2025 Volkswagen Atlas

I am writing to formally escalate a serious safety concern regarding my 2025 Volkswagen Atlas, purchased in March 2025 from Prestige Volkswagen in Turnersville, NJ. The middle row left seatbelt has demonstrated an intermittent failure on multiple occasions over the past month. Specifically: At times, the seatbelt will not latch At other times, it appears to click, but can then be pulled out without pressing the release button This issue has been personally experienced by myself, my husband, and my mother, on separate occasions. Because the failure is intermittent, it does not occur every time the seatbelt is used — which is exactly what makes this defect concerning. I brought the vehicle to Prestige Volkswagen Turnersville, where the service department and service manager stated they cannot replace the seatbelt unless they can duplicate the problem. Their assessment consisted of manually tugging on the buckle until it appeared to function properly. I explained that testing a stationary seatbelt in a service bay is not equivalent to real-world forces during a motor vehicle collision, and that an intermittent failure of a federally required safety restraint presents a significant risk of injury should the buckle disengage during an accident. Despite this, the dealership has refused to replace the seatbelt assembly. I also opened a Volkswagen Customer Care case, which was escalated to a manager Aaron. I was informed that after speaking with the dealership, Volkswagen would not authorize replacement because the issue could not be duplicated. I am requesting Volkswagen of America’s direct assistance in resolving this safety concern. A seatbelt that fails intermittently is not operating as designed, regardless of whether the defect can be reproduced on demand. I respectfully request authorization to replace the affected seatbelt assembly under warranty to ensure the safety of all passengers.

EHICLE SAFETY DEFECT — INSTRUMENT CLUSTER FAILURE & TRANSMISSION/SHIFTER FAILURE My 2025 Volkswagen Atlas has two serious, ongoing safety defects that Volkswagen and the dealership have failed to repair. The digital speedometer/instrument cluster blacks out while driving, leaving no speed visibility. This has occurred multiple times with my four young children in the car. The vehicle often will NOT go into Drive unless I shift 3 or more times. This is an intermittent shifter/transmission malfunction. The dealership’s repair order states “NO REPAIRS PERFORMED FOR THIS CONCERN.” For the blackout issue, they only disabled HD Radio as a temporary workaround. A VW technician told me on video that no permanent fix exists. The same admission was made over the phone by another VW technician. For the transmission issue, the dealer wrote “unable to duplicate,” did no diagnostics, performed no repair, and documented no second inspection despite verbally claiming one occurred. I have now been without a safe vehicle for 32+ days. Volkswagen denied me a loaner multiple times. VW corporate has not responded to my requests for buyback, and the defects remain uncorrected. These are unresolved safety defects affecting visibility of speed, drivability, and transmission engagement.

The contact owns a 2025 Volkswagen Atlas. The contact stated while operating the vehicle, the infotainment display unit was inoperable. During the failure, the back over prevention camera display was inoperable along with the front and rear window defrosters, and blind spot monitoring system being inoperable. The local dealer and manufacturer were notified of the failure and the contact was informed that a satellite system issue had caused the failure on several different model vehicles. No further information was available. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The failure mileage was 5,500.

The infotainment system, which controls most of the functions of driving safely, is down again for the 2nd time since I purchased my Atlas on 6/9/25. The first time it happened, the local VW dealer had me bring it in on 8/30 & they "fixed" it relatively quickly. They stated it was a local issue & had many Atlas screens that went down but they didn't know why. Now on 10/16 this occurred again, I called the local VW dealer & was told they can't get me in for over 2 weeks. I have a long trip planned before that & also I am heading back south for the winter prior to the date they can get me in. I was told I can drop off the vehicle for an unknown time frame - which leaves me no vehicle at all unless I rent a car for this unknown time frame. A second service advisor called me back to advised it is now a nationwide issue & as of now, there is no solution to fixing it. So why would I drop off my vehicle if there is no solution for this issue?

This problem was noticed shortly after vehicle was purchased and it could potentially be dangerous; although there has been no accidents yet. After waiting at a light or waiting to make a turn when clear, there is an unusually long or slow response to acceleration. Acceleration pedal would be pressed and car does not move. This is particularly dangerous when making a left turn with oncoming cars. Typical response is to step on pedal more to get vehicle to move, but once the car does respond, it would shoot forward. Only happens when car is starting to go from a stop but does not happen everytime. Vehicle is currently about 1000 miles but this has been after shortly after purchase. Vehicle was purchased new with 5 miles on odometer.

2025 atlas- brand new with 6000 miles on it. Yesterday afternoon the screen shut off and turned back on several times and then shut off for good. My radio doesn’t work, I can’t control my AC, the sensors don’t work, etc. Literally nothing works other than the gas and brake pedals. I called the dealership this morning and they claim that everyone who has an atlas is having this same issue and they don’t have a clue what the problem is.

The car is in cruise control on the freeway, going 70-80mph and suddenly decelerates/brakes slam on, to slow down. The front collision will come on and the car will come to almost a complete stop when there is absolutely NOTHING in front of me. The vehicle will alert there is no driver, when I have both hands on the wheel, and start braking. These sudden stops and slow downs are going to get me or someone else killed. This is an ongoing issue.

The contact owns a 2025 Volkswagen Atlas. The contact stated that while driving at 35 MPH, the brakes independently engaged. The contact was unable to disengage the brakes. The vehicle was stopped in the middle of the road with several warning unknown lights illuminated, and undisclosed messages were displayed. The contact turned off the vehicle, and after several restarting attempts, the contact was unable to disengage the brakes. The contact was unable to move the shift lever. The vehicle was towed to the dealer, where it was diagnosed and determined that an undisclosed update was needed. An unknown update was performed on the vehicle. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 3,000.

The autonomous braking activates out of no where while driving. Violently hard and nothing around. A message appears on the dash board saying it can not sense hands on steering wheel. Also while backing up it will activate and no one is near the car or it even activates in an empty parking lot. The car jolted so hard when this happens and everyone went flying forward. No ..the dealer has had the car for 8 days and says they can not replicate the problem. He asked me for permission to drive it to Land O Lakes and I said no the car is very dangerous and that is a huge liability . I gave them permission to drive it around local only. No the vehicle has only been inspected by the dealer. He said since they can not replicate it he can not have a mechanic from Volkswagen assigned to it. No nothing appeared only after. Also, the brakes squeak and sound like it’s grinding on metal like a very old car. Also the front assist beeps loud when nothing is in front of the car. Also, when I go to start the car at times, it will not detect the key. I will bring the second key and it will not detect the second key also. Also the radio screen constantly disconnects everything and it will turn black and then display 0000 with a date of April 6 2025. Also while driving the app will say the door is open. The trunk is open the windows open when everything is closed. That also happens at 2 AM or 3 AM. It will say the trunk is open. The door is open and everything is closed.