There are 1 owner-reported tires & wheels complaints for the 2016 Volkswagen Passatin NHTSA's database. These are unverified consumer reports and may not reflect confirmed defects.
Within 55,000 miles I needed to replace both of my front wheel bearings, for an approximate cost of $1,000. I have done some research and talked to many people and found out that wheel bearings should not go bad on a car with 60K miles. It would be understandable if one went bad due to a defect but both going bad has me quite confused and angry at the cost of these repairs. I wrote VW about this problem and was told that since the vehicle was no longer under warranty there was nothing they could do. That would be an acceptable answer if wheel bearing failure was to be expected as a normal wear and tear item at 60K miles. But the fact that this is quite early for them to fail, I feel that VW might have issues with the wheel bearings and that others have experienced the same thing with the Passat. I thought I would reach out in case others have reached out as well in order to get VW to address this problem. Thank you.
Complaints are unverified consumer reports submitted to NHTSA. A high complaint count may reflect vehicle popularity, not defect severity. Data sourced from NHTSA public records.
Data synced from NHTSA on Apr 25, 2026