Total Complaints
2 filings
VOLKSWAGEN TYPE III · model year
2 NHTSA complaints. A VIN lookup is required to determine whether a specific vehicle has an unrepaired recall.
NHTSA overall rating
Not crash-tested
New Car Assessment Program
The 1972VOLKSWAGENTYPE III carries 2 consumer safety complaints in NHTSA's Office of Defects Investigation database for this specific model-year cohort. Within that volume, owners reported 0 crashes, 0 fires, 0 injuries, and 0 fatalities. No NCAP 5-star crash-test rating is available for this model year in the federal database.
The most frequently selected component label in reports for the 1972 TYPE III is fuel system, gasoline:delivery:hoses, lines/piping, and fittings with 1 filings, followed by service brakes, hydraulic:brake fluid low warning: lamp (1). Complaint categories reflect owner reports and intake categorization; they do not establish a defect pattern or cause.
NHTSA currently has 37 investigation files overlapping the 1972 TYPE III, and 2 remain open. Owners comparing this cohort against neighboring years should read the complaint-by-year trend as report volume, not a causal diagnosis. Use the related-complaint feed and the official recall lookup when researching a specific vehicle.
Total Complaints
2 filings
Crashes Reported
0 reports
Source
NHTSA ODI
Federal complaints database
At or below the fleet median complaint volume.
| Component | Count |
|---|---|
| FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE:DELIVERY:HOSES, LINES/PIPING, AND FITTINGS | 1 |
| SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC:BRAKE FLUID LOW WARNING: LAMP | 1 |
RECALLS 72V204000/71V203000,71V163000; MR. BRUCE CALLED THE MANUFACTURER ABOUT THE RECALLS AND THE MANUFACTURER SAIDS THAT THE RECALLS ARE NO LONGER OPEN AND THEY WILL NOT SEND THE PARTS TO HIM SO THAT HE CAN REPAIR THE VEHICLE BY HIMSELF.
RECALLS 72V204000/71V203000,71V163000; MR. BRUCE CALLED THE MANUFACTURER ABOUT THE RECALLS AND THE MANUFACTURER SAIDS THAT THE RECALLS ARE NO LONGER OPEN AND THEY WILL NOT SEND THE PARTS TO HIM SO THAT HE CAN REPAIR THE VEHICLE BY HIMSELF.
Inadvertent Automatic Emergency Braking
Inadvertent Door Opening
Fuel Leak due to Suction Jet Pump Failure within Fuel Tank (Remedy Effectiveness of Recall 16V647)
Inadvertent Automatic Emergency Braking
LGES High Voltage Battery Failures
Data vintage: August 2026. Sources: NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) complaints database, NHTSA recall campaign API, NHTSA NCAP crash-test ratings, and NHTSA FARS for fatality cross-reference.
Every figure on PlainCars is rendered directly from NHTSA complaint and safety data, no number is typed in by an editor. This year-specific record is rendered from NHTSA ODI, recall, and NCAP rows for the 1972 VOLKSWAGEN TYPE III; no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of August 2026.
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.