Complaint volume
185 consumer-submitted complaints are matched to this model year. Treat the count as a research signal, then read the actual summaries for repeated symptoms.
Complaint records
2019 Volkswagen Tiguan Complaints
185 consumer-submitted complaints on record for the 2019 Volkswagen Tiguan, grouped by component category.
185 Total complaints
6 Crash reports
1 Fire reports
5 Injury reports
Complaint data reflects consumer-submitted reports. A complaint is not proof
of a defect, recall, or manufacturer fault. Enriched severity fields come
from official bulk records when the complaint can be matched by ODI number.
Buyer interpretation
How to use these complaints before buying
Complaint records are most useful when they turn into inspection points, seller questions, and comparison checks against nearby model years.
Pattern to inspect
The most common categories are electrical system, unknown or other, engine. Use those categories as a test-drive checklist instead of judging the vehicle from the total count alone.
Severity flags
Enriched records include 6 crash reports, 1 fire report, 5 injury reports, and 0 fatality reports. These fields come from complaint records and should be read in context.
Mileage clue
Mileage is available on 63 complaints, with an average reported failure mileage of 11,386 miles. Compare that with the mileage on the listing.
Questions to ask the seller
- Have you had any problems related to electrical system, unknown or other, engine?
- Can I see recent maintenance and repair records?
- Has the vehicle ever been towed, involved in a crash, or repaired for the same issue twice?
- Can we also check the recall record for this 2019 Volkswagen Tiguan?
Used-car checklist
Use these complaints before the test drive.
Build a buyer checklist to turn these issues into questions and inspection points.
2019 Volkswagen Tiguan
Build buyer checklist Compare with other years Sends year, make, and model to pre-fill your checklist.
How severe are the 2019 Volkswagen Tiguan complaints?
6 Crash
1 Fire
5 Injury
0 Fatality
6 Towed
2 Medical attention
What are the most common 2019 Volkswagen Tiguan complaint categories?
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM 26
UNKNOWN OR OTHER 24
ENGINE 19
SERVICE BRAKES 13
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 12
POWER TRAIN 9
EXTERIOR LIGHTING 7
SUSPENSION 6
AIR BAGS 4
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,ENGINE 4
185 total complaints on record
Latest complaints
| Date | Component | Summary | Severity | Mileage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 2023 | BACK OVER PREVENTION,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Was waiting at an intersection and began to pull out into traffic. The vehicle's wheels drop momentarily into the gutter section of the street (also causing the vehicle body to rock forward/down), but then the parking sensors "detect" the street itself as an object and slam on the brakes. This locks the vehicle's brakes while it is half in the oncoming traffic's lane and is difficult to recover and continue driving. This happens several times a year after owning the vehicle for 3 years and is bound to cause an accident. In the most recent case, there was plenty of space before the next vehicle, but this won't always be true. The vehicle has not been inspected for this specific problem. It appears that the sensors are working "properly" in that they detect and alert of objects reasonably. The issue is with the logic built into the vehicle's computers when deciding when to apply/hold the brakes. The vehicle should be smart enough to recognize when body roll or other factors are causing a false positive and not be so quick override the driver's intentions. There is no warning when the system will misbehave and cause the vehicle to stop abruptly. The same intersection can be traversed hundreds of times and then suddenly it will beep and immediately lock the brakes. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2023 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Driving my car on highway at 74 mph with no cars in front of or around me when the car braking system engaged by itself causing my Tiguan to slow from 74 to 50 in seconds. Took car into Vw dealer and had it there for 8 days. Was told there was no code from a scan and no duplication on test drive. Test drive was all of 3 miles.Dealer kept referring to TSB 45-21-01 vw bulletin. Turns out on research VW bulletin of that number is part of lawsuits. Having the brakes engage like that certainly put myself in danger of being hit/rear ended. Told by dealer "vehicle is operating normally when compared to another vehicle same model." Lastly was told by dealer if I was that concerned about it happening again why don't I trade it in for a new car. Some fix that is. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2023 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | I was traveling on the highway at 70 mph with no traffic ahead of me for at least a quarter mile when the car flashed the warning light for being too close to a car and then engaged the brakes dropping my speed from 70 to 50 in 3 seconds. If anyone had been behind me I would have been rear ended at highway speed. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2023 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | I purchased a 2019 Tiguan as a low milage Certified Pre-Owned vehicle. In less than a year, it's been in the dealership for weeks due to an unidentified water leak. Apparently, VW's panoramic sunroof is prone to leaking. The first time I brought it in, they could not find a leak but there was obviously mold all over the rear passenger floorboard. They charged me roughly $500 to clean the drains and sent me on my way. A couple months later, the leak and mold showed up again, so I brought it back to the dealership. Without completely explaining the fix plan moving forward, they completely disassembled the interior everything from the seats, headliner and trim panels all the way to the metal! Still unable to duplicate the leak, they hired a leak specialist, and still could not find a leak. They finally called me and tried to charge me to reassemble the vehicle. As a young military family, all I value is a safe reliable vehicle, and this vehicle has been nothing but a nightmare. If there is any way you can point me in the right direction to move forward on this known issue, I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you again for your time. Aaron | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2023 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | Started receiving error message “ 12v Battery Almost Drained, charge while driving” took it to a shop, they told me they battery was dead and replaced it with a new one. Checked the systems said everything else was working fine. Less than a year later the car is doing the same thing again. Car will not start and has to be jumped off. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2023 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | 8/2/23 3:15 p.m. While starting to accellerate from a 4 way stop, the vehicle suddenly displayed a large red icon on the dash and slammed on the brakes bringing the vehicle to a complete stop. It was quite a violent stop and had there been passengers in the vehicle, they could have been hurt. Also, had there been another vehicle behind me, I could have been rear ended. There was another vehicle approximately 80' in front of me that had just turned from the crossing road and another vehicle going the opposite direction in the intersection at about the same time. The vehicle has not yet been to the dealer for inspection. There was an amber exclamation point on the dash and another icon flashed on the dash occassionally. I did not know what these meant other than there was an issue with something that needed to be addressed soon. I had never seen these lights before. They came on shortly after the vehicle was started to beging this drive approximately 15 minutes before the issue. After the violent braking, all warning lights went out and the rest of the drive continued normally. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jul 2023 | FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM | Gear shift from gears 1 to 2 or 2 to 1, the gears often “slip” resulting in a slight delay or jolt upon acceleration. This is an ongoing issue that occurs frequently, for years. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jul 2023 | EXTERIOR LIGHTING | While driving an alert comes on that states check engine system. As soon as this happens all power in the car turns off. Engine is still running but you no longer have any turning signals, brake lights, headlights, air conditioning, etc. It happens randomly and has almost cause me to be rear ended due to car behind me not knowing I was slowing down or stopping. This happens when I am not close to a dealership so they have not been able to witness this. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jul 2023 | ENGINE | When I turned the car on to leave work, the Check Engine and EPC lights came on, the car went into "Limp Home" mode and a warning came on the dash saying "Max Speed 4000 RPMs". Immediately, I could smell fuel, so I turned the vehicle off and exited. I noticed the ground under the car was wet. My husband came to check it out and the same thing happened. We saw that fuel was flooding out from underneath the engine. As he drove the vehicle to an adjacent lot to be able to be towed, fuel spewed out from underneath the engine. We had the vehicle towed to a VW Dealership in Grand Rapids who was able to diagnose a broken fuel rail bolt inside the intake manifold after they had the same experience with a massive fuel leak. Per the service advisor, this was not the first time they've seen something like this. Given the extreme flow of fuel from the engine, I'd say I'm very lucky that this didn't happen while driving through town or at speed on the highway where a vehicle fire would be possible with fuel pouring out of the manifold onto the hot engine. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jun 2023 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | Panoramic sunroof shattered. Looks like it bubbled upwards and exploded. No rock. No defect. Car was parked in my driveway with no trees or rocks or anything around. Motion security cameras don’t have anyone coming on my driveway. This looks like my sunroof popped. So weird. I cut my hand on the glass. | Crash: No Fire: No Injuries: 1 | Unknown |
| May 2023 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | Several times now, at outside temp above 90F, drive short distance and all electrical shuts. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2023 | SEAT BELTS | Passenger seatbelt alarm indicates that the seat is occupied when there is only a phone sitting in the seat. This continues until the phone is removed, I have done some testing and this is due to the USB port in the cubby hole for the audio system. If there is a cable plugged into the USB port the light comes on indicating to fasten the passenger seatbelt with a bag of chips in the seat. If I unplug the USB cable the alert goes off. This is very distracting when using the cable for navigation maps creating a false alarm. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2023 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | When pulling out of a driveway with slight decline automation braking engages without warning and stops the car. Almost was hit by a car since my car stopped in the road while making the turn. Almost rear ended another time while pulling out of a parking lot. Brake engaged without warning but luckily the car behind me stopped before hitting me. There was not another car in front of me either time so no reason to brake. I took the car to the dealer after first incident and they said nothing was wrong with it. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2023 | SEAT BELTS | The seatbelt had some imperfection either in production of the seatbelt from Volkswagen's supplier or the buckle (original VW buckle) has rough spots that have caused the edge of the seatbelt to fray and appears to be getting worse and in my opinion compromises the integrity of the seatbelt and therefore safety. VW refuses to cover the parts repair under their bumper to bumper warranty. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2023 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,UNKNOWN OR OTHER | I put my groceries in the passenger side of my car and walked around to my driver's door. I touched the button on the door handle to unlock the door and it didn't work. I tried the key fob and it also did not work. I tried another key fob and it still did not work. I had to end up calling the dealership and they told me how to take off the door handle cover to use the manual key, which was difficult to pry off, and also scratched the car. This seems like it could be a safety issue. This could have easily been a mother putting her child in a car seat and walking around to get in the vehicle. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Apr 2023 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | Bought the car to Puente Hills Volkswagen on March 15, 2023 to perform the TPMS Software recall. When I picked up my car, they told me that my car battery needed to replaced and that the TPMS Software update has been performed. I declined to have the battery replaced due to the high cost. But I had battery tested after and there was no issue found. Car has been starting fine without any issues since on the same battery. Then, I continued to get a Recall Alert from VW on 4/13/2023. Checked on their site as well on NHTSA, and it shows my recall is still not repaired. Contacted back Puente Hills Volkswagen on 4/13/2023 and left a message to my service provider. Haven't received a call as of 4/19/2023, so I called again and was able to speak to my service advisor. He then said it was because I didn't have my battery replaced that they didn't perform the recall repair even though he told me he did on 4/13/2023 (printed workorder he gave me also shows they performed the TPMS Software update). In the end, he told me that I need to replace my battery first for them to perform the recall repair even though there is clearly no issue with my battery. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Apr 2023 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | I brought my vehicle to the dealership for its PA inspection and to address a recall that I had specifically listed in my appointment request and also discussed with the staff in person. However, upon checking the nhtsa.org website, I discovered that the recall is still outstanding. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2023 | SUSPENSION | Daughter was driving at roughly 20 miles an hour when right front suspension collapsed causing her to lose control and striking a parked vehicle. Lower part of strut that connects to drive shaft was sheared in half causing complete loss of steering. The tire was pushed back against the the fender well which in my estimation caused tire to blow. Parts are available for inspection. A tire blow out at that speed should not cause strut to break and impact on parked car was minimal. Failed component has not been inspected by anyone. There was no warning of any issue. I did complain to dealer of slight suspension noise while turning but they could not find any issues. | Crash: Yes Fire: No Towed | Unknown |
| Mar 2023 | AIR BAGS | I had a tire blowout on the highway and caused my airbags to go off without having impact on my vehicle. The airbags going off was extremely dangerous and could of caused serious harm to me or someone else by possibly crashing into another vehicle. I luckily managed to keep my car in control with minimal damage to the body. The dealer inspected and other than replacing tire and alignments is the 10,000 charge for airbags and seatbelt fixing. There were no warnings by the vehicle before incident. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2023 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | Door switch notice pops up on the dashboard display. It comes on and off randomly. Took to mechanic, he said it has to do something with the door driver side door wire mesh | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2023 | STRUCTURE:BODY | Sunroof drains are not draining correctly causing vehicle to flood when there is precipitation, flooring is wet/molded, seat belts have mold on them, unpleasant smell, and condensation collects on the windows. Also causing water marks/stains on vehicles exterior body. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2023 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,SERVICE BRAKES | Error code: "Driver door contact switch". When this comes on randomly I can't unlock or lock my doors. I have had to climb out of my car through the passenger side door after parking because the driver's side won't unlock. Fault: "Auto parking break" When this comes on I can't turn on or off the parking brake. Sometimes when I'm driving and there is a bump or a change in surface level the parking break comes on. My car stops all of a sudden and cars behind me swerve not to hit me. I have noticed that the issues can go as fast as they come on. They only really happen in cold weather. Last year (2022) was the first year that things happened. I took my car in to see what Volkswagen could do. They said that because the error codes weren't running then they couldn't diagnose the issue. They also said that they have never heard of this before. However, when the error codes are on it's unsafe to drive the car. I have read that other Volkswagens have this issue. The link below is one example. https://knightlawgroup.com/volkswagen-tiguan-wiring-harness-automatic-braking-problems/ | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2023 | POWER TRAIN | It has already recall for other model but not ‘Tiguan’ Recall code is ‘37M2’ Please do recall and save us from danger. Please. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2022 | ENGINE | My problem does not involve a crash but involves frequent DELAYED ACCELERATION in warm and cold weather, due to Drive-by-Wire technology or software. My VW service department does not acknowledge the problem and considers this delayed acceleration as turbo lag! Really, turbo lag at idle and no forward movement! Example sitting in parking lot at idle, auto trans in D drive. I stopped to let out my wife of car and I depressed accelerator pedal and nothing happened for six second delay, the motor continued at idle, 1000 rpm, than after approx., full six seconds (i was counting) then car raced off and I had to brake. This issue occurs from full stop warm or cold and from idle to 1800 rpm and up to 25mph and from first week of ownership beginning in October 2019. This had been reported up to eight times and only serviced by the selling VW dealership. The internet is full of remarks from VW owners of multiple VW models with same 4 cylinder turbo and many other European and Japanese manufacturers. I suggest these cars with 4 cylinder and turbo be investigated. I previously owned a 2016 GMC Terrain with drive by wire that never in three years displayed this similar issue. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2022 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | I came to a stop light, and the car would not accelerate when I took my foot off the break and pushed the gas pedal. The lights remained on. I had to turn off the car and restart it. Additionally, the car has been leaking. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |