2013 VOLKSWAGEN EOS — Complaint #1754868
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about ELECTRICAL SYSTEM:SEAT HEATER:MAT filed June 30, 2021
NHTSA complaint #1754868 (ODI reference 11422905) concerns a 2013 VOLKSWAGEN EOS and was filed on June 30, 2021. The owner reports the failure occurred on June 26, 2021. The vehicle had 50,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Georgia based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as electrical system:seat heater:mat, 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: yes, injuries: 1, fatalities: 0. A complaint that flags a crash, fire, or fatality is escalated on NHTSA's internal review queue and factors more heavily into any Preliminary Evaluation decision on this make and model. 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 EOS cohort independently describe similar electrical system:seat heater:mat 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 EOS shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The contact owns a 2013 Volkswagen Eos. The contact stated that while driving, the heater inside the front passenger seat erroneously activated and malfunctioned causing the seat to burn which also caused a burn to the bottom of the front passenger seat. There was a hole on the front passenger side seat and during the incident, it burned through the passenger's undergarments and jeans causing his burn injuries. Medical treatment was not provided due to the injured passenger not being able to sit and was being treated at home. During the incident, a burning odor was present inside the vehicle. The fire department was called to the scene and the electrical wire to the seat was deactivated. The cause of the failure was not determined. A fire report was taken at the scene. The manufacturer and local dealer were not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 50,000.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1754868 |
| ODI Number | 11422905 |
| Date Filed | June 30, 2021 |
| Failure Date | June 26, 2021 |
| VIN | WVWBW8AH5DV |
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.