Complaint volume
444 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
2021 Volkswagen Atlas Complaints
444 consumer-submitted complaints on record for the 2021 Volkswagen Atlas, grouped by component category.
444 Total complaints
8 Crash reports
1 Fire reports
9 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 exterior lighting, air bags, unknown or other. Use those categories as a test-drive checklist instead of judging the vehicle from the total count alone.
Severity flags
Enriched records include 8 crash reports, 1 fire report, 9 injury reports, and 0 fatality reports. These fields come from complaint records and should be read in context.
Mileage clue
Mileage is available on 36 complaints, with an average reported failure mileage of 21,554 miles. Compare that with the mileage on the listing.
Questions to ask the seller
- Have you had any problems related to exterior lighting, air bags, unknown or other?
- 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 2021 Volkswagen Atlas?
Used-car checklist
Use these complaints before the test drive.
Build a buyer checklist to turn these issues into questions and inspection points.
2021 Volkswagen Atlas
Build buyer checklist Compare with other years Sends year, make, and model to pre-fill your checklist.
How severe are the 2021 Volkswagen Atlas complaints?
8 Crash
1 Fire
9 Injury
0 Fatality
10 Towed
6 Medical attention
What are the most common 2021 Volkswagen Atlas complaint categories?
EXTERIOR LIGHTING 49
AIR BAGS 38
UNKNOWN OR OTHER 35
ENGINE 28
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM 25
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 25
SERVICE BRAKES 22
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,SERVICE BRAKES 13
ENGINE,FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM 12
STRUCTURE 12
444 total complaints on record
Latest complaints
| Date | Component | Summary | Severity | Mileage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 2022 | SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Several times while driving at 30-35 mph, 3-4 times so far, the emergency brake will just suddenly slam the car to a halt with the emergency brake. Also, the warning lights, possibly for collision, will just go off for no reason at all. Very scary and very dangerous. I have taken it to the dealer several times, as I have two young children, and they have not been able to diagnose or fix the problem. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Apr 2022 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,UNKNOWN OR OTHER,SERVICE BRAKES | After installing a software update, we noticed an issue with our Atlas where the parking brake is engaging suddenly at very low speeds, maybe around 4 mph but definitely before the vehicle is completely stopped. It feels very odd and has even come close to getting us rear ended from behind. It is intermittent and happens on seemingly random days/times, and at the same time as when the parking brake comes on, a bunch of audible alarms and warning messages pop up, and the drivers side windows roll down on their own about 4-5 inches. One of the dash warnings is saying something about a faulty door sensor. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | VISIBILITY,LATCHES/LOCKS/LINKAGES,SERVICE BRAKES | The contact owns a 2021 Volkswagen Atlas. The contact stated that while her son was driving at an undisclosed speed, the brakes erroneously engaged nearly causing a crash. Additionally, the door locks would randomly unlatch and the driver’s side window would erroneously roll down. The cause of the failure was not yet determined. The local dealer was notified but no assistance was offered. The manufacturer was not notified. The failure mileage was 8,000. | Crash: No Fire: No | 8,000 |
| Mar 2022 | SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | I was driving between 25-30 mph at dusk. Suddenly a loud red warning appeared on the dashboard, and the car came to a screeching halt. I did not touch the brakes - it happened all on its own. There was nothing in front of me, such as a collision. It was not raining. The only factor that changed, which might be completely coincidental, is that I was just going over top of a large metal plate on the street that is used to cover road construction. The plate was just like any other, and stuck up maybe an inch. By the brakes slamming on, I was hit by the car behind me, who was also going 25-30 mph. This caused my passenger to be thrashed around - luckily neither of us were hurt. The driver of the other vehicle was not hurt but his car's hood was badly damaged. He had two kids in the back seat. I see this article, but when discussing it with the dealer, they claimed to have no knowledge of the issue or recall, even though it says the issue has been happening since 2020. https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/19/vw-recalls-246000-atlas-suvs-due-to-issue-with-airbags-brakes.html If this had occurred when a car was not just right behind me, but maybe 20 car lengths back, they would have plowed into me going 30 mph. This could have been extremely bad, and someone could die from such a situation. This is not the first time the loud warning light has come on for no reason. Every so often it will come on, even though there is nothing close to the vehicle. However, it is the first time it has braked like this. I have also found the software to be very glitchy at other times. Suddenly the radio might turn off, the navigation system goes very wrong, and so forth. When mentioning this to the dealer, they blamed Apple due to CarPlay. When I explained that these have nothing to do with CarPlay, they had no response. A software update did just occur maybe a week or two ago. I don't know if this is related to the brake issue. | Crash: Yes Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | This issue occurred several different times starting in early January. At first my drivers side windows would go down by themselves and I would see errors display but then the emergency brake on in my vehicle turned on by itself. Once the car was barely moving on the driveway and twice I was going about 25mph. The Volkswagen dealership told me it is the wiring harness that needs to be replaced in my vehicle. They cannot replace the wiring harness because it is on backorder and they cannot give me a loaner because "they just don't have any". | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,AIR BAGS,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | While my wife was driving home from work, all lights on the dashboard illuminated and the airbag warning symbol came on as well as both front windows opened on their own. Upon arrival at home as she pulled into the drive the emergency brake momentarily activated. Luckily the brake activated once she had pulled out of the main traffic or she may have been hit from behind. She called Bud Brown, our local VW dealer and was advised it was a known issue with the wiring on a door harness. She was advised that this part is not available and may not be available for many months and that there was nothing we could do. At present due to the known nature of the issue, it has not been inspected by VW or anybody else. At present when starting my car, only the airbag warning light is lit up. The car is available for inspection at any time and by anybody. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,SERVICE BRAKES | The contact owns a 2021 Volkswagen Atlas. The contact stated while starting the vehicle, the door latch light and the air bag warning light illuminated. Later while driving approximately 30 MPH, the door contact sensor illuminated. Additionally, the rear and front driver’s side windows rolled down independently. The failure persisted. The contact stated that the Emergency Automatic Braking system activated inadvertently and slowed the vehicle while driving. The vehicle was taken to a local dealer, where it was not diagnosed but not repaired. The manufacturer had not been informed of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 9,200. | Crash: No Fire: No | 9,200 |
| Mar 2022 | SERVICE BRAKES | No notice engagement of E-Brake at stops and twice at speeds between 3-5 mph while accelerating. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Driving my daughter to school and the car threw itself in park with the emergency parking brake. There has been a few instances of this along with windows rolling down, the car throwing codes and alarms going off. I was driving 10mph when it threw itself in park throwing my daughter and I forward and almost Getting rearended. This is NOT safe. Dealer is aware and has ordered the part with NO clue when they will receive it to fix my car. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Warning lights and alarms would go off, the driver’s side windows would roll down and the car would suddenly brake while in traffic. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | AIR BAGS,UNKNOWN OR OTHER,SERVICE BRAKES | The recall on my car says - Safety Risk: In the event of a side crash, when the side airbag deployment may be necessary, the side airbag may deploy later than designed. This may lead to an increased injury to vehicle occupants. VW should, but refuses to buy this car back from me. It is unsafe to drive and/or put our children in the car in this condition. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL | My 2021 Volkswagen Atlas is having an issue with a faulty wiring harness in the driver-side door that causes the car to brake unexpectedly while driving in traffic, putting me at risk of causing an accident or being rear-ended. This issue also causes the windows the randomly roll down, and I can no longer lock or unlock the driver's side door. When I put the car in drive, the warning light for the door being open comes on the dashboard and it plays the warning sound as if the door is open. I first contacted Darcars Volkswagen in Silver Spring, MD regarding this issue on March 22, 2022, and was referred to Volkswagen Customer Care because there is no ETA for when the part will be available for the fix. Volkswagen cannot provide a rental or loaner car for me at this time, leaving me without a car and making loan payments on a car I cannot drive due to the electrical issue. I have asked Volkswagen to buy back this car at my loan pay-off amount since they cannot provide transportation while they fix this issue, and they do not know when the issue will be fixed. Volkswagen has yet to answer my request to buy back the car. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,SERVICE BRAKES | Parking brake automatically turns on while driving. This has put me at risk for accident when pulling out across traffic where my car stops mid acceleration or coming to a stop sign where my car stops early. Not confirmed by a dealer but has been reproduced multiple times. Has not been inspected. No warnings of this issue prior to the occurence. In addition my windows automatically roll down out of no where and my alarm system automatically goes off as well as an error with the automatic stop/start feature. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | AIR BAGS | The contact owns a 2021 Volkswagen Atlas. The contact discovered that her vehicle was included in NHTSA Campaign Number: 22V152000 (Air Bags) however, the part to do the recall repair was unavailable. The dealer was notified of the issue and confirmed that parts were not yet available. The contact was referred to the manufacturer but was offered no additional assistance. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The contact had not experienced a failure. VIN tool confirms parts not available. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,SERVICE BRAKES | Issue started 3months ago. Door contact error popped up on dash, then drivers back window rolled down. Happened 3 times in 1 day, then stopped. Now, March 22nd, issue came back plus more. 1st i couldnt open my drivers doors front and back, from the outside. Doors were unlocked. I had to climb over from passenger side to get in and open the door. Then driving the dash would beep, no error, then back drivers window would roll down half way on its own. When I stopped at stop signs or lights, everything went crazy. Dash errors would flash up and beep, “ATTENTION ENGINE IS RUNNING”, “STOP AND START ERROR”, “DOOR CONTACT ERROR”, “FAULTY PARKING BREAK ERROR”, then the back drivers window would roll down again. I immediately called and set up an appointment. I researched problem to see if others had this issue and saw the recall. When the dealership seemed not to care, I drove there And showed them the video I took of my dashboard. The service guy took the report and said he would order a door contact wire thing, but he didnt address the other issues i had or how it relates to the recall. He said he would call the next day and didnt. I called him today, 3/24 and he said the door contact part is on backorders. He offered me to take my car home until the part is in. Im reporting this because of the nonchalant, non critical the service department seems to have with this dangerous issue. My Atlas has only 7,500 miles and i use it to drive my kids. I would not have purchased such an unsafe vehicle, especially when it cant be fixed. Its a danger to my family and others on the road! | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,SERVICE BRAKES | On 3/14/22 took my car in to the dealership with the following problems, window opening on their own car braking on its own at low speed, driver door functions not working and a bunch of warning lights coming on. Took my car out the same day and was working fine until 3/23/22 when all the problems i mentioned above started happening again. On the first visit the tech replaced the door latch for the driver front door cleared codes and rechecked. The tech also found 3 error codes U105400: information electronics control module 1 no communications U019900: Lost communications with " door control module A" B177501: Door warning light/entry light electrical error. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,AIR BAGS,SERVICE BRAKES | Phantom breaking, vehicle alerts, windows rolling down, driver side door not opening, parking break engages, windows stop working. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,AIR BAGS,SERVICE BRAKES | Problem started initially with random safety alarms and lights going off. Then alerts that door was open, or Advanced Driver Assistance Systems were not available. Then windows would roll down, for no reason. This happened within the first 2,000 miles of driving. Then on February 19, 2021 after multiple alarms going off, the car initiated the emergency brake while I was driving in a parking lot. My car stopped on it's own, suddenly. Luckily there was no one behind me. There are 7,500 miles on the car when the emergency brake incident occurred. I took it to the dealer the next day and was told since the car stopped at such a slow speed it should be safe to drive. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | The vehicle slams the breaks while breaking, it is very violent and hurts my back when it does it. This would be the second time this same part had been replaced when it finally gets replaced. I have several close encounters with people almost rear ending me due to the sudden stops | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | It started on a Saturday with my car alarm going off after I unlocked and opened the doors. Then the check engine light came on. The next day the check engine light was still on. While driving the vehicle and coming to a stop at the red light, my vehicle’s parking brake came on automatically and then the car started to alarm. I turned the car off and then back on and the driver’s side windows rolled down. I rolled them up and began to drive home and again while coming to a stop the parking brake came on automatically. This is a brand new less than 16K miles and I’m having majors issues that are a safety hazard. Scary and unacceptable! | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | POWER TRAIN,ENGINE | On four occasions, (at a stop light/intersection, in a car line, in a drive thru, and in a parking lot), the engine has shut off while driving. All four times, I have been in Drive and the car will stall and a "start engine manually" message pops up. Each time, I had to completely stop, put the car in park, restart the engine, and put it back in Drive. This has definitely put myself and the safety of others at risk because it has caused my car to stop while on the road, as well as other locations where there are moving vehicles. If my vehicle were to stall at a time when I am in the middle of traffic, the time it takes to react to put the vehicle back into park, then restart the engine, then put it back into drive could lead to an accident. I.havw tried to call the VW dealership and left several messages to report these incidences, but they have not returned my calls. I have also tried to calW Customer Care, but I haven't been able to get through. The "start engine manually" alert only shows when the engine has cut off and the car stalls. No other indicator or warning lights are present. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | My 2021.5 Atlas had experienced issues with window rolling down and parking break initiated as I was coming to a stop on Jan 3 2022. Dealership told me the harness needed to be replaced and they think I was ok to drive and would contact me when the part was in. Fast forward a month later I could barely drive as it kept breaking, I was driving and accelerating on to an expressway going almost 50 mph and the break initiated jolting my car (it felt like I had been hit). And I almost was as my collision alert went off when someone almost rear ended me! I drove straight to enterprise and had my atlas towed to the dealership-were it is still sitting. I have heard there is a recall yet when I enter my vin my vehicle is not listed on the recall so not sure how accurate they are able to find out which vehicles have this issue. My car literally had 9000 miles and is not drivable and not safe. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | ENGINE,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | While driving on March 12, 2022, multiple alarms beeping and warning indicators appeared on the dashboard and the emergency brake suddenly engaged immediately halting the car to a complete stop. This happened multiple times during a short drive. On March 16, 2022, while this vehicle was parked with the engine running, more warning indicators appeared. The first was " Fault: Electronic parking brake" and the second was "Caustion: Engine is running". Right after that, two windows partially rolled down on their own. About 5 minutes later, as I was pulling into my driveway, the same two warning indicators came back on - this time the vehicle was in motion. This vehicle is scheduled for routine maintenance on March 22, 2022 and this was mentioned to the service department at the time the appointment was made. The vehicle has not yet been inspected. There is no warning when these issues are going to happen making it unsettling to drive this vehicle not knowing when or if it will abruptly stop on the road or highway. This is definitely a safety issue. Photos of the March 16, 2022 indicent are attached to this. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,UNKNOWN OR OTHER,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Our car starting firing many warning every time we would drive it including breaking without us telling it to. We took it in twice for it to be fixed, the first didn't work and the second they replaced a door chasey and I hope it works long term. Very scary to be driving with 2 little kids in the back and a possessed car. Super dangerous. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | When driving at roughly 50+ mph the windows roll down one their own and the driver door contact switch error comes on. Once slowing down, the parking break engages when you are still moving the vehicle. I have contacted VW to get this serviced and they have told me there is no fix currently and that I will be charged to provide my own rental vehicle. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |