Federal complaint record · Volkswagen Passat · model year 2009

2009 Volkswagen Passat

Owners submitted 146 federal complaint reports about this model year, placing it at the 19th percentile for complaint intensity within its 2007 to 2011 midsize sedan cohort. The largest reported component group is engine. Sample sizes and limitations are shown below.

Engine · 30% · group n = 64Fuel system · 25% · group n = 53Steering · 10% · group n = 20Electrical · 9% · group n = 19Airbags · 6% · group n = 12
146
Complaint records on file
79,826
Median mileage at the reported problem · 111 complaints reported mileage
30%
Of classified component reports name engine · group n = 64
19th
Complaint-intensity percentile in a cohort of 50 model years

Engine · 3 in ten classified complaints

Where this record concentrates

All failure files
Component group 01 · Engine30%

Engine reports

Volkswagen Passat · model year 2009

Reports in this group64
Share of classified reports30%
Component groups on file6
Open the failure files

Adjacent model years · same badge, different data

The complaint signal has a shape

Compare model years
2008
0.4complaints per 1,000 estimated vehicle-years
168 matched incidents
This car
2009
0.6complaints per 1,000 estimated vehicle-years
146 matched incidents
2010
1.0complaints per 1,000 estimated vehicle-years
163 matched incidents

The line compares submitted complaints per 1,000 estimated vehicle-years, not failures per 1,000 cars. Vehicle-years use compiled US sales, a 0.25 prior-calendar-year plus 0.75 current-calendar-year model-year allocation, and the shipped survival curve. Rates appear only where estimated vehicles in operation are at least 5,000.

From the record · recurring narrative clusters

What recurring complaint clusters describe

How clusters are built
Stalling or shutdown · 28 reports

Reports describe the vehicle stalling or shutting off while driving

Cluster 1 of 32009 Volkswagen Passat
Fire or smoke · 24 reports

Reports describe smoke, burning smells, or fire

Cluster 2 of 32009 Volkswagen Passat
Steering effort · 16 reports

Reports describe steering effort or control concerns

Cluster 3 of 32009 Volkswagen Passat

Cluster summaries paraphrase recurring symptoms reported to NHTSA. They are aggregate descriptions, not individual verbatim reports.

Records through 2026-07-19Published 2026-08-02 · Updated 2026-07-19

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NHTSA consumer complaint records can reveal recurring patterns across published model years. MotorCensus summarizes those records as one complaint-signal index, with a 95% interval and sample size, updated with each data snapshot.

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