Owners have filed 22 complaints on the Volkswagen Arteon, covering 2019–2023. The system named most often is Tires (13 reports). Worst years by volume: 2023, 2019, 2020; cleanest: 2020, 2019, 2023. On average the car was 1.9 years old when the problem happened.
What breaks on Volkswagen Arteon
Grouped by the system owners named — percentages are shares of all 22 Arteon complaints. Open any row for the full reports in owners' own words.
Tires 13 Read
Was switching out the "summer" tires for winter tires and noticed a bubble on the sidewall of the passenger front tire. At the time the car had around 3,000 miles on it. I switched to my spare tire, did not put the bubbled tire back on the car. I had traveled who knows how many miles with that tire like that. If I…
Tire is 245/35 R 20. Tire sidewall blew out on a small bump/pothole at less than 15mph, losing all pressure and forcing to be towed. These are OEM tires with less than 2500 miles on them. Model is on backorder, so all new tires for vehicle had to be replaced. These tires are a known issue for the VW Arteon and…
Tread separating from belt. Only 17k miles on new car. 3 of 4 tires were affected. Tire size 245/35r20
Electrical System 3 Read
Sos module failure 3 times in 8 months
On my driver's screen, an error message popped up that read "SOS, ERROR: Emergency call function. Service vehicle!" I took my car to the dealership. This was in November of 2023. They were able to remove the error message but the module itself was broken and the SOS feature was not working and would need to be…
Volkswagen has issued an interim safety recall for certain VW vehicles. We believe this also incorporates VW Arteon. The Passenger Occupant Detection System (PODS) detects a malfunction, switches off the passenger airbag, displays an Airbag error and renders the passenger seat inoperable due to increased risk of…
Wheels 2 Read
Sudden loss of tire pressure on interstate highway in heavy traffic at 70 miles per hour. This created a safety hazard to control the car and try to move to the shoulder of the road without a collision. The tires are factory 245/35/R20 Continental ProContact with 8/32 tread remaining. Tires have 13,600 miles and the…
I was driving on city streets at normal speed during a rainy day. I turned right from one road to another road, and as I started to accelerate out of the right turn, my driver side front tire blew out and the TPMS started screaming because it read the tire pressure as 0. I immediately pulled over and checked the tire…
Visibility 1 Read
Sunroof blew out at 70mph making a sound like a gunshot from within the car. Nothing externally or internally hit the glass. Sunscreen protected the passengers as 75% of the glass blew out and scratched the roof, trunk and back panels of the car traveling at highway speed. Car was under manufacturer’s original factory…
Back Over Prevention 1 Read
The rear view camera will occasionally not work. The first symptom is that the touchscreen instrument panel displays a pop-up dialog, randomly while driving, that says, "ParkPilot is not available right now." This dialog needs to be cleared by pressing "OK" before the rest of the navigation can be seen again. The more…
Service Brakes 1 Read
Hello, this vehicle is warping rotors in the first 10,000 miles of ownership and could cause a wreck. When driving at highway speeds and apply light pressure to the brakes I get heavy vibration in the steering wheel and the vehicle feels unsafe. The dealership will not replace under warranty. Very upsetting
Arteon years to avoid — and the clean ones
Complaints per model year. More reports usually means more cars on the road as well as more trouble, so read the crash and fire columns alongside the count.
| Model year | Complaints | Top system | Crashes | Fires |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Tires | — | — | |
| 2020 | Electrical System | — | — | |
| 2019 | Back Over Prevention | — | — |
The same model year, different builds
Every complaint carries the first 11 characters of the VIN — plant, year, body and engine. That is a production series, and complaints are spread across them very unevenly.
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Distinct production series | 17 |
| Average complaints per series | 1.3 |
| Worst single series | 4 complaints |
| Average age at failure | 1.9 years |
A model average of 1.3 hides a worst series at 4. Enter a VIN above to see the numbers for that exact build instead of the model as a whole.
Owners reported these. Find out if yours is one of them.
- Complaints matched to the exact production run, not just the model
- What the car is worth given what tends to fail on it
- The original window sticker and factory options
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How we count
Every figure here comes from complaints owners filed with NHTSA — 1,100,006 of them, covering 1,982 models built between 1981 and 2026.
A complaint is an unverified report: someone wrote down what happened to their car. It is not a confirmed defect and not a recall. What makes the volume useful is the pattern — when thousands of owners of the same build describe the same failure, that is a signal no marketing brochure will give you.
Two things we do that the source does not. First, we compute the age of the car at the moment of failure from the incident date and the model year. Second, we group complaints by the first 11 characters of the VIN — the production series — so a bad plant run does not disappear into a model-wide average.
Frequently asked questions
What are the worst years for the Arteon?
By complaint volume, 2023, 2019, 2020 drew the most owner reports. Bear in mind that popular years put more cars on the road, so check the crash and fire columns too.
Which Arteon years are the cleanest?
2020, 2019, 2023 have the fewest complaints on file. For recent years that can simply mean the cars are young.
How many complaints does the Volkswagen Arteon have?
22 owner complaints filed with NHTSA, covering 2019–2023. Of those, 0 describe a crash and 0 a fire.
Are these complaints verified?
No. They are unverified reports from owners. NHTSA publishes them as filed and investigates only a fraction. The value is in the pattern, not in any single report.
Can I check complaints for one specific car?
Yes — enter its VIN above. We match the first 11 characters, which identify the plant, year, body and engine, so you get complaints on that exact production series rather than the whole model.