NHTSA Owner Complaint Log
This page lists owner-reported complaints filed with NHTSA for the 2023 Volkswagen Tiguan. Complaints are unverified consumer reports submitted to NHTSA and do not by themselves prove a defect or defect rate.
The vehicle stutters or hesitates when accelerating from a stop. This is even more prevalent when the car has first been started. This is a major safety issue as when my family is pulling out into traffic the car just lurches forward initially before then finally just taking off. It's almost as if there is a delay in fuel being sent to the engine to move it forward. It shakes a little and then goes really fast. You can hold your the gas peddle down some and the car won't move then after a second or two it finally accelerates without moving your foot at all. This is a brand new car. Seems incredibly unsafe especially when I have a family of 6 in the vehicle.
Acceleration fails or hesitates on acceleration from zero mph. This has occurred every day since new (June 2023) and only happens for 5 minutes after start up. It feels like it is going to stall out, but so far it has not. Each time I accelerate for the first time, my car makes a jerky start. It usually goes away after I've been driving a bit. I've tried letting it warm up a couple minutes, but that does not seem to matter. I took it to the dealer at 3,000 miles and they said they could not duplicate the problem (but the car had warmed up by then) and that I should use B&G gas additive. I was unable to find that brand but did use Gumout gas treatment and it did not make a difference. It is a safety issue because when I need to accelerate even moderately to get onto the street, the car bucks enough that another car coming could hit me because I was expecting it to accelerate. I previously had a 2020 Tiguan and it did not have this problem. There is a Reddit thread on this as well as this link so it is not just my car. [XXX] [XXX] According to these sites it could be a transmission problem or a fuel system problem INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
Front passenger seat belt, when its in use the system activate the alarm and don't recognize that seat belt is in use.
On 2/8/2023 When starting my vehicle my digital instrument cluster did not display anything. (No Speedometer, tachometer, etc) While the cluster is not working, the Red "Level 1 Warning" light is displayed which tells you not to drive the vehicle. The issue was NOT resolved with restarting the vehicle, or letting it sit for several hours. The issue "self-resolved" the next morning and has not reoccurred (yet) I have noticed that on certain random starts the digital instrument cluster can take over 30 seconds to display any data. Bringing the Vehicle to the dealership, they found no codes indicating that the cluster/Digital Dashboard PRO did not function. The dealership said that they will not be able to diagnose the problem unless I bring it to them in the "unworking" state. However, the vehicle would be undriveable in that condition.
The vehical when engine is cold. Has delays and lags. I didn't think much of it when I first bought it, I assumed the computer was trying to learn. Well car has 12000 miles on it and still does it I've been to the dealer several times. They have told me this is normal?. Until I went to a different dealer. Service Manger states the vehical has a software problem and none repairable at the time ( I have paperwork to prove it) I tried to lemon the car out after that. Vw state because the info wasn't written by a service tec, they won't lemon the car out? I fear my wife getting t boned.
Data synced from NHTSA on May 4, 2026