Others who filed complaints with NHTSA wrote that dealers told them they were out of loaner cars and that they should keep driving their vehicles. But late last week, after a reporter contacted the dealership, Heiman received a call telling her that the part had come in and that her vehicle had been repaired. (NHTSA says it reviews all complaints but in most cases doesn't respond directly to them.)įor more than two months, Heiman said, her burnt orange Cross Sport, which had 12,600 miles on it and had cost $45,000, sat at the dealership waiting for the part. 12, Heiman complained to NHTSA but said she never heard back from the agency. VW declined to comment on Heiman's assertions. The same day, Heiman reported the problem to VW in an online chat and was referred to a regional manager who was of little help, she said.
(Electrical shorts in wiring harnesses can cause multiple problems in vehicles, including brake activation.)Īfter discussing the safety risks with her, the dealership arranged for a rental car, Heiman said, and eventually the use of a new all-wheel-drive VW SUV. In the shop, a mechanic detected a problem with a wiring harness in the driver’s door, but she was told there weren't any parts to fix it. “They didn't tell me it wasn't safe to drive to the dealer,” she said. On the way there, she said, the SUV braked mysteriously again while exiting a two-lane highway. Once home, Heiman called her dealer’s service department and got an appointment the next day. 5 was the first time she had encountered the problem with the Cross Sport, which she bought new in May 2021. She shut the engine off and restarted it to override what she thinks was a malfunction of automatic emergency braking. Heading into a roundabout on the way home with her son the same day, the SUV abruptly braked and came to a complete stop, Heiman said, and another SUV narrowly missed rear-ending her. Her Cross Sport braked unexpectedly a few more times that day, but she was able to override it with the gas pedal. 5, Heiman initially kept driving, figuring that the problem was a “bizarre fluke.” The SUV and a VW app flashed malfunction alerts, she said, but neither displayed a message to stop driving the vehicle. “We are working closely with NHTSA regarding the next steps towards identifying the affected vehicles.”Īfter her SUV's unexpected braking on Jan. “VW is aware of concerns involving faulty door wiring harnesses in certain Atlas and Atlas Cross Sport vehicles,” the company said. In a statement, Volkswagen said it is working on the problem but stopped short of saying it's recalling the affected vehicles. And it would have to collect and analyze additional data before it could seek a recall.Ĭomplaints about unexpected braking involving the VW SUVs began in September of 2020, eight months before Heiman bought her SUV, NHTSA’s records show. The agency hasn't opened a formal investigation. In a statement, NHTSA said it has been gathering information from VW about the problem and is monitoring complaints and other data sources.
2021 ATLAS RECALL DRIVERS
Some drivers reported that they narrowly escaped collisions, though a review of the complaints found no reports of crashes. Since late 2020, 47 VW owners have complained to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration about the same glitches in their 20 VW Atlas and Atlas Cross Sport SUVs. Heiman’s experience, it turns out, wasn’t unique. "I’m not feeling like I’m driving my car. “It literally feels like the car is possessed,” Heiman said.
The malfunctions turned a normally routine two-mile round trip into a white-knuckle ordeal. 5 when her 2021 Atlas Cross Sport went bonkers. Heiman, a clinical social worker in Lawrence, Kansas, was driving her 15-year-old son to a class on Jan. Kendall Heiman’s Volkswagen SUV then pulled the scariest stunt of all: It abruptly braked for no reason.
2021 ATLAS RECALL WINDOWS
Then the driver’s side windows suddenly and mysteriously rolled down. DETROIT - First came the beeping alarms and the dashboard lights warning that something had gone haywire.
0 kommentar(er)
