2023 Volkswagen ID.4

The driver door malfunctions and will open itself. It has happened twice now while driving at low speeds. It also happens while my car is parked. It will not lock at all, and it seems to think someone is trying to open it. My car will be parked with the door closed, I try to lock it, but it won't lock, and I'll come back later and the door will be ajar. Or I will be driving and the car will keep making sounds like it's trying to lock/unlike, the. Suddenly the door will pop open. This started about 3 weeks ago.

I brought my vehicle because of an electrical problem I lost power and my dash light came on saying electrical system malfunction, My dealership just informed me about some cables been chewed up by a mouse it’s what they claim. It’s the battery cables insulation in the bottom front part of the vehicle, after reading about the recall in the battery cables insulation wearing out from 2022 models you can clearly see that it’s the same problem in the same spot and in the same rear wheel drive model. They don’t want to take responsibility because there is no recall for my year yet, so they want me to pay $3000 out of pocket to fix it and I don’t even have a month that I bought this vehicle.

Driver car door intermittently pops open, while driving, when stopped, and when parked (not occupied). Car door locks intermittently stop working, meaning passengers cannot enter from outside, cannot open door from inside, doors do not unlock when key fob approaches. Also when this is happening, charge port shorts ie. disconnects/connects. When these issues are happening, defogger runs intermittently when parked, unless I enter car to manually turn off heating system. Turning off defogger with app does not stop defogging even when it says "off" in app. Seems tons of water is down in door... If the car is dry, if I roll the windows down then up, windows are COVERED with water. At times, front windows go down when trying to roll them up. Not safety, but internal ambient lighting system has two colors, one for dash, one for door lights. Door light color selection does not work, and doors only will show color of dash color selection.

30848 miles 1/5/24 – Drove to Cedar City UT for an appointment after picking the vehicle up. The elevation is 5846 feet and the weather was about 20f. While going uphill on the interstate I started to receive messages about the headlights not working. Electrical system not working correctly error message came back. The left headlight was going on and off on its own and an error "fault vehicle lighting". "Please check left front turn signal." "Error dynamic cornering light." Heat can be turned on hi but doesn't warm the vehicle up. Heated seats don't seem to be working even when on 3. There is also a burnt electrical smell entering the vehicle. Vehicle was parked outside Findlay VW St. George service and won’t be checked in until 1/8 as they are closed on the weekend.

30722 miles 12/12/23 – Vehicle continued to give the parking sensors error even after ensuring they were cleaned. The error will go away intermittently and then come back. Also got an error about parking assist not working. These errors never occurred before the 30000-mile service. Vehicle started giving electrical system errors and 12v battery errors again and had to be towed to Findlay Volkswagen St. George. The vehicle was in the shop 24 days, and I only received one email response from Pam Mahony-Coufal that the tech was still working with VW on the issue, and she would let me know when they were done. Texts and emails to check the status were met with no response. When I asked about a loaner, vehicle service manager Bryan said there were none available, and if there were one, it can’t be taken out of state. That poses a challenge for me since I live in Nevada and the dealership is in Utah. The dealership stated they found melted relays and replaced them. The vehicle was road tested 8 miles and returned to me 1/5/24.

29987 miles 11/3/2023 – I brought my vehicle to Findlay VW Henderson NV for the 30,000-mile service, the 12V electrical issue, and the door handle recall. Andrew Lammers, the service consultant told me they’d check everything out while my vehicle was in the shop and before releasing it back to me. I received a call about a week later that there were parts hold. On 11/17 I was advised my vehicle was ready. I was told the 12V battery, high voltage system, and electrical were tested and were okay. 4-wheel alignment, front assist, and lane assist systems were also recalibrated. I was assured I shouldn’t have any electrical issues any longer. I picked my vehicle up 11/18, one day after I was notified it was finished.

20122 miles 7/31/2023 – Infotainment screen would reboot at random. I was also receiving the 12V battery message still and the electrical system error Dropped vehicle off at AutoNation VW for the 20000-mile service. Mark Daddario said that sometimes it’s how the customer drives the EV’s that makes the errors come up but couldn’t tell me anyway I was driving it incorrectly. I left the vehicle asking them to perform the maintenance, perform the door handle recall, and replace the flat tire under my VW Care tire protection plan. I left the vehicle with them for several days while I was out of town. Upon picking up the vehicle Chris Guilkey told me everything was performed, but the system was down so they couldn’t give me any paperwork. He handed me the key and pointed to my vehicle which was returned to me with 17% charge. Shortly after leaving the dealership the vehicle performed a thud and shut down. After waiting a few minutes, it restarted again. I drove back to the dealership and Chris didn’t see any errors on the screen so told me everything should be fine.

9942 miles – Error: 12V power supply. Safely Park the vehicle! See owner’s manual. Pulled over a turned vehicle off. Took vehicle to AutoNation VW. By the time I arrived at the dealership the error was no longer on the screen. Jeffrey Lopez had said it would be checked as part of the 10,000-mile service (which according to Jeffrey included oil change.) I showed Jeff pictures of the error message. Tech performed the 10000-mile service, scanned the vehicle but claimed they were unable to duplicate concern. Nothing was documented regarding the electrical issue, only that I was there for a 10,0000 service synthetic oil. Inspection paperwork all claimed that the vehicle was in good condition. Upon leaving the dealership there was a thud and loss of power but then the power immediately came back.

5264 miles – Red warnings come on after charging vehicle. Pulled over and turned vehicle off. Took vehicle to AutoNation VW. By the time I arrived at dealership the red triangle and warning were no longer on the screen. Jeffrey Lopez had me sit in the waiting area. Tech scanned the vehicle but claimed they were unable to duplicate the concern. Nothing was documented; I was given no paperwork and was sent on my way.

The vehicle does not get 275 range fully charged as window sticker states. New vehicle with 600 miles on it only gets 242 range when fully charged. The vehicle is over stated to boost sales. You cannot lock the vehicle in any way, shape, or form unless you have the key fob. if you forget to lock your car, you cannot ask someone to lock it for you without a key. The car cannot be locked from interior door like a traditional door. Huge safety issue. To make it worse, the vehicle cannot be locked from the App like Volkswagen advertised. Scam all around.