48 of the
2,991 complaints filed about the Volkswagen Atlas
are about the throttle and cruise control —
2% of everything owners reported.
The worst model year for it is 2019.
48
Complaints
2%
Share of all complaints
4
Crashes
0
Fires
Acceleration & Cruise Control complaints by model year
i was exiting HWY 45 at highway speed. the car began to stutter, i lost control of the propulsion of the vehicle, the breaks did not seem to work, the EPC light came on after rolling to a stop. i had to put the car in park and upon turning the car off and back on the cars EPC light went off and i was able to drive it home. it now sits in my driveway and has not been moved since.
NHTSA complaint #11755826 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
Several times before I got the car stalled in the car wash which I thought that could no be important however yesterday Sunday 12, driving on I4 by Tampa bay in Florida when traffic was stocked and slow suddenly the car went off, so I geared neutral and started again. Then happened twice in total three times.
NHTSA complaint #11750086 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
It's been about one month since engine light has lit up on the dashboard and stays on now. The first incident occurred about a week ago, as I was driving, I was slowing down to go into a roundabout, the vehicle begin to jerk and pull back, a red triangle exclamation mark light started going off warning me to safely park my vehicle as it had overheated. I assumed it was low on coolant so I topped it off to see if that would fix the issue. Then two days later after the first incident it occurred again. I came to a stop at a set of stoplights and when it was time to go, as I was accelerating I felt it starting to jerk again and again, I started getting a bunch of red warning lights to safely park my vehicle as it had overheated again and a message popped up on the dashboard about the speed. I can't quite remember the wording. I can't say for certain that I've figured out what is happening but I think that it may have something to do with the Auto Start/Stop function. Seems like when it comes to a stop, it turns off and when i'm going to start driving again it's triggering something. I've been disabling it now when I drive my vehicle and these incidents haven't occurred anymore.
NHTSA complaint #11748338 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
Multiple occurrences where forward collision warning goes off with no vehicles Incident 1. 5/15/2026 Road: Highway I-94 Weather: Clear and sunny Condition: Cruise control on, light traffic, nearest vehicle at least 4 cars in front, 2 vehicles behind and to the right (fast lane), driving in the middle left lane. Forward collision warning went off and took cruise control off. No vehicles stopping in front of me. Incident 2. 6/3/2026 Road: Urban side streets Weather: Clear and sunny Condition: Coasting towards a roundabout approximately 200' from the intersection, no vehicle in front, no vehicle behind, no animals, people or objects on the road. Forward Collision Warning went off under no threat of collsion. Incident 3: 6/14/2026 Road: 2 lane urban road. Weather: Dusk, clear, no rain, Condition: paved road, no animals, no vehicle in front, vehicle behind, approaching an intersection, coasting (light was yellow) towards intersection. , evening dusk, clear no rain, no precipitate, clear roads. Fwd. Collision warning went off, going straight.
NHTSA complaint #11744272 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
The contact owns a 2024 Volkswagen Atlas. The contact stated that while driving the vehicle hesitated and failed to respond, while driving at 20 mph, contact depressed the accelerator pedal all the way to make it respond. There was no warning lights illuminated. The contact stated that the failure was a recurring failure. The dealer was contacted and notified of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure damage was approximately 58,000.
NHTSA complaint #11742053 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
Had new vehicle for 1 week and it broke down in a parking lot and would not start on 5/10/26. It was towed and dealership, found it to be a faulty feel injector system that was replaced. Picked it up from the dealership on 5/13/26 and I lost the ability to accelerate while on the interstate. It was towed back to the dealership who had to reach out to V. W headquarters to determine the problem. It was discovered that the electronic control module needed to be replaced. That unit is on back order and I still do not have my vehicle.
NHTSA complaint #11739130 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
The vehicle has a speed limit sign feature where it displays the speed limit of the road you are on in the windshield. However, this is displaying inaccurate speeds limits which is very dangerous. I have contacted Volkswagen about the issue and they advised that there is nothing they can do. If someone where to use my car and trust the information that Volkswagen it could be very dangerous.
NHTSA complaint #11718780 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
1. While backing up and going over grass (not curb), brakes slam on. Passenger was leaning forward while this happened and it abruptly jolted him. He thought I did it but my foot was on the gas to back up. Car rarely detects a large curb though. Service could not reproduce. Started in March 2025 2. While driving behind a car that is slowing down or turning, brakes will (sometimes) slam on and a loud beep and red symbol on the dash appears. While I know this is a safety feature, it happens at random. It doesn't always work at times when I am very close to a turning vehicle that decelerates quickly, and it will happen when I am also decelerating and several car lengths behind a car. Cause me to almost slide into oncoming traffic on one occasion. Service could not reproduce. Started April 2025. Still happening. 3. While driving 75-80mph on the highway (posted speed is 70mph), car suddenly braked and rapidly decelerated to a speed of 35mph (not a posted highway speed). This has happened several times over the past few months. Thankfully, no one was behind me or they would've smashed into me. Service disabled the feature so now I'm paying for a feature that I cannot use and doesn't work correctly. However, it is on many other VW's and could cause a serious accident to the unsuspecting driver. April 2025. 4. Windows go down at random when pulling up lever to close. Service blamed on my vent visors and says it is a safety feature to prevent injuries. However, my daughter had her arm out the window and it did not stop going up and ended up pinching her arm in the window. I had to lower it with my lever. Service cannot replicate and gives me the same reasoning every time. Ongoing since Sept. 2024. 5. Car sometimes lags/hesitates when taking off from a stop. When trying to quickly enter traffic, this could cause a car to hit me if the car isn't getting up and going like it usually does. Service could not replicate. Started May 2025. Still ongoing
NHTSA complaint #11691188 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
The car began revving at lights when I was in drive and stopped at red lights. The normal at rest rev is 0.75 however I have seen it as high as 1.5 and had to put the car into park to reset the acceleration. This had been consistently happening over the past month. The first visit to the dealer, I needed a new battery... that didn't fix the issue. The tech said that after the battery was replaced that the scan showed no error codes. The only codes before the battery replacement were low voltage indicators throughout the car. The next day the same issue happened again. The second scam showed no faults however I asked them to clean the throttle body (which they never suggested) and they did. They said that they recalibrated the new clean throttle body measurement to the computer. For the following 10 days, when I stopped at a light, the tachometer was perfectly stable at 0.75 and there was no "jumping" around like before. Until this day, the acceleration happened at a "stop". However on day 11 after the throttle cleaning, I was SLOWING DOWN to approach a red light and the tachometer revved to 3.0 and I needed to stop immediately and throw it into park. This is so dangerous. I may cause an accident by either lurching forward or needing to hit the breaks to stop the acceleration. There are no error or warning lights that show on the dashboard!!! After the battery was changed, the dealership said they had someone drive it for 10 miles to recreate the issue but found none yet it started up the next day. GROK has been helpful. It suggested first the throttle cleaning which did help, and three other repairs. I'm planning to pay a shop that deals with German cars specifically to scan and evaluate. The car has 43,000 miles on it. This is a testament to German engineering? No longer. I have never seen this in any other of my vehicles. All three uploads failed even though I got them to the most minimum of info.
NHTSA complaint #11688381 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
The contact owns a 2022 Volkswagen Atlas. The contact stated that while at a stoplight with vehicles in the front and rear, the vehicle suddenly accelerated, lunged forward, and crashed into a Chevrolet pickup truck. The brake pedal was applied but failed to respond. There were no warning lights illuminated. There were reported injuries, a police report, airbag deployment, or a fire. The vehicle was towed to the local dealer, who was unable to service the vehicle due to parts. The vehicle was towed to an auto body shop. Then towed back to the same local dealer, where an unknown diagnosis and repair were completed. The manufacturer was contacted, but no assistance was provided. The manufacturer reported that the vehicle was not the cause of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 30,000. The VIN was not available.
NHTSA complaint #11679379 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
Due to a faulty door wiring harness (a VW recall) the car has multiple electrical issues. The car shuts itself down, loss of blinkers, speedometer, brake lights, parking brake engagement and ALL electrical functions, every alarm goes off in the car, windows roll up and down, doors will lock and unlock while driving. Which is terrifying/life threatening while driving 65 MPH on a highway with kids. We have this on video. Most recently, it shut down and would not start again. The dealership has now attempted to fix this problem 5 times and cannot get the alarm lights to turn off so now the car is not even drivable. We have tried to work with VW for a buyback twice and started this process (16 months into owning the car) when the car was under full warranty. They continued to deem the car safe and fixed and the same issues would sporadically happen. After these two cases for VW to buyback the car and them rejecting it, we are now out of warranty and they will not work with us. We bought the car brand new.
NHTSA complaint #11675930 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
Was operating vehicle when all of a sudden it stop in the middle of the highway. Engine turned iff. Was able to crank back up but vehicle would not shift into drive, reverse or any motion gear. Vehicle stopped in the morgue of an active roadway which created an absolute critical safety issue due to oncoming traffic. Was able to push vehicle from the roadway in neutral but transmission will not otherwise engage. Very high probability that this issue could have resulted in serious car accident if vehicle had became disabled at a high speed.
NHTSA complaint #11658335 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
We were driving down the interstate with cruise control on. There were no other cars around us thank goodness but the car slammed on the brakes with no warning. If someone had been behind us we would have been rear ended and possibly hurt.
NHTSA complaint #11636057 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
While driving my car made a loud beep sound and Faulty Brake Booster appeared on the dash and the BRAKE light came on and the brakes would not work properly. I was almost rear ended because of this.
NHTSA complaint #11614362 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
The car stalls and turns off when operating at a slow speed, both in forward or reverse. This is a serious and potentially deadly problem. With my two young children in the car, I was turning left across three lanes of oncoming traffic. When I began to accelerate, my car stalled in the middle of the first lane. I had to figure out what happened, put it in park, restart the car and finish my turn before being hit by oncoming traffic. This has happened 2-3 times each day since this started last week. This has nothing to do with Eco mode or automatic start/stop feature. I am familiar with both of those and disengage them when I start the car. The car has approx 28k miles and is well maintained. It is still well within warranty. The check engine light came on and the code it throws is P0496 for a bad EVAP system. I took it to VW dealer and they re-created and diagnosed the problem. Essentially, the EVAP system has faulty parts and it is causing the gas tank to collapse. The EVAP canister, the purge valve and the gas tank all need to be replaced. The problem is they do not have the parts to replace the gas tank. And they have no idea when they are going to get them. Literally, no time horizon. The VW service advisor admitted that they’ve seen ‘some frequency’ with this problem lately, mainly on 2019-2023 models. It’s a parts issue, not a wear & tear nor maintenance issue. If you look this up online, you’ll see hundreds of posts about this issue with similar scary situations like mine. Couple this with the active recall already in place (passenger airbag may not deploy in an accident) and there’s no solution for that recall, either. My family feels in jeopardy every time we drive our family car. Why is there not a recall for the gas tank collapse? How can we compel VW to produce a remedy in a timely manner? This is going to be a fatal issue for some family. Please help. I am happy to document and share photos/ videos of the situation.
NHTSA complaint #11613279 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
I was told by dealership that due to the boosters transmitting radio frequencies in rural areas that it interferes with the adaptive cruise control. I have gone on 3 trips where this causes the front assist and cruise control to disengage at highway speeds. Had someone been behind me they would have rear-ended my vehicle. In 6 months has happened three times but the dealership has not been able to reproduce due to our high population in our area. Dealership is aware but they don't know how to fix as manufacturer hasn't released any information. Car was purchased in 9/2023 and happened twice within 3 weeks. Third time was 2/17/24 on another trip through a rural area.
NHTSA complaint #11573517 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
The contact owns a 2019 Volkswagen Atlas. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, the vehicle stalled inadvertently. The contact stated that he shifted into park (P), then pushed the Push to Start button, and the vehicle restarted. Additionally, the contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, the vehicle lunged and jerked. The contact was able to pull to the side of the road. The EPC (Electronic Power Control) warning light, the steering angle sensor warning light, the exhaust warning light, the transmission warning light, and other unknown warning lights was illuminated. The contact also stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed on an incline, the vehicle decelerated to approximately 5 MPH while the accelerator pedal was depressed. Additionally, the infotainment system became inoperable. The dealer was notified of the failure, and an appointment was scheduled for diagnostic testing. The vehicle was not diagnosed nor repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 42,000.
NHTSA complaint #11549411 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
I have several issues. My main concern is when turning on an incline (hill or mountain), my vehicles rpm's rev up and I am unable to stop it for several seconds. Sometimes, it will clunk and the rpms will go back to normal after sever seconds but most times the vehicle just jerks and the rpms come back down. I drive through a street with a 4 way stop very often and the issue happens every time. Secondly, i am not sure if its my steering or my brakes but when i come to a stop there is a clicking noise at my pedal and it makes it a little tougher to stop the vehicle. I can be at a full stop and if i push my brake pedal down more, it will click multiple times. I have also noticed this jerk/click when i make a sharp left turns such as in a parking lot. My vehicle jerks a bit while it clicks and i am concerned something will brake while i am turning or stopping and my wheels wont stop.
NHTSA complaint #11536115 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
My 2018 Volkswagen Atlas has a defect that has impaired my ability to use the vehicle as intended. It is not only unsafe but I am in fear of driving freeways because I do not know when my car will cut off. Manufactures were fully aware of their defective products. I have read forums pertaining to the 2018 Volkswagen Atlas engine sputtering (Causes and Diagnosis). It states that the causes could be a bad fuel system, ignition system,MAF sensor, or bad converter. I have owned my vehicle for over a year and a half. During this time my vehicle has repeatedly started sputtering, deccelerated and turned off. It has happened 3 times and I do not feel safe. Have taken to dealership only to be told nothing was wrong with car. On October 18, 2022 Volkswagen Group of America recalled 74,067 SUV'S due to Engine Failure that could result in stall, increasing risks of crash. Troublesome connecting rod bearings that potentially lead to oil leaks and fire. Volkswagen has recalled 2022-2023 Volkswagen Atlas and Atlas Cross Sport.This is a Manufacturer's defect. The defect did not start in 2022-2023 models the problem occured in 2017 when the Volkswagen Atlas was launched as a one of the most innovative technical platforms in automotive industry. I understand that the Federal law requires safety recalls repairs to be provided up to 15 years because safety recalls do not expire. NHTS I am requesting that safety recalls be performed on 2018 Volkswagen Atlas because the same problems exit. I am requesting that Volkswagen Group of America stand behind their products, take ownership of the necessary repairs to keep consumers safe from harms way. I thought there was nothing more terrifying than being buried alive until I drove up and down the streets of San Francisco in a 2018 Volkswagen Atlas. The fear of not knowing when your car will start sputtering and decelerating causing you to plunge to your death is the most terrifying experience that I have just indured in my life.
NHTSA complaint #11532710 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
I'm emailing due to issues with my 2023 Cross Sport I purchased. It's a dire situation, as I had issues with my 2021 Cross Sport and VW ended up repurchasing the vehicle from me due a number of safety concerns. During my search for a new vehicle, I could not find anything that I liked so I ended up contacting Hawk VW in Joliet, IL to ask about the new 2023 Cross Sport and asked if they were aware of any issues and they said no. I purchased a 2023 Cross Sport on September 28, 2022 in hopes that I would have a more pleasant experience. This is a decision that would come back to haunt me. I contacted my salesman on October 12th to let him know that the car wasn't driving well. I told him there seemed to be a kind of jerk or stall while I was driving. He told me that "the Cross Sport and all VW's do have an assist feature where if you suddenly press the gas the car will try to react that is were the sudden acceleration will occur." I told him it wasn't a sudden acceleration...it was more like a jerk and hard to explain. This would happen while I was driving. I kept driving and it would still happen, but I just went along with him saying it was the assist feature. On May 23rd, I emailed him to let him know that my car had off twice in a week with a message saying manually start engine. I took it in on June 5th and was told it was the fuel pump and fuel pump sensor. On June 13th I let them know it cut off again. I took it in on July 5th and was told it was the EVAP canister. Now today, July 10th, they are saying they will replace the fuel tank as well and the part should be in Wednesday. I feel as if VW is definitely aware of these safety issues, as there's a VW forum out there and a lot of owners are having the same issues. Something needs to be done before someone gets hurt, or worse. I pray that doesn't happen but this is truly ridiculous and frustrating at this point.
NHTSA complaint #11531448 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.