2022 Volkswagen Taos

I purchased this vehicle a year ago for my 17 year old daughter. The initial test drive through slow suburban streets was not sufficient to identify the major acceleration issue that has persisted while owning this car. There is a significant lag in response time when pressing the accelerator. It typically takes 1 to 2 seconds for the turbo to engage after pressing the accelerator. This only occurs when pressing the accelerator roughly half way or more (generally when you need to accelerate quickly to navigate approaching traffic). While only slightly pressing the gas pedal (less than half way), the car will accelerate as expected, but with very little power. Beyond the halfway point, the turbo will engage (approximately 1 to 2 seconds after reaching that point) causing the car to accelerate very quickly in a jerky manner - there is simply no in between. As an experienced driver, I am able to work around this flaw, but my daughter has had numerous incidents where she has nearly been caught in the middle of traffic performing left hand turns. We have taken the vehicle to the shop once already to address this concern but nothing was done or recommended to correct the issue.

There is a major lag in throttle response after slowing then attempting to speed back up. For example, a car in front of me turns right at an intersection while in travel so I slow down. After stepping on the accelerator to speed back up, it can take 5-7 seconds before there is any response. At times it’s long enough that traffic behind me starts honking.

Rear brake pads were worn to the metal at 20,000 miles. Front brakes were perfect. Had NTB look at them after VW told me my brakes were squeaky because of the weather. NTB agreed this was not normal for a brand new car. They said the front pads would be worn as well if it were because of driving behaviors. I contacted VW and informed them a lot of VW Taos owners are having this issue. They did nothing.

I have taken my Taos in for 1 year / work 10,000 mile inspection. I was told my breaks are worn and I should monitor them. This should not be happening when the car is one year old with less than 10,000 miles. I believe inferior brakes were designed for the car. This seems to be major complaint for many of us who purchased the car in the first year. The ECU light that has come on 3 times over the year is a problem. No known diagnosis for the problem.

While attempting to accelerate from a stop, my Taos began to shake, the check engine light began flashing, and the car felt as if it were going to stall. I pulled over, turned the car off, turned it back on, and the car was drivable. This occurred around 5,000 miles. The dealer confirmed multiple misfires and a high pressure oil leak. The parts were replaced. My taos has a terrible lag when accelerating. This is a constant problem. It barely moves then all of the sudden it will take off, causing the wheels to spin out and your head to hit the headrest. This is extremely dangerous and has almost caused multiple accidents for me. I took the vehicle in to service and they stated that the Emission pump valve was stuck open, causing it to drive badly. The pump was replaced at around 6,000 miles. The car continued to drive badly and at approx 7,000 miles, I was accelerating from a stop when the car began to shake again and would not accelerate. The check engine light began flashing and the start/stop error message appeared. I pulled over and turned off the car. I turned it back on and the engine light went off but the start/stop still did not work. I brought it to the dealer and they confirmed additional engine misfires. The dealer cleared the codes and advised me to use premium gas. The Taos is supposed to run on 87, not premium. There are multiple online forums for Taos Owners. A concerning amount of people have complained about these exact same issues with their vehicles and that VW's "fix" is to run premium gas. This vehicle seriously needs to be looked into, as it is posing a serious safety hazard to all involved.

I purchased my VW TAOS on Nov 26, 2021, and since then I have experienced faulty issues 4 times. 2022 Jul twice, Sep once, and Nov once. When merged to the main road the car refuses to accelerate and gives strange sounds in transmission/engine area. The first 2 times I had the issue with loss of power and significant lag in acceleration I could see the "start/stop error" message in the dashboard, and I had to pull over to the side of the road. I drove in the parking lot nearby for few minutes and continued driving when the engine seemed OK, but the automatic engine start/stop system failed to work on traffic lights when car fully stopped. I notified my local dealership about this issue and got an appointment for inspection in August. When examined they recommended changing my fuel to premium and explained that the fault was caused by the quality of gas I put. I followed their instruction and only been pumping Unleaded-91 Premium grade fuel for the last 2 months, but I had a more serious issue in mid-September. In the middle of traffic at 40mph speed a sudden loss of power occurred followed by a check engine light flashing. Again, I had to make an emergency stop from the second lane to pull over into the shoulder. When I notified this to my dealership, they recommended to get the car checked during my first oil change that was supposed to happen a month later because when I consulted with the operator, they said I should observe if the problem is going to reoccur. On 7th of Nov 2022, I got my oil changed for the first time at the dealership and drove my car for a while and it seemed fine. However, by the evening when I tried to drive it back home the same issue with worse noise in the engine area took place and car failed to accelerate in the middle of the traffic where I had to act quickly to pull over to the side of the road causing risky situation to other drivers on the road and myself. I am now convinced that this issue is never going to be fixed.

Purchased vehicle new from dealer on 5/25/22. Auto Start/Stop feature was enabled while driving on 6/8/22. Stopped at light and vehicle shut off as it should have with feature enabled but then would not start again. Had to put car in park and restart while sitting in the middle lane of a busy road. Had error message advising to restart manually come up on dashboard. Reported problem to dealer where purchased. Auto Start/Stop feature was enabled while driving on 10/27/22. Stopped at light and vehicle shut off as it should have with feature enabled but then would not start again. Had to put car in park and try restarting. This time I had to try to restart approximately 4 times before car was running again. This happened while sitting stuck in the middle lane of a very busy road again. This time I was very concerned about getting hit so I did not even notice if the error message about starting manually came up on the dashboard. I was busy putting on hazard lights and looking for cars that may hit me and trying to re-start car. Since incident first time in June - about 85-95% of driving time I disable Auto Start/Stop feature for fear of this happening again. Therefore it could have likely happened many more times between June and October if the feature had been enabled while driving. This vehicle does not have AWD. I will report to dealer but I see many others seem to have same or similar problem with this 2022 Taos so I wanted to report here as well. Thank you.