2015 Volkswagen Passat — reported problems

CarFaultIQ holds 1,382 evidence records for the 2015 Volkswagen Passat, drawn from official sources and owner complaints.

What owners report: issue areas

Owner complaints are classified by the system they concern: 389 classifications in all. One complaint can concern several systems, so these add up to more than the number of complaints.

  • Air bags (restraint system)89 (22.9%)Official recall records for this system: 21, covering model years 2003–2020.
  • Engine55 (14.1%)Official recall records for this system: 8, covering model years 1995–2016.
  • Electrical system48 (12.3%)Official recall records for this system: 5, covering model years 1996–2014.
  • Brakes29 (7.5%)Official recall records for this system: 14, covering model years 1998–2018.
  • Steering26 (6.7%)Official recall records for this system: 7, covering model years 1998–2009.
  • Fuel system23 (5.9%)Official recall records for this system: 17, covering model years 1998–2016.

Other / uncategorized: 40 classifications (10.3%) were not assigned to a specific system by the source. They are counted but not treated as an issue area.

These are counts of records held by CarFaultIQ, not a failure rate. More records can simply mean more vehicles were sold or more owners reported. No vehicles-in-service figure exists in this data, so no reliability or risk score can be derived from it.

What the records are about, by source

Each source is kept separate: owner complaints, recalls, manufacturer communications and investigations are different kinds of record and are never added together. All model years.

  • Owner complaints (15,270 records, model years 1995–2022) are most frequently classified under: air bags (restraint system), engine and electrical system.
  • Safety recalls (178 records, model years 1995–2021) are most frequently classified under: air bags (restraint system), fuel system and brakes.
  • Transport Canada recalls (142 records, model years 1995–2020) are most frequently classified under: air bags (restraint system), brakes and fuel system.
  • Manufacturer communications (17,694 records, model years 1995–2022) are most frequently classified under: equipment & accessories, electrical system and engine.
  • Investigations (92 records, model years 1995–2014) are most frequently classified under: electrical system, air bags (restraint system) and fuel system.

"Most frequently classified under" reports how the records are filed by the source. It is not a finding about causes, and a record can be filed under more than one system. Read the individual records

Mileage reported when the issue occurred

  • 134reports included a mileage
  • 47,290average of those mileages

This is the mileage owners recorded at the time they reported, not an expected failure mileage and not a prediction for any individual vehicle. The lowest and highest figures on record are not shown: they are unverified odometer entries that include zeros and implausibly high readings, so they would not describe a real range. A median is not shown either, because the stored figures are group totals and a median cannot be recovered from them.

Evidence by model year

Records held per model year. Select a year to narrow this page to it.

  1. 1995 126 records for 1995
  2. 1996 187 records for 1996
  3. 1997 126 records for 1997
  4. 1998 461 records for 1998
  5. 1999 804 records for 1999
  6. 2000 717 records for 2000
  7. 2001 649 records for 2001
  8. 2002 871 records for 2002
  9. 2003 864 records for 2003
  10. 2004 524 records for 2004
  11. 2005 419 records for 2005
  12. 2006 1,111 records for 2006
  13. 2007 818 records for 2007
  14. 2008 797 records for 2008
  15. 2009 905 records for 2009
  16. 2010 1,006 records for 2010
  17. 2012 2,075 records for 2012
  18. 2013 2,361 records for 2013
  19. 2014 2,180 records for 2014
  20. 2015 1,382 records for 2015
  21. 2016 940 records for 2016
  22. 2017 793 records for 2017
  23. 2018 653 records for 2018
  24. 2019 543 records for 2019
  25. 2020 468 records for 2020
  26. 2021 360 records for 2021
  27. 2022 274 records for 2022

Counts are not adjusted for how many vehicles were sold in each year, so a taller year is not necessarily a worse year.

Reports mentioning outcomes

  • 11mention a crash
  • 2mention a fire
  • 14mention an injury

These are counts of records whose report mentioned the outcome. They are not a severity rating and not a safety assessment of this vehicle.

Official records held

  • Safety recalls NHTSA 7
  • Manufacturer communications NHTSA 1,126
  • Transport Canada recalls Transport Canada 6
  • Owner complaints NHTSA 243

Explore the underlying evidence records

Diagnostic codes found in evidence for this vehicle

These codes appear by explicit identifier in official records matched to this exact model and year.

A code appearing in a record means the code was named in that document. It is not a diagnosis of this vehicle, not a fault this vehicle has, and not an indication of urgency. Diagnosis requires reading live data from the vehicle.

Symptoms and warning lights in these systems

Where to go next