2016 VOLKSWAGEN GOLF SPORTWAGEN — Complaint #1931479
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about SUSPENSION:REAR:SPRINGS:COIL SPRINGS filed September 28, 2023
NHTSA complaint #1931479 (ODI reference 11547064) concerns a 2016 VOLKSWAGEN GOLF SPORTWAGEN and was filed on September 28, 2023. The owner reports the failure occurred on August 28, 2023. The vehicle had 135,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Maine based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as suspension:rear:springs:coil springs, 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 GOLF SPORTWAGEN cohort independently describe similar suspension:rear:springs:coil springs 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 2016 VOLKSWAGEN GOLF SPORTWAGEN shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The contact owns a 2016 Volkswagen Golf Sportwagen. The contact stated while driving at high speeds, the vehicle started to shake abnormally. No warning lights were illuminated. The vehicle was taken to an auto body shop where it was diagnosed and determined that the rear axle coil springs had fractured and needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The dealer was not notified of the failure. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 135,000.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1931479 |
| ODI Number | 11547064 |
| Date Filed | September 28, 2023 |
| Failure Date | August 28, 2023 |
| VIN | 3VWC17AU3GM |
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.