Federal complaint record · Volkswagen Jetta · model year 2004

2004 Volkswagen Jetta

Owners submitted 231 federal complaint reports about this model year, placing it at the 32th percentile for complaint intensity within its 2002 to 2006 compact sedan cohort. The largest reported component group is engine. Sample sizes and limitations are shown below.

Engine · 17% · group n = 50Fuel system · 13% · group n = 39Electrical · 13% · group n = 37Powertrain · 12% · group n = 36Airbags · 8% · group n = 23
231
Complaint records on file
66,000
Median mileage at the reported problem · 191 complaints reported mileage
17%
Of classified component reports name engine · group n = 50
32th
Complaint-intensity percentile in a cohort of 30 model years

Engine · 2 in ten classified complaints

Where this record concentrates

All failure files
Component group 01 · Engine17%

Engine reports

Volkswagen Jetta · model year 2004

Reports in this group50
Share of classified reports17%
Component groups on file6
Open the failure files

Adjacent model years · same badge, different data

The complaint signal has a shape

Compare model years
2003
0.2complaints per 1,000 estimated vehicle-years
455 matched incidents
This car
2004
0.1complaints per 1,000 estimated vehicle-years
231 matched incidents
2005
0.2complaints per 1,000 estimated vehicle-years
248 matched incidents

The line compares submitted complaints per 1,000 estimated vehicle-years, not failures per 1,000 cars. Vehicle-years use compiled US sales, a 0.25 prior-calendar-year plus 0.75 current-calendar-year model-year allocation, and the shipped survival curve. Rates appear only where estimated vehicles in operation are at least 5,000.

From the record · recurring narrative clusters

What recurring complaint clusters describe

How clusters are built
Fire or smoke · 45 reports

Reports describe smoke, burning smells, or fire

Cluster 1 of 32004 Volkswagen Jetta
Transmission behavior · 22 reports

Reports describe harsh shifting, slipping, or shuddering

Cluster 2 of 32004 Volkswagen Jetta
Airbag concerns · 21 reports

Reports describe airbag warning or deployment concerns

Cluster 3 of 32004 Volkswagen Jetta

Cluster summaries paraphrase recurring symptoms reported to NHTSA. They are aggregate descriptions, not individual verbatim reports.

Records through 2026-07-19Published 2026-08-02 · Updated 2026-07-19

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NHTSA consumer complaint records can reveal recurring patterns across published model years. MotorCensus summarizes those records as one complaint-signal index, with a 95% interval and sample size, updated with each data snapshot.

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