because I am unable to use the Emergency SOS function if necessary. The problem has been confirmed by my Volkswagen dealer several times, each time the issue was repaired. After the part fails, a warning light and message appears stating that there is an issue with the Emergency SOS system.

Incident: March 21, 2026 · Filed: March 22, 2026

I was on the highway when it sounded like an explosion happened in my car. My sunroof shattered without any debris hitting it. It was 55 degrees, so no extreme temperatures, sunny, I was not behind a truck or under a bridge or around any construction. I wasn't able to pull over for at least a mile or two until I reached an exit. When I parked and examined the window it looked like the glass was angled upwards as if the issue came from within the car and there were large shards as well as tiny one. They seemed to break into rectangular like pieces. My ears were ringing a bit from the sound that was made by the break.

Incident: February 7, 2026 · Filed: March 4, 2026

I have brought my car into my dealership 3 times now for the same problem (a creaking noise in the suspension system) The first time they replaced the parts that I suppose they couldn’t replicate easily see needed replacing, the suspension boot, mounting, and nuts and bolts. For a week I thought the suspension system was fixed then it started creaking (only over speedbumps, and mostly when the weather is colder) again 3 times until it finally stopped. The sound is very situational it happens once or twice a week. If this is what the sound had always been like I would’ve just thought it was normal car functionality but it’s the exact same sound that was cause for repair the first time. I brought it in a second time my service advisor told me they test drive it twice and were unable to replicate the sound so they proceeded to tighten the bolts on the parts they had replaced the first time and gave it back to me. The creaking sound happened 3 more times and I scheduled service once again. This time they practically refused service because 1: I told them it was highly unlikely they could replicate the sound as it only happens on my way over from my apartment complex with 7 speedbumps I have to go over (the creaking would stop after these) and 2: that my warranty for sounds was over and that cars are imperfect machines. Sure but the suspension system makes the same sound that was cause for repair the first time and now it happens on the passenger front side it just happens very occasionally but it is still not a good sound.