2023 Volkswagen ID.4

On April 22nd the car was in an accident when it struck the rear of another car at a red traffic light. I had stopped at the light with car in “B” drive mode and the brake on Auto Hold. I was stopped at the light roughly 2 minutes with my right foot on neither pedal. The car was in Auto Hold brake mode as I recollect the Auto Hold indicator being illuminated. The car remained stationary during that period until it moved forward without any action from myself. I am convinced I did not hit the gas pedal. There was damage to both my car and the car in front. There had been no change of the traffic light light nor had the car in front moved when this occurred. I had not experienced this issue in my limited driving before the accident (1700 miles) or subsequent to the accident. I contacted the Volkswagen dealer following the accident and dropped the car off for them to investigate. They advised me to open a case with Volkswagen of America to get their involvement which I immediately did. Volkswagen CARE assigned a regional case manager. The dealer service department performed a 3 mile test drive and could not reproduce the problem. Volkswagen of America did not investigate the accident relying on the dealer service department to use the on-board diagnostics to read fault codes. They found two fault codes that required the replacement of the ICAS1 module (the vehicles primary computer) and the driver door handle – the latter was not related to the current recall on the vehicle. These were manufacturing defects and they stated were not the cause of the accident. I find it concerning that Volkswagen of America did not investigate the accident for product issues nor did they explain (when asked) why a faulty major component that controls the operation of the car could not be the cause of the accident.

1) Brakes: Brakes decelerate and is difficult to stop the vehicle. This is not in all cases when I stop. When I need to do an emergency stop I have to push the brake pedal very hard and pedal pressure feels low. I hope I dont get into and accident when trying to stop. 2) Lane departing warning: The vehicle some times would interpret the street white lines or yellow lanes incorrectly. It would sometime jerk my steering to correct my driving. If a white line stops at an intersection and starts after an intersection it would try and correct my driving. I think this is very dangerous. Should have the option to switch off auto lane correcting and just flash a warning.

The driver door is randomly popping open, at low speeds and high speeds. At low speeds, when trying to back out of driveway or pull into driveway or slowly pull up to red lights or keep up with cars in a left turning lane waiting my turn to turn, the door will randomly pop open and the car slams into park and turns off of Drive. I then have to shut the door, put the car into drive again and try to pull forward without the doors popping open again. This cycles at times where I have to repeat. The car does not go into park when doors pop open at high speeds, speeds greater than 12 ish mph. However, the door will randomly pop open at high speed. I was going 51 mph on the highway and the door popped open. I documented that with a picture. I reached out to several VW dealer garages. They said that they could not do anything for me because there currently was no fix for the recall. I have an appointment call with VW America today at 2pm today. I filled out online surveys with VW to tell them how unsafe this feels driving the car and this happening. We drive the car ONLY when necessary between my spouse and I bc of how unsafe the situation is. I'm not sure what to do or what i can do. I'm stuck with a brand-new car with only 3000 miles that had doors that randomly pop open while the car is in motion. Please advise. Thank you.

I have never been in a car accident in my entire life. This was my first ever electric vehicle, and I really loved driving it for the one week I owned it before the brakes failed to stop it. On 03/31 I had to restart the software several times because it froze when i was trying to connect it to Apple Carplay, but it was fine the next day. During the crash, I had the brake collision assistance on, but unfortunately it did not assist me in trying to stop, even when I pressed down on the brake pedal completely. When I tried to turn the steering wheel, that had locked and I was unable to avoid hitting a sign and curb. The road I had the incident on is the one I take to work every day and I have never had an issue. There was no issues with the weather on that day ether. Not only did the brakes not work but the the brake assist failed, the collision avoidance system, the steering wheel locked, and the airbags failed to deploy. Both my left side tires became flat. If I would have known how unsafe this was, I would have never selected it in the first place. I chose this vehicle because I thought I would be safe and I wanted to save money on gas. I am so extremely terrified to drive this car and the dealership service center claimed there was nothing wrong with the car.

On Saturday, December 24th, I was leaving to go to the gym with my wife. I pulled left out of the driveway and we heard a loud screeching type noise, very high-pitched. Many lights came on in the vehicle at that point. Too numerous to document actually which ones. We also smelled burnt smoke and there was actually some smoke coming from the rear of the vehicle. I turned the car around which was difficult so I could get the car off the main road and back into the driveway where it was safe. Upon parking the vehicle I could see the rear, driver's side tire was damaged. The tire was not rotating and was locked there was about 20 feet of rubber marks coming out of the driveway into the street and back to the driveway. I called VW immediately and it was brought into service. See attached service report. Looks like the brakes were installed incorrectly at the factory. Imagine driving a car where the brakes lock on you and the tires do not move. Extremely scary. This incident could of been a lot worse. The electric battery could of seized and caused a fire.

The contact owns a 2023 Volkswagen ID.4. The contact stated while driving 40 MPH and approaching a traffic light while depressing the brake pedal, the vehicle started to shudder and vibrate. The contact stated that the brake failure warning light was illuminated. The contact stated that the vehicle started decelerating. The contact was able to park on the side of the road. The contact waited an hour and a half before restarting the vehicle and continued driving to her destination. The contact stated she experience the failure twice on December 29, 2022. The vehicle was not drivable. The contact towed the vehicle to the local dealer but was not provided a diagnostic result of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer had been informed of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 393.