2014 VOLKSWAGEN TOUAREG — Complaint #1774399
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about ELECTRICAL SYSTEM:SEAT HEATER:MAT filed October 20, 2021
NHTSA complaint #1774399 (ODI reference 11437449) concerns a 2014 VOLKSWAGEN TOUAREG and was filed on October 20, 2021. The owner reports the failure occurred on October 17, 2021. The vehicle had 128,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to New York 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 TOUAREG 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 2014 VOLKSWAGEN TOUAREG shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The contact owns a 2014 Volkswagen Touareg. The contact stated that while operating the vehicle a burning odor was present inside the cabin of the vehicle and smoke was seen coming from the front console. After stopping the vehicle to inspect the cause it was discovered that the front passenger side seat heater had malfunctioned burning a hole into the seat and the passenger's pants. During the incident, the passenger sustained a burn to the left thigh area. The cause of the failure was not yet determined. The local dealer and manufacturer were not yet notified of the incident. The failure mileage was 128,000.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1774399 |
| ODI Number | 11437449 |
| Date Filed | October 20, 2021 |
| Failure Date | October 17, 2021 |
| VIN | WVGEP9BP0ED |
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.