Other speed control problem on the 2018 Volkswagen Tiguan
When other speed control problem gets reported
Owners of the 2018 Volkswagen Tiguan report other speed control problem at a median of 5,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 1,700 miles and a quarter after 15,000 miles, from 11 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 78,000 miles. It is the 9th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 600 miles at the tenth percentile to 35,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 33,450 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
Reports bunched into a band this tight usually mean the component has a life of its own: it goes at roughly the same mileage regardless of who owns it.
91% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 550 miles | 1,700 miles | 4,995 miles | 13,304 miles | 34,000 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 $250–$2,000 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.
This mode is classified as critical, which means a failure can leave the car unable to stop, steer, or stay out of the way of traffic. It is weighted accordingly in the risk score.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 4 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2019, at a median of 1,500 miles, and latest on the 2023 at 15,000 miles.
By volume the 2018 is the worst of them, which makes this a problem of this specific year rather than of the model as a whole.
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.
The vehicle has a start/stop feature that is on by default and is dangerous when waiting to make a turn. It temporarily shuts the car down and restarts upon release of the brake pedal to move the car forward which causes severe hesitation in excelleration. To make matters worse the transmission in this vehicle jerks and hesitates. When it does finally kick in it causes the car to surge forward to fast and makes it difficult to drive and handle in a turn, epecially with oncoming traffic. Have almost been t-boned a few times due to both of these issues. We dont feel safe in this vehicle!! These issues need to be addressed by volkswagon before someone is seriously hurt. We love the styling and look of our tiguan but feel the transmission and start/stop issues are very unsafe!!
Engine on this vehicle is very slow to respond. When I give gas, it struggles to start moving, feels like it is carrying 10k lbs of load behind. I push gas peddle to the floor at a signal light to get away from traffic. Car won't respond for about 1 or 2 seconds, then starts to move, but very slow, crawling, then starts to speed up. Turbo lag is very bad. I don't feel safe. This appears to be a recurring issue that is being reported from customers. To be frank, the size of the vehicle (larger than other models) does not seem to match the engine size. Nhtsa needs to investigate for the safety of other drivers, particularly those who share the same fears.
There is all this hesitation when accelerating almost like a bucking or the engine is not getting enough gas/oxygen mix. Then you can press the gas pedal a quarter of the way down and the engine hesitates then throws the car into high gear and takes off. I have driven a lot of cars the past week even a vw touareg that did not act like this car does with the accelerator. It is like the accelerator is not sending the correct single to the engine or the engine's computer is not interrupting it correctly from the accelerator. The computer in the car can be bad and give a false positive. This vehicle has been to 4 dealerships and field engineers have stated that there is a problem but vw refuses to buy back the vehicle. There have been several requests but they keep getting denied and say there is no fix for the vehicle and I feel it is unsafe to drive. I have almost got into 3 accidents because the accelerator would not react and the car stalled out.
Also reported on the 2018 Volkswagen Tiguan
Other engine problem
Other powertrain problem
Other body or interior problem
Seat belt or retractor failure
Other electrical problem
Other fuel system problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 17 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 speed control problem happen on the 2018 Volkswagen Tiguan?
Across 11 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 5,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 1,700 miles and a quarter after 15,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other speed control problem on the 2018 Volkswagen Tiguan?
17 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.7 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