2020 Volkswagen Jetta
Problems, recalls and owner-reported issues
Electrical system is the leading concern among 53 owner complaints filed for this model year. This is the 21st highest complaint count among 26 Jetta model years with reports.
Of the 2020 reports, 1 involved a crash. 2 people were injured.
What owners report most often
Recalls and investigations
Fuel system, gasolineFeb 14, 2024
Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. (Volkswagen) is recalling certain front-wheel drive 2015-2020 Audi A3 Sedan, 2015-2019 Audi A3 Cabriolet, 2019-2020 Volkswagen Jetta GLI, 2018 Golf Sportwagen GP, 2018-2019 Golf Sportwagen A7, 2015-2017 Golf Sportwagen, 2015-2020 Golf GTI, and 2015-2020 Golf A7 vehicles. Due to a problem with a suction jet pump seal inside the fuel tank, fuel may flow into the evaporative emissions (EVAP) system and possibly leak out of the charcoal canister.
A fuel leak in the presence of an ignition source increases the risk of a fire.
Dealers will replace the suction pump, free of charge. Final owner notification letters for Audi owners were mailed on July 25, 2024. Final owner letters for VW owners were mailed on August 13, 2024. Owners may contact Volkswagen customer service at 1-800-893-5298 or Audi customer service at 1-800-253-2834. Volkswagen's numbers for this recall are VW: 20UF/Audi: 20YF. Vehicles that were previously recalled under 16V-647 will need to have the new remedy completed. This recall expands and replaces previous recall number 16V-647.
Campaign 24V110000 on NHTSA.gov
Electrical system, ignition, switchAug 30, 2023
Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. (Volkswagen) is recalling certain 2019 Golf, Golf Alltrack, Golf Sportwagen, 2019-2020 Golf GTI, and Jetta vehicles equipped with a conventional ignition switch. The ignition switch may fail, especially in high temperature environments.
Ignition switch failure can cause the electrical system to shut down and the engine to stall while driving, increasing the risk of a crash.
Dealers will replace the ignition switch, free of charge. Owner notification letters were mailed February 1, 2024. Owners may contact Volkswagen's customer service at 1-800-893-5298. Volkswagen's number for this recall is 28H7.
Campaign 23V604000 on NHTSA.gov
Tires, pressure monitoring and regulating systemsOct 31, 2022
Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. (Volkswagen) is recalling certain 2019 Volkswagen Tiguan LWB, Golf Sportswagen A7, Golf Alltrack, Golf R GP, Audi Q3, Audi A3 Cabriolet, 2019-2020 Jetta NF, Jetta GLI, Golf GTI, Atlas, Golf A7, Audi A3, 2020-2021 Atlas Cross Sport, and 2021 Atlas FL vehicles. The tire pressure monitoring system may not detect an air pressure loss in adequate time when deflating occurs among all four tires simultaneously. As such, these vehicles fail to comply with the requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard number 138, "Tire Pressure Monitoring Systems."
An undetected sudden loss of pressure in all four tires increases the risk of a crash.
Dealers will update the TPMS software, free of charge. Owner notification letters were mailed November 18, 2022. Owners may contact Volkswagen's customer service at 1-800-893-5298 or Audis customer service at 1-800-253-2834. Volkswagen's numbers for this recall are (Audi) 45J7, and (VW) 45J6 and 45J8.
Campaign 22V815000 on NHTSA.gov
Air bags, air bag/restraint control moduleJun 30, 2021
Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. (Volkswagen) is recalling certain 2020-2021 Jetta and Jetta GLI vehicles. The air bag control module was welded in the incorrect position.
Incorrect positioning of the air bag control module can cause the vehicle's air bags to deploy improperly during a crash, increasing the risk of injury. Additionally, the vehicle's air bags can deploy unintentionally, increasing the risk of a crash.
Dealers will replace the air bag control module, free of charge. Owner notification letters were mailed on January 28, 2022. Owners may contact Volkswagen customer service at 1-800-893-5298. Volkswagen's number for this recall is 69CK.
Campaign 21V492000 on NHTSA.gov
SeatsAug 26, 2020
Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. (Volkswagen ) is recalling certain 2020 Volkswagen Atlas Cross Sport, Jetta, Jetta GLI and Tiguan and Audi Q5 and SQ5 and 2021 Volkswagen Atlas vehicles. Parts of the front seat frame and backrest adjuster may not have been welded properly.
In the event of a rear-end crash, the backrest adjustment could break, possibly reducing the amount of occupant restraint, thus increasing risk of injury.
Volkswagen will notify owners, and dealers will inspect the front seats, and, as necessary, replace the seatback frames, free of charge. The recall began September 11, 2020. Volkswagen owners may contact their customer service at 1-888-241-2289. Audi owners may contact their customer service at 1-800-893-5298. Volkswagen's numbers for this recall are 72L1, 72K8, and 72K9.
Campaign 20V505000 on NHTSA.gov
Service brakes, hydraulic, foundation components, disc, caliperJun 17, 2020
Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. (Volkswagen) is recalling one 2020 Jetta vehicle. The front brake caliper bolts may come loose.
If a brake caliper bolt comes loose, it may affect the vehicle's brake performance, increasing the risk of a crash.
Volkswagen will notify the owner, and a dealer will replace all four front brake caliper bolts, free of charge. The recall began July 1, 2020. Owners may contact Volkswagen customer service at 1-800-893-5298. Volkswagen's number for this recall is 47Q2.
Campaign 20V359000 on NHTSA.gov
Representative owner complaints: electrical system
17 reports, newest first. Show all
Electrical system, Sep 10, 2026
On 2 separate occasions (in recent 2 months); the car would not restart and error messages would include printing the electrical parking brake engagement. Attempts to reset were futile. Car had to be towed. After 2nd incident, the VW dealership identified that the ground wire for the electrical harness that runs through fuse box and engine was severely overheated resulting in inability to start. There are no recalls on this item; from a safety standpoint, this could happen while driving and a loss of power could result with overheated ground wire condition. This is a potential very unsafe condition and a costly repair item. In comparison, the non-start stop button vehicles have experienced the same condition, and recalls were performed on 2018-2021 Jetta’s. The same exact case, severely overheated ground wires requiring complete replacement of main wiring harness.
Electrical system, Structure, Engine, Jan 27, 2025
When I start the car Multiple times the car will throw over half of all the error code and could not start the vehicle. Driving in the highway doing 65mph with the cruise control on the car completely shut off and I had to limp it to the shoulder and was unable to start the car. Each time I cleared the fault codes then was able to start the car. If I didn’t have my scanner I would have had to get towed each time to the dealer. I see there is an ignition switch recall on the 2019 and the 2020 cars but for some reason I don’t see my 2020 included in that. Now the proximity sensor is at fault and I have to take it to the dealer again. Please let me know what I should do
Electrical system, Other or unspecified, Dec 29, 2024
Vehicle has been displaying "Emergency services unavailable" along with lights for steering and braking systems, Intermittently since new. The dealer stated no problem found.. Now that the vehicle is out of warranty they tell me it needs a new computer module. I believe they said Telematics control unit.
Electrical system, Other or unspecified, Jul 2, 2024
The built-in navigation and apple carplay periodically show the wrong location, offset by several hundred feet from the real one. A huge number of cases on the Internet, Volkswagen does nothing about it. They update the software, but it doesn't help.
Electrical system, Mar 23, 2024
The SOS emergency that is supposed to work when you press the button or if your car is stolen the module failed and on months of back order
Electrical system, Engine, Nov 8, 2023
The contact owns a 2020 Volkswagen Jetta. The contact stated while driving 70-80 MPH, the electronic parking brake engaged independently. The message "Driver's Side Door Fault" and a message indicating that the auto Start/Stop feature was unavailable were displayed. The contact stated that the failure had been recurring while driving at various speeds, while making turns, and while coming to a complete stop. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, where it was diagnosed that the driver's side door wiring harness had failed and caused the module to experience an electrical shortage. The dealer informed the contact that the electronic parking brake had engaged because the door was securely closed while driving. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure, but no assistance was provided. The failure mileage was approximately 65,789.
Electrical system, Oct 4, 2023
Incident Occurred in May. Was on Reddit and saw someone say to report any issues to NHTSA so that's what I'm doing At the end of the month in May (2023) when starting my car after work that had been sitting in the sun, it turned on but then turned off about 10 seconds later saying "ignition switch off safely stop the vehicle" then it flashed to another screen saying "please check the starter system." I waited about 10 minutes then I was able to start my car with no issue. Then after leaving work I pulled onto the highway and the issue happened again while going 60+ mph. Everything cut off and it gave me the same message. My jetta is a manual so it was still in gear and could keep driving but it was super sketchy. I immediately pulled off the road and when I came to a stop the car completely shut off. Then I waited another 10 minutes. Started my car again and the exact same thing happened and I had to pull off the highway. After that I was able to start the car without it happening again and I drove straight to the Volkswagen dealer to have them fix it. I left the the next day to go to a work conference out of state and returned the following Sunday to my car which was now fixed. Part P2532 was replaced in the ignition switch. Luckily I have a 4 year 40,000 mile warranty so I didn't have to pay anything.
Electrical system, Jul 11, 2023
I live in a very hot area where the temperatures rise to well above 100°. My dashboard gets hot. I imagine that the computer system is in the dashboard after the car has been in the sun I get into my vehicle start my engine things seem fine and then I’m driving down the street and the whole front panel turns off. The air turns off, the stereo turns off most importantly, the air turns off and there is an ecosystem set in my car, where the engine turns off while I’m idling. . The air turns off, the stereo turns off most importantly, the air turns off and there is an ecosystem set in my car, where the engine turns off while I am at a lot of times the whole car will turn off. I cannot see any of the gauges and I can’t roll the windows down for air most of the time, the car will continue to drive down the street, but under very dangerous and uncomfortable conditions. Below I’m going to add today’s date because it’s the most recent time that it happened but it happens. Every day doesn’t happen at night doesn’t happen in the morning because the car was cool overnight. Let me be clear that the engine is not overheating. It is the computer system. Just like when an iPhone is too hot to work.
Electrical system, Jul 3, 2023
The contact owns a 2020 Volkswagen Jetta. The contact stated while exiting a parking lot, the instrument panel went blank without warning. The contact turned off the vehicle and after several attempts was able to restart the vehicle. The vehicle was taken to the dealer for a diagnostic test however, no cause for the failure was found. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not contacted. The failure mileage was 25,000.
Power train, Electrical system, Forward collision avoidance, Dec 22, 2022
Hit a pot hole in the road and vehicle completely shut down and will not crank. Diagnostic code U0100 is saying that the ecm and pcm are no longer communicating. If I had been on the highway or in a high traffic area that could have been a life threatening situation as everything is run through the electronics of the car.
Electrical system, Sep 20, 2022
The problem I am facing is with making calls in the car both via android auto and Bluetooth. When making a phone call, if the volume is adjusted during the call, the other person will hear a very bad echo of their own voice. The echo only occurs when the call volume is adjusted, and I can't hear it in my own car. I have been to the dealer twice to diagnose this issue, and talked to VW Customer Care, neither has been able to fix the problem or determine why it's happening. The first visit I didn't know that changing the volume caused the issue, during one of the trips they replaced the microphone and tried multiple phones (iPhone and Android), neither fixed the problem. I purchased this car used with around 10k miles on it from VW and have had the issue ever since. This is NOT A SAFETY ISSUE, it’s just very annoying.
Electrical system, Service brakes, Engine, Apr 11, 2021
VEHICLE WAS STATIONARY IN PARKING SPOT AND UPON IGNITION BEGAN REVVING UNCONTROLLABLY AND THREW UP ERROR CODES "ENGINE SPEED MAX. 4000 RPM" AND "START-STOP SYSTEM ERROR", ALONG WITH EPC AND ENGINE LIGHTS. THE BRAKE WAS ALSO DEPRESSED. UPON PUTTING INTO REVERSE THE PARKING BRAKE WAS AUTOMATICALLY ENGAGED WHILE THE ENGINE CONTINUED TO REV. SOON AFTER, ENGINE WOULD SPUTTER BUT NOT TURN OVER WITH THE SAME ERROR CODES ON DISPLAY.
Power train, Electrical system, Engine, Feb 3, 2021
I CAME TO A STOP LIGHT AND HAD MY CAR IN NEUTRAL. PUT IT INTO FIRST AT A GREEN LIGHT AND THERE WAS NO POWER, THE ENGINE HAD CUT OFF. I DRIVE A MANUAL AND HAVE FOR MY ENTIRE LIFE. THERE WAS NO LURCHING OR ANYTHING, JUST A SILENT CUT. HARD TO GET IT TURNED BACK ON, THE VEHICLE SEEMED CONFUSED WHEN I HIT THE START BUTTON... WAS NEARLY REAR ENDED.
Electrical system, Other or unspecified, Jan 11, 2021
THE HILL HOLD ASSIST DID NOT DISENGAGED QUICKLY WHEN STOPPED ON AN INCLINE, BURNING THE CLUTCH TO GET THE VEHICLE TO MOVE FORWARD. THIS CAUSED SMOKING FROM THE HOOD OF THE CAR AND WE WERE THEN FORCED TO PULL TO THE SIDE OF A VERY CONGESTED HIGHWAY AND WAIT FOR THE SMOKING TO STOP AND GIVE THE CLUTCH A BREAK. THIS HAS NOW CAUSED PREMATURE CLUTCH WEAR.
Electrical system, Oct 23, 2020
VEHICLE IS BRAND NEW AND HAS BEEN IN MY POSSESSION FOR 7 DAYS. CAR-NET MODULE AND BLUETOOTH AUDIO MODULES HAVE BOTH FAILED. CAR-NET FAILED ON DAY 5, BLUETOOTH ON DAY 6. PRESCRIBED RESOLUTION INVOLVES PULLING THE APPROPRIATE FUSE TO RESET THE SYSTEM. AFTER THIS PROCEDURE, SYSTEM FAILED TO RESET.
Electrical system, Engine, Aug 28, 2020
THE EPC LIGHT COMES ON RANDOMLY AT HIGHWAY SPEEDS WHEN REVVING UP THE ENGINE TO OVERTAKE CARS. THE ENGINE SUDDENLY BOGS DOWN AND ENGINE RPMS ARE LIMITED TO 3000 WHEN LIGHT IS ON. IT COULD BE A POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS SITUATION BECAUSE THE CAR WILL NOT WANT TO ACCELERATE AND FORCES ME TO GET OFF THE FREEWAY. THE ONLY WAY FOR THE LIGHT TO COME OFF IS TO TURN OFF THE CAR AND TURN IT BACK ON. I VISITED A LOCAL VW DEALER AND THEY INFORMED ME OF A FAULT CODE P227900 INTAKE AIR SYSTEM LEAK PASSIVE/SPORADIC. THEY PERFORMED AN AIR INTAKE SYSTEM TEST AND FOUND NO PROBLEMS. THIS IS THE THIRD TIME THIS EPC LIGHT COMES ON. IF IT HAPPENS A 4TH TIME I WILL ONCE AGAIN TAKE IT TO THE DEALER IF SOMETHING COMES ON. IT IS VERY FRUSTRATING THAT I CAN'T REV MY CAR AT HIGHWAY SPEEDS OR ELSE THIS LIGHT KEEPS TURNING ON.
Electrical system, Vehicle speed control, Service brakes, Jul 19, 2020
2 SEPARATE INCIDENTS INVOLVING THE EPC. ONE WAS ABOUT 10 DAY'S AGO, JULY 9TH GETTING ON THE FREEWAY IN HOUSTON. CAR THREW UP NUMEROUS ERROR CODES, IT AUTOMATICALLY SLAMMED ON THE BRAKES UPON ENTERING THE MIDDLE LANE OF THE FREEWAY, GAVE AN EPC ERROR CODE, TRANSMISSION ERROR CODE, AND START/STOP ERROR CODE. I GOT IT TO THE NEAREST DEALERSHIP, MONTROAD VOLKSWAGEN OFF I-45. THEY CLAIM THEY COULD FIND NOTHING WRONG AFTER SITTING ON IT FOR 24 HOURS & SENT ME ON MY WAY. FAST FORWARD TO LAST NIGHT, NOW 10 DAY'S LATER, JULY 19TH, COMING BACK HOME FROM DALLAS, A NEARLY 600 MILE ROUND TRIP & ANOTHER EPC CODE CODE COMES UP & SAYS FAULT: ELECTRONIC PARKING BRAKE WHEN I WENT TO PARK THE CAR & HEAD INSIDE. NOW I'VE ONLY HAD THIS CAR A MONTH, IT SHOULDN'T HAVE ALL THESE KINDS OF ISSUES & IT DEEPLY CONCERNS ME.