Selling a Volkswagen that no longer runs

Below: which VW models owners complain about most, where the company came from, the plants that built Volkswagens for America, and a table of all 23 VW models the EPA has rated since 1984.

Jetta and Passat carry most of the complaints

Owners have filed 34,472 complaints with NHTSA across all 23 Volkswagen models here, in our count taken October 10, 2026. Two sedans account for more than half of them. The Jetta has 10,294 and the Passat has 7,757, which adds up to 18,051.

A complaint is a report an owner sent to NHTSA. It is not a confirmed failure, a defect finding or a reliability score. Read the counts with two things in mind:

• Sales and time on the road push a count up. The EPA has rated a Jetta for each model year from 1984 on. A model sold for three years, like the 2004-2006 Phaeton with 7 complaints, never had the same chance.
• New models are still early. The ID.4 reached 1,009 complaints from model year 2021 on. The Taos, sold since 2022, has 497. The ID. Buzz, listed only for 2025, has 16. A young model's count says little yet, because its owners have been filing for only a short while.

From Wolfsburg in 1937 to Chattanooga

Volkswagen was founded on 28 May 1937 in Wolfsburg, Germany, by the German Labour Front, the Nazi-era labor organization. Wikipedia's article covers the darkest part plainly. German historians estimate that 80% of the company's wartime workforce was slave labor, many of them supplied from concentration camps. Survivors sued for restitution in 1998, and Volkswagen set up a voluntary restitution fund.

The postwar company was not expected to last. After inspecting the plant, Sir William Rootes of Britain's Rootes Group predicted the project would fail within two years and called the car "too ugly and too noisy." It did not fail. Volkswagen opened a plant near São Paulo, Brazil, in 1959.

By 1973 it was in serious trouble. The Type 3 and Type 4 had sold far fewer than the Beetle. That same year it brought out the Type 181, sold in America as the "Thing." The fix came with a new generation of cars that, in Wikipedia's words, brought "monocoque/unibody construction," an optional fully automatic transmission and electronic fuel injection.

Some milestones that matter for the cars still on American driveways:

• 1978: The Westmoreland Assembly Plant near New Stanton, Pennsylvania, starts building the Rabbit.
• 1984-1992: the second-generation Jetta sedan is built.
• 1988: the New Stanton plant closes.
• 2003: the T4 van is discontinued, and Volkswagen decides not to bring the T5 to the US. In the EPA list, the Eurovan ends in 2003 and the Routan fills the gap from 2009 to 2014.
• May 2011: Volkswagen completes the Chattanooga Assembly Plant in Tennessee, its first US plant since New Stanton.
• 2019: the Beetle (A5) goes out of production, as announced in September 2018.

Today Volkswagen is part of the Volkswagen Group and builds or assembles vehicles in Germany, Mexico, the United States, China, Brazil and more than a dozen other countries.

One thing many VW diesel owners share

Volkswagen sold "clean diesel" engines in the US after 2009. Wikipedia notes that these engines are limited to 5% (B5) biodiesel to keep Volkswagen's warranty in force. If an older TDI has quit and the trouble is in its emissions parts, our diesel DPF and DEF guide explains the options before you decide.

Selling the whole Volkswagen

A Jetta with a dead engine, a Passat stuck at the shop, a Vanagon that has sat in the yard for years: each one goes the same way. You don't pull the battery or the catalytic converter. Our pickup goes to the VW, whether it is parked by your house, along a curb or inside a repair bay. If yours has sat for years, that is fine too.

Before you call, have the model, year and mileage handy, and know whether it rolls and whether you hold the title. If the title went missing, each state handles it differently; begin with selling a junk car with no title. Once the VW is gone, finish the plates and state notice.

Rather talk to someone? Call (877) 421-6008.

Every Volkswagen model in the EPA list

Here are all 23 Volkswagen nameplates rated by the EPA since 1984, listed by first year. The years are EPA model years, and the latest ones are still being added. We tallied the NHTSA column on October 10, 2026.