Unclassified problem on the 2013 Volkswagen Beetle
2 crashes 1 injury 3 of the 20 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
Only 6 reports for this mode came with an odometer reading, which is too few for percentiles to mean anything. The page is here because someone linked to it; treat the figures as anecdotes, and see the full report for this year instead.
When unclassified problem gets reported
There are 20 reports of unclassified problem on the 2013 Volkswagen Beetle, 6 with a mileage attached. That is too few to place the failure on the odometer with any confidence.
It is the 31st most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 45,500 miles | — | — |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Of these reports, 2 a crash and 1 an injury are mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 20 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2015, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 1999 at 125,000 miles.
By volume the 2015 carries the most reports, with 29; the 2013 has 20. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
Trunk lo0ck intemittantly will not unlock. Taken to the dealer many times. They replaced the lock. The last time they replaced some module.I hope it is fixed. I dont want to have to remove things from the trunk by having to fold down the back seat again!!!
Tl* the contact owns a 2013 volkswagen beetle. While operating the vehicle, the air bag indicator remained illuminated, which was a safety concern. The vehicle was taken to volkswagen of murrieta (41300 date st., murrieta, ca) where it was diagnosed that the driver's side air bag was faulty and needed to be replaced. The vehicle was repaired. The manufacturer was notified and did not assist. The failure mileage was 46,000. *ln
Vw beetle (2013) would not turn off as the key was stuck in ignition while the car was running! Stopped at gas station to fill up and when I tried to remove key, would not come out. Had experience problem the day before but thought using a different key would help but it didn't--same problem. Have experienced frequent problems with key in ignition since purchasing beetle. Drove car to two mechanics and they could not get car out of ignition so drove home to be in familiar environment and called roadside assistance and they were unable to get key out of ignition and could not get car engine to turn off. Received help from multiple people but still couldn't get key out of ignition and car to turn off--4 hours later, finally mechanic provided instruction to disconnect battery, fuse pump, and fuse box while car was running--which helped to turn the car off; however, it also leaves car susceptible to other issues. I also had to leave my car in open parking spot--with the key in it--leaving it at risk of being stolen!
Also reported on the 2013 Volkswagen Beetle
Airbag inflator rupture
Other electrical problem
Other engine problem
Control module (ECM/PCM/BCM) failure
Tail light, brake light or signal failure
Other body or interior problem
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 20 reports is not enough to publish percentiles from. It stays reachable because somebody looking at this exact car would rather see the reports than be told there are none.
Complaints are voluntary, so 20 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does unclassified problem happen on the 2013 Volkswagen Beetle?
Across 6 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 45,000 miles. A quarter were filed before — and a quarter after —. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is unclassified problem on the 2013 Volkswagen Beetle?
20 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.5 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed