No-start or intermittent start failure on the 2010 Volkswagen Jetta
When no-start or intermittent start failure gets reported
Owners of the 2010 Volkswagen Jetta report no-start or intermittent start failure at a median of 52,500 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 35,000 miles and a quarter after 70,000 miles, from 47 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 88,000 miles. It is the 7th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 15,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 110,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 93,600 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
When the reports scatter this far, the mileage is telling you about how these cars were driven more than about the part itself.
26% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15,800 miles | 34,500 miles | 52,000 miles | 70,000 miles | 109,400 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
Putting it right typically runs $200–$1,800 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 19 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2002, at a median of 100 miles, and latest on the 2008 at 185,000 miles.
By volume the 2009 carries the most reports, with 55; the 2010 has 49. 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.
Tl* the contact owns a 2010 volkswagen jetta. The contact attempted to start the vehicle but it would not start. Approximately twenty minutes later, the contact was able to start the vehicle. The vehicle was taken to an authorized dealer where the contact was told that there was water in the fuel system. The vehicle was repaired. The failure and current mileage was 18,000.
Multiple incidents that appear to be the same problem/defect. 1. The car sometimes will not start for several minutes, and once it does finally start, has a very rough idle and stalls. After several tries, it finally starts and runs normally. This has happened 7-8 times from july 2010 until the present. 2. Now, over the past two months, the car tries to stall out while driving also, and has resulted in my wife having to pull off the road and restart the car. This has only happened twice so far, but the starting and rough idle problem continues to occur approximately once every couple of weeks. On another note, I want to ensure that if any recalls occur as a result of everybody's complaints, that u.s. Military stationed overseas are not left out. Many of us purchase these u.s. Spec cars from local dealer agencies who (re)import the cars back to europe for this purpose. Oftentimes recalls are not enforceable overseas, however, this is a volkswagen and there are plenty of authorized vw dealers in germany, and in europe as a whole.
Multiple incidents that appear to be the same problem/defect. 1. The car sometimes will not start for several minutes, and once it does finally start, has a very rough idle and stalls. After several tries, it finally starts and runs normally. This has happened 7-8 times from july 2010 until the present. 2. Now, over the past two months, the car tries to stall out while driving also, and has resulted in my wife having to pull off the road and restart the car. This has only happened twice so far, but the starting and rough idle problem continues to occur approximately once every couple of weeks. On another note, I want to ensure that if any recalls occur as a result of everybody's complaints, that u.s. Military stationed overseas are not left out. Many of us purchase these u.s. Spec cars from local dealer agencies who (re)import the cars back to europe for this purpose. Oftentimes recalls are not enforceable overseas, however, this is a volkswagen and there are plenty of authorized vw dealers in germany, and in europe as a whole.
Also reported on the 2010 Volkswagen Jetta
Fuel pump failure
Other fuel system problem
Other electrical problem
Other engine problem
Audio or connectivity failure
Other powertrain problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 49 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 no-start or intermittent start failure happen on the 2010 Volkswagen Jetta?
Across 47 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 52,500 miles. A quarter were filed before 35,000 miles and a quarter after 70,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is no-start or intermittent start failure on the 2010 Volkswagen Jetta?
49 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 5.0 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