In the 13th week of 2024, two Volkswagen recalls appeared in the European Safety Gate (formerly Rapex) alert system. According to the German database KBA, where we verified the information, each recall covers six cars. Both recalls resemble a several-year-old case in which Volkswagen had to admit that it sold several thousand cars that should never have reached customers.
“Cars initially used for internal purposes of Volkswagen AG might not have been correctly modified before they were sold to the general public. There is a possibility that certain safety systems of these cars are not correctly modified for street use“, the details of the new recalls state. The actions announced in 2018 under the codes “01C5” and “01C6” had the exact text when 6,700 cars produced between 2005 and 2017 were involved, and the carmaker offered to buy them back.
We wrote about it in the article Volkswagen solves mysterious recalls by buying back the entire car.
The case was brought to light by the German tabloid Der Spiegel, prompting the carmaker to issue a clear statement. “These could be models that were used for experimental and testing purposes and were retrofitted with prototype parts that have not yet been approved. However, they could also be pre-production vehicles that have been showcased at various car shows,” a VW spokesperson told Der Spiegel at the time.
“We do not have reliable documentation on whether the cars were put back into their original production state after the tests,” the spokesperson continued. “It is therefore impossible to identify a specific defect, and no clearly defined remedy exists. For this reason, dealers have been instructed to buy back the vehicles.”
Another two thousand cars
In January 2020, Volkswagen announced three more similar recalls for another 2,000 cars, this time with the codes “01D7“, “01E3“, and “01E4“. We reported on this in our article. Volkswagen faces another scandal, buying back entire cars from 2006 to 2018.
The current recall, “011J” is for six cars of the Passat Variant, Passat NMS, and Polo model series manufactured between 29 March 2016 and 7 August 2017. The second, with the code “012J” is for six Golf, Golf Sportsvan, Golf Variant, and Phaeton models with production dates between 29 April 2014 and 25 July 2016. Whether these are repercussions of previous recalls or a precursor to another round of similar recalls is yet to be made clear.
Currently 5102 Recalls