2013 VOLKSWAGEN PASSAT — Complaint #1051330
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about BACK OVER PREVENTION:WARNINGS:EXTERNAL/PEDESTRIAN ALERT filed March 31, 2014
NHTSA complaint #1051330 (ODI reference 10575997) concerns a 2013 VOLKSWAGEN PASSAT and was filed on March 31, 2014. The owner reports the failure occurred on July 31, 2012. The vehicle had 200 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Wyoming based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as back over prevention:warnings:external/pedestrian alert, one of NHTSA's standardized taxonomy codes used to group defect patterns across make, model, and year.
The filer flagged the following severity indicators: crash: no, fire: no, injuries: 0, fatalities: 0. No crash, fire, or fatality was associated with this report, which places it in the early-warning stream rather than the priority-review stream. Because a VIN was supplied, this complaint is tied to a specific vehicle and not just a model-year cohort.
Individual complaints are consumer-submitted and unverified by NHTSA engineers — the agency's role at this stage is to collect, index, and make them searchable. What matters for federal action is the pattern: when many owners of the same VOLKSWAGEN PASSAT cohort independently describe similar back over prevention:warnings:external/pedestrian alert failures, defect investigators have grounds to open a PE and request manufacturer data. Related filings for the same vehicle and component appear below, and the detail page for the full 2013 VOLKSWAGEN PASSAT shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
BACKUP CAMERA IS SLOW TO START. MAY TAKE FROM 5 TO 20 SECONDS TO BECOME OPERATIONAL AFTER START UP. THIS IS HAZARD WITH RESPECT TO RELIANCE ON BACKUP CAMERAS BY DRIVERS TO SEE OBSTRUCTIONS BEHIND THE CAR. FAILURE OF CAMERA TO START UP QUICKLY RESULTS IN REDUCED SAFETY BECAUSE DRIVERS WILL BACK UP WITHOUT CAMERA OPERATIONAL. I CAN START MY CAR AND BACK OUT OF DRIVEWAY AND REACH THE CORNER OF MY BLOCK BEFORE THE CAMERA STARTS UP AND SHOWS ME THE ROAD DISAPPEARING BEHIND ME. A CAMERA DOES NOT REPLACE DRIVER OBLIGATIONS TO MAKE SURE THAT OBSTRUCTIONS ARE NOT BEHIND THEIR CAR, BUT THE CAMERA IS ALSO THERE TO BE A SAFETY FEATURE AND IT IS NOT RELIABLE AS A SAFETY FEATURE DO TO ITS EXTREMELY SLOW START UP. INDIVIDUALS DO NOT LIKE TO WAIT 30 SECONDS AT A STOP LIGHT MUCH LESS 20 JUST TO BACK OUT OF THEIR DRIVEWAY. THIS IS A DESIGN OR MANUFACTURING ISSUE THAT SHOULD BE CORRECTED TO ENSURE THAT THE BACKUP CAMERA IS A RELIABLE SAFETY FEATURE AS IT WAS INTENDED. *TR
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1051330 |
| ODI Number | 10575997 |
| Date Filed | March 31, 2014 |
| Failure Date | July 31, 2012 |
| VIN | 1VWCN7A3XDC |
Similar BACK OVER PREVENTION:WARNINGS:EXTERNAL/PEDESTRIAN ALERT Complaints for 2013 VOLKSWAGEN PASSAT
THE BACKUP CAMERA IN THIS VEHICLE FREQUENTLY FAILS TO ACTIVATE WHEN THE VEHICLE IS PLACED IN REVERSE. VW OFFICIALS ACKNOWLEDGE, IN A WRITTEN RESPONSE, A DELAY TIME OF ONE (1) TO TWO (2) MINUTES BEFORE
AS MANY OTHERS HAVE STATED ON THIS SITE AND ALL OVER THE INTERNET, THE BACK-UP CAMERA IS RIDICULOUSLY SLOW TO COME ON. MOST TIMES, I CAN BACK OUT OF MY DRIVEWAY, STOP, AND BE GOING FORWARD DOWN THE S
THE BACKUP CAMERA IS VERY SLOW TO RESPOND WHEN PLACING THE VEHICLE INTO REVERSE (15-25 SECONDS). FREQUENTLY, THE CAMERA WILL NOT ACTIVATE UNTIL THE VEHICLE HAS COMPLETED BACKING UP AND THE VEHICLE IS
Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.
Read our methodology — how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.