2021 Volkswagen Jetta: What to check before buying

Rear brake pads and rotors wear out far faster than the fronts, often with no warning. Shops find rear pads down to 1 or 2 mm, sometimes metal on metal, while the front pads still have plenty left. First replacements often come between 16,000 and 34,000 miles, and some owners need a second set soon after. When there are symptoms, they include grinding, scraping or squealing from the rear and weaker braking. Some reports describe wear only on the inner pad and caliper pistons that seize. Many owners pay for the repairs themselves. A few manual-transmission owners say hill hold will not release and the car stalls.

Door wiring and lock faults lead this category. Door lock actuators stick or stop locking. A faulty driver door wiring harness can set off false door, start-stop and parking brake errors, and in one case the electric parking brake engaged while the car was moving. The backup camera blacks out or will not come back on, and the radio shuts off at random. Some cars will not restart after an auto start-stop shutdown, or they lose power while driving. Dealers often cannot find or fix the cause.

Check engine lights from the evaporative emissions (EVAP) system keep coming back. The trouble often starts between 12,000 and 16,000 miles, and some cars go back to the dealer six to eight times. Dealers replace EVAP parts and update the software, but the light returns. Owners say VW has no fix yet. Other reports describe a fuel door that will not open and shows a refueling error. Another describes a pump nozzle that keeps shutting off and spills fuel, with a replacement tank on backorder.

Two of the four reports are marked as crash-related, but they give no detail about what failed or how. Of the other two, one describes an air bag warning light traced to a failed air bag control module at about 60 miles. The other describes an owner who could not get a repair done because the part was not yet available. Neither of these two owners reports an air bag failing in use. The reports are too few and too vague to show a pattern.

There are few steering reports, but several involve losing control. The steering wheel shakes violently and makes an electrical noise at highway speed. One car had a failed steering rack at 72k miles. Another car with adaptive cruise control on braked to a full stop on the road and later steered itself toward oncoming traffic. Other owners describe the car feeling unstable above about 55 mph, and engine revs surging at stoplights so the car lurches forward. No warning lights come on, and one dealer could not reproduce the problem.

False automatic braking is the main concern. The car brakes hard when there is no real hazard, such as a steel plate in the road. In another car, the brakes apply on their own after several sensor warnings light up at once, at around 18,000 miles. Owners worry about getting rear-ended. Cruise control also shuts off at random at various speeds. In one case the dealer would only start the repair if the car was left there, with a fix possibly taking a month.

Neither report describes a belt failing in a crash. In one, the front passenger seat will not adjust, and the owner says this keeps the belt from being worn safely. The dealer called it normal design. In the other, the rear passenger-side buckle sinks into the seat cushion, so passengers have to hold it in place to latch the belt. Two reports are too few to show a pattern.

Lane Keep Assist misreads the lane and steers when it should not. Drivers get repeated out-of-lane warnings and beeps while centered in their lane, and the car pulls slightly left or right. In the worst case, the wheel jerks hard toward oncoming traffic at 30 mph and the driver briefly loses control. Another car shows blind spot and Lane Keep Assist warning lights at highway speed. Its sensor had been replaced once and failed again.