AtWhatMileage
Steering · 5 owner reports

Other steering problem on the 2006 Volkswagen Jetta

1 injury 1 of the 5 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 4 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.

Reports of this failure 5
With an odometer reading 4
Reports per 1,000 built 0.2 per 1,000
Filed below 36,000 miles 50%
Mention a crash, fire or injury 1
Typical repair $350–$2,400
What it means when it happens High
Rank among this year's problems 35th

When other steering problem gets reported

There are 5 reports of other steering problem on the 2006 Volkswagen Jetta, 4 with a mileage attached. That is too few to place the failure on the odometer with any confidence.

A part like this is normally expected to survive 95,000 miles. It is the 35th most-reported problem on this model year.

The whole distribution

Percentiles of the 4 odometer readings owners gave.
10th25thMedian 75th90th
— — 35,019 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, 1 an injury is 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.

Putting it right typically runs $350–$2,400 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.

The same failure on other years

The same failure is reported on 16 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2020, at a median of 500 miles, and latest on the 2007 at 155,000 miles.

By volume the 2013 carries the most reports, with 24; the 2006 has 5. 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.

Median
  1. 1996 Volkswagen Jetta other steering problem 78k
  2. 1998 Volkswagen Jetta other steering problem
    no odometer readings given
    —
  3. 1999 Volkswagen Jetta other steering problem 63k
  4. 2000 Volkswagen Jetta other steering problem 62k
  5. 2002 Volkswagen Jetta other steering problem 50k
  6. 2004 Volkswagen Jetta other steering problem 49k
  7. 2006 (this one) 35k
  8. 2007 Volkswagen Jetta other steering problem 155k
  9. 2008 Volkswagen Jetta other steering problem 170k
  10. 2009 Volkswagen Jetta other steering problem 67k
  11. 2010 Volkswagen Jetta other steering problem 60k
  12. 2011 Volkswagen Jetta other steering problem 44k
  13. 2012 Volkswagen Jetta other steering problem 45k
  14. 2013 Volkswagen Jetta other steering problem 57k
  15. 2014 Volkswagen Jetta other steering problem 39k
  16. 2015 Volkswagen Jetta other steering problem 54k
  17. 2016 Volkswagen Jetta other steering problem 42k
  18. 2017 Volkswagen Jetta other steering problem 23k
  19. 2018 Volkswagen Jetta other steering problem
    no odometer readings given
    —
  20. 2019 Volkswagen Jetta other steering problem 20k
  21. 2020 Volkswagen Jetta other steering problem 459
  22. 2021 Volkswagen Jetta other steering problem
    no odometer readings given
    —
  23. 2022 Volkswagen Jetta other steering problem
    no odometer readings given
    —
  24. 2023 Volkswagen Jetta other steering problem
    no odometer readings given
    —
  25. 2025 Volkswagen Jetta other steering problem
    no odometer readings given
    —

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.

Brakes/steering/esp-vehicle pulls to the right after making left hand turns or u-turns. Sometimes so aggressively that it has caused injury to the drivers and damage to the car's rim and tire. Vehicle moves after put in park and the ignition has been turned off. Sometimes, it moves after getting out and walking away. Have been told by two dealerships that this is normal. I don't feel that moving 6 inches or more is safe, especially around children and small pets. Seat memory-seat started moving on its own while driving. Almost had an accident because of this as in the middle of braking, the seat moved all the way back where I could not reach the pedals. Memory has not been right even after replacing switches and I am stressed and wonder when the seat will start moving on its own again. *tr

19 miles NHTSA complaint 659861 filed 2008-03-03

Steering wheel is failing electrically. Air bag fault in passenger side, no horn or other wheel controls. Real/unrealized safety hazard(s) due to non working electronics in steering wheel. *tr

34,038 miles NHTSA complaint 687960 filed 2008-09-12

Tl* the contact owns a 2006 volkswagen jetta. The contact stated when the electric steering wheel failed the vehicle became uncontrollable and stalled. The failure occurred on a daily basis. The vehicle was rendered undriveable. A warning light illuminated intermittently. The vehicle was taken to the dealer who stated there were no related recalls. The manufacturer was notified and stated the warranty expired and offered no assistance. The failure mileage was 36,000 and the current mileage was 103,000.

36,000 miles NHTSA complaint 877013 filed 2011-08-31

Also reported on the 2006 Volkswagen Jetta

Other powertrain problem

176 reports median 70k

Other electrical problem

54 reports median 92k

Other body or interior problem

49 reports median 86k

Wiring harness or short circuit

48 reports median 105k

Other engine problem

47 reports median 87k

Complete transmission failure

28 reports median 45k

How far this goes

This page is kept out of search results because 5 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 5 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 other steering problem happen on the 2006 Volkswagen Jetta?

Across 4 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 35,000 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 other steering problem on the 2006 Volkswagen Jetta?

5 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.2 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