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2003 VOLKSWAGEN PASSAT — Complaint #800927

Open-data reference.

NHTSA Complaint about EXTERIOR LIGHTING:HEADLIGHTS:CONCEALMENT DEVICES filed July 21, 2010

NHTSA complaint #800927 (ODI reference 10344527) concerns a 2003 VOLKSWAGEN PASSAT and was filed on July 21, 2010. The owner reports the failure occurred on July 10, 2008. The vehicle had 70,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Virginia based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as exterior lighting:headlights:concealment devices, 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 exterior lighting:headlights:concealment devices 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 2003 VOLKSWAGEN PASSAT shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.

Vehicle
2003 VOLKSWAGEN PASSAT
Component
EXTERIOR LIGHTING:HEADLIGHTS:CONCEALMENT DEVICES
State
Virginia
Mileage
70,000 mi

Complaint Description

TL*THE CONTACT OWNS A 2003 VOLKSWAGEN PASSED. THE CONTACT STATED THAT THE HEADLIGHT ASSEMBLY PLASTIC COVERS BECAME FOGGY DUE TO THE SUN LIGHT. WHILE DRIVING 25 MPH AT NIGHT THE HEADLIGHTS LOOKED AS THOUGH THEY WERE OFF AND IT WAS DIFFICULT TO SEE. THE CONTACT TOOK THE VEHICLE TO THE DEALER WHO STATED THAT THE HEADLIGHT ASSEMBLY NEEDED TO BE REPLACED. THE HEADLIGHT ASSEMBLY WAS NOT REPLACED AND IS CONCERNED THAT THERE ARE NO RECALLS RELATED TO THE FAILURE. THE FAILURE MILEAGE WAS 70,000.

Complaint Details

NHTSA Complaint ID 800927
ODI Number 10344527
Date Filed July 21, 2010
Failure Date July 10, 2008
VIN WVWVD63B03E

Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.