2023 Volkswagen ID.4: jerking or lurching

Filed Oct 22, 2026 · Driver assistance, Electrical · CA · crash

I was stopped in a friend’s driveway in front of her closed garage door to drop her off after an outing. The front sensor had not been alerting me to how close I was to any objects several times the same day. Before my passenger exited, the car suddenly lurched forward and smashed into my friend’s garage door, buckling several panels on the garage door and scraping the paint off the front of my car. I have contacted the dealership to have the car inspected and I’m waiting for an appointment. No police report has been filed. No injuries occurred. There were no warning lamps, messages, or other symptoms (aside from the front sensor not alerting me when I was close to objects in front of me) prior to this incident.

Filed Apr 2, 2026 · Acceleration, Driver assistance · CA · crash · 1 injury

The driver of my vehicle stated that my car suddenly lurched forward striking a cross passing vehicle. He did not accelerate and the emergency brake system failed to engage in advance of an obvious and avoidable crash.

Filed Mar 12, 2026 · MI · crash

The vehicle lurched forward as I was parking and hit a parked vehicle in front of me; it accelerated forward even though my foot wasn't on the accelerator. I have contacted VW and was told to take the vehicle to a VW dealer to be inspected; that is happening next week. I did not notice any warning lamps, messages or other symptoms prior to the accident. I had just installed the VW recommended software update 2 days prior.

Filed Sep 9, 2025 · Acceleration, Electrical · CA · crash

I was turning into a parking space on the street. I let my foot off the gas in order to brake.... as I did so the car LURCHED forward on its own about 2-3 feet running into the curb and damaging the wheel, the rim and the tire. I stomped on the brake, turned off the car, and restarted the car in order to finish parking (get out of traffic) and assess the damage. Thankfully nobody was hurt, although I am quite shaken up, losing confidence in the car... I have no idea what system malfunctioned.. the car went forward on its own with my foot off the accelerator. I've never experienced this before with this car or any other car. I drove the car directly to the service department at the dealership where they said they would inspect it and report it as well. I have not called the police. I have not alerted the insurance company. There were no warning lights before or after this incident.

Filed Jul 17, 2025 · Driver assistance, Engine · CO · crash

The incident occurred on May 24, 2025, while preparing to park the 2023 VW ID4. I had two occupants in the car with me. At the time of the incident, I was moving very slow with my foot on the brake, just about ready to stop and put the car in the park position, when the ID4 suddenly violently lurched forward. The car went over a cement parking stop continuing forward on to a sidewalk and then hit a building. I tried to stop the vehicle as quickly as I could. No collision lights, none of the usual sensors, and no automatic Collison braking came on. The only braking was by me. If someone would have been walking in front of the car at the time of the incident there would have been serious injuries, or deaths. Had the car had more room to accelerate before it hit the building, I think myself & my passengers could have been injured. The vehicle was taken into VW dealership who had the car for five weeks. The car was inspected by a VW engineer, final report states driver pressed the accelerator causing the vehicle to go forward at 54% acceleration. I expressed to the VW dealership that the car DID lunge but that I did not touch the accelerator. I had 2 passengers that can also verify that there were no warning lamps, sensors, or symptoms prior to the incident and normally the front sensors start beeping when you get too close to anything! After this incident I started to do some research and found on a VW Vortex forum that this type of incident has happened to numerous owners of ID 4's. Some of the writers to the forum had the exact same incident as mine, stating they were pulling into a parking spot ready to park and the car lunged. I also found it was happening to Audi owners a sister company of VW. My greatest concern is the frequency of this incident and the company's refusal to take any responsibility which was also widely reported on line. We had owned the VW ID4 for 2.5 years and never had anything like this happened before.

Filed Mar 18, 2025 · Body, Driver assistance · 10,544 miles · CA

The contact owns a 2023 Volkswagen ID.4. The contact received notifications of the federal safety agency Campaign Numbers: 24V651000 (STRUCTURE) and 25V120000 (POWER TRAIN, SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC), 24V344000 (BACK OVER PREVENTION, EQUIPMENT, ELECTRICAL SYSTEM); however, the parts to do the recall repairs were not yet available. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The dealer was made aware of the issue. The manufacturer was not made aware of the issue. The contact stated that while driving 5 MPH, the vehicle stalled, with unknown warning lights illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the dealer however, the dealer was unable to diagnose the vehicle. On another occasion, the vehicle started to make a grinding sound and jerked abnormally. Additionally, the contact stated that on another occasion, after shifting into reverse, the display screen turned off unintendedly. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 10,544. Parts distribution disconnect.

Filed Dec 14, 2024 · Driver assistance · CA · crash

I was backing my 2023 Volkswagen ID.4 into my very tight driveway very slowly to avoid hitting my other car parked on the street, my house and my neighbors house. The parking collision sensor alerted me that I was close to my other car but I can see out my window that I had room to clear it safely so I continued to back into my driveway at about 1 mile an hour. All of a sudden, my car made a click click noise as it lurched back and forth and then the car took over control and drove into my house about 20-30 feet at maybe 20 mph (not sure exactly but pretty fast) and crashed into my house and my neighbors house/gate. I pumped the brakes 2-3x but they did not work and the car continued driving into my house at that fast speed. I remember thinking omg, the car is not going to stop until it hit the house. No collision sensors went off during the automatic reverse acceleration and no manual nor auto emergency brakes were employed. Even though I pressed the brakes 2-3x, the ring video did not show brake lights (which isn't a surprise since they did not activate). There was a man that just walked his dog behind my car a minute before my car accelerated backwards. He would have been hit at 20mph 2 feet from my car. He is an eye witness to the incident and agreed that this was no way human error. If it were human error and I had accidentally pressed the acceleration pedal, I wouldn't have gone that fast on my super tight driveway and street and I also would have had plenty of time to press the opposite pedal to stop before hitting my own house. I haven't been able to get access to the "black box" yet to see what the car's computer says and haven't reached out to the dealer or VW as my insurance claim is still being processed. My house, my neighbor's gate and my car are badly damaged but am thankful nobody got hurt. I had not seen any indication before that something like this could happen. It was a sunny day, November 23, 2024 12:50pm.

Filed Oct 16, 2024 · Acceleration, Airbags · CA · crash

I was backing out of an outdoor shopping center slot located at the end by the curb. I had to attempt this three times due to traffic and another car that was also trying to back out. On my third attempt, I hit the curb with my passenger rear wheel. When I changed gear to move forward, the ID4 jerked violently three times. At this point my hands were on the wheel and my feet were not on either the accelerator or the brake. Immediately after the third jerk the engine revved up and car took off. I tried to brake but was flying over 2 curb hit the road and flew over 2 more curbs with plants in the middle. The braking did not stop the vehicle. Coming up over the last curb the vehicle hit a parked car sending backward and it hit 2 more vehicles. No one was injured, since the vehicles were empty. The police did come and wrote an incident report, but not a police report because in California since it was property only they do not generate a report. However, this could have been fatal since people were waking about the parking lot. There were not any warning lights or messages. It has not as yet been inspected by by anyone . The car is available for inspection at a collision center. I am not sure which component failed and why it accelerated, or did not respond to the brake, or deploy the air bag upon impact.

Filed Oct 9, 2024 · Body, Driver assistance · 9,800 miles · CA

The contact owns a 2023 Volkswagen ID.4. The contact received notifications of the federal safety agency Campaign Numbers: 24V651000 (Structure) and 24V344000 (Back Over Prevention, Equipment, Electrical System); however, the parts to do the recall repairs were unavailable. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repairs. The contact stated while driving approximately 60 MPH and attempting to depress the brake pedal, the vehicle started vibrating but failed to slow as needed. The contact depressed the brake pedal three times before the vehicle came to a jerking stop. The contact continued to drive the vehicle to the residence at slow speeds. The failure had occurred twice. The dealer was contacted. The manufacturer was made aware of the issue. The failure mileage was 9,800. VIN tool confirms parts not available.

Filed Sep 9, 2024 · Brakes, Electrical · CA

On August 23, 2024, the car was parked at our home and turned off. It was not connected to the charger. At around 7:25pm Pacific time, I got into the driver's seat, closed the door, and depressed the brake pedal so I could put the car into Drive. While my foot was still on the brake, and the car was still in Park, the car lurched forward towards my husband, who was standing in front of the car. The car moved forward in a fast, jerking movement, less than 2 feet, before stopping on its own. My husband quickly moved to the other side of the alley way. Both console screens went black. I still never took my foot off the brake for fear that it would lurch forward again. I picked up my phone to film the screens to see if they would put up an error message or warning light. Just before I started filming the dashboard, the screen above the steering wheel came back on, but acted weird, with the gears disappearing from the right side of the screen completely around 12 second into the video. You can see in the video that I tried to put the car into gear, but as I move the gear shifter through the various gears it does nothing. My foot remained on the brake pedal the entire time up until the moment you see in the video, when I took my foot off of the brake and the car "restarted" itself, allowing me to get it into a gear again. My husband, or anyone else nearby, would have been severely injured if they had been standing closer to the vehicle when it lurched forward. I took the car to Santa Cruz Volkswagen to be inspected for this issue on 9/3/24. I provided them a detailed description and the video I took, but they were unable to duplicate it. Based on the many other issues I’ve had with this car prior, I believe a combination of faulty electronics, manufacturing defects, and buggy software may have caused this incident. (I uploaded a PDF of service records for this issue from dealer, but could not upload the video: it's 10.3mb MP4 file, which I'm happy to provide if possible.)

Filed Jul 10, 2024 · Brakes, Driver assistance · WA · crash

My 2023 ID4 suddenly accelerated and lunged forward (while my foot was on the brake) as I was turning right into a parking spot. I was going very slow with my foot on the brake . The ID4 lurched forward which propelled me in the wall of a concrete building that I was parking at (luckily no damage to the building). The acceleration was so powerful it’s like I floored it and frightening. None of the warning signals, sensors or collision warnings went off, nor did the emergency braking (when an object is too close in the front of the vehicle). After the ID4 went into the wall- it had registered that there was a collision (but nothing before). There was damage to the lower plastic bumper, the hood popped open (the latch to open the hood inside the vehicle now did not work) and some paint scratches. This had never happened before, I have taken it to my local VW dealer service department, unfortunately they have not been able to reproduce the issue. Had I been coming to stop at a traffic light, or been in a busy parking lot, it could have been much worse as this could have lurched into another vehicle, pedestrian or business store front.

Filed Jan 19, 2024 · Brakes · MN

As you pull to a complete stop, in the final speed between 2mph and 0mph, the brake will pull away from my foot and go straight towards the floor. The car will lurch forward and then come to a complete stop. This happens 2-4 times per month and the dealership can’t find any service codes. My wife won’t drive the vehicle.