2023 Volkswagen Taos Brake Problems

Mileage when the problem started

Owner reports

Selected complaints filed with NHTSA by 2023 Volkswagen Taos owners, lightly cleaned up (personal details are redacted by NHTSA).

The contact owns a 2023 Volkswagen Taos. The contact stated while reversing, the contact depressed the brake pedal however, the vehicle failed to stop in a reasonable time. The auto-brake assist engaged, and the vehicle was able to come to a complete stop. The vehicle was taken to the dealer however, no cause for the failure was found. The failure reoccurred. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not contacted. The failure mileage was 10,000.

I purchased this car new less than 18 months ago and have been problems with it ever since. Brakes wear down prematurely and cause metal contact to rotors that causes bad screeching, stutters and affects my braking distance. I work for drive-share platforms as well as work as a personal driver for children in Ventura County and become more and more worried about the safety of my passengers as well as myself. I've taken my vehicle to the dealership multiple times and they keep repeating that everything is normal over and over again or that they fix whatever issue that they find but my car is still not fixed. This has been going on for over a year, they don't offer any help and they seem to ignore my concerns and I am very unsatisfied with Ventura Volkswagon and their customer service. …

Vehicle Make/Model/Year: 2023 Volkswagen Taos Component: Service Brakes / Electronic Parking Brake Odometer Reading: ~45,000 miles I am reporting a recurring issue with the rear brake pads on my 2023 Volkswagen Taos. The rear brakes were first replaced at around 25,000K miles due to premature wear and noise. A little over a year later, the brakes are again making noise and showing signs of wear. The issue appears to be affecting many Taos owners based on online forums and published warranty extensions from Volkswagen. Volkswagen has acknowledged premature rear brake pad wear on 2022-2025 Taos models by extending the brake pad warranty to 2 years or 24,000 miles. …

2023 VW Taos leased in June 2023 - needed to replace brakes 2 years (June 2025) into owning the car. Inspection would not pass without them. This is an excessively quick wear that cost me over $600 for a leased vehicle that should be just basic ownership during 3 year lease. August 2025 - Brought in for an oil change and a coolant yellow light on dashboard. Our local mechanic would not touch the coolant issue as he said it seems to be related to a head gasket leak. The 2022 model had many issues with this problem, however no issues are reported on the 2023 Taos. I have had to find another vehicle to drive and wait 5 days to get it into our local VW dealership, who told us it was OK to drive without even looking at the vehicle. No thank you! We called VW and if in fact this is a head gasket, it would be covered under warranty. …

The brakes have prematurely worn to 1mm at 20,000 miles. Volkswagen is aware and has issued a TSB regarding the premature wear, however they failed to notify us during the first 2 service appointments that the wear on the brakes were due to be replaced. I feel this was intentional as they did not want to replace under the TSB and they waited until the wear was too severe and past the TSB date. Volkswagen waited to tell my 17 year old daughter that the brakes were worn and needed replacement at that point. Volkswagen is aware of the premature wear on the brakes and has put people at risk like my 17 year old daughter by not extending the warranty for longer than 2yr/24k miles or whichever comes first. This should be a minimum of 40k miles as rear brakes should not wear in that time frame on any vehicle. …

I was driving home from work in rush hour so traffic was pretty heavy and all of the sudden my gas pedal would not accelerate my car at all. I was cruising at 8-10 MPH as it was stop and go traffic. About 10 seconds later my break pedal stiffens and I am unable to break. Neither the gas or break pedal were functioning. It is a miracle that no accident was caused. I turned on my hazards lights but I was in the middle lane so I was unable to pull over (as I could not accelerate or break). I put my car in neutral but that did not help anything. I ended up having to put my car in park and turn the car completely off and back on before the pedals would function again. I got my car towed after the situation as I was terrified to drive in case it happened again. The dealership told me since no lights or codes came up they can't find anything wrong. …

am reporting a recurring rear brake issue with my vehicle. The rear brake pads and rotors have required replacement approximately every 20,000 miles, which appears abnormal given that the front brake pads have never required replacement and are still measuring approximately 8 mm. The rear brakes have worn prematurely and unevenly compared with the front brakes despite normal driving conditions. I am concerned this may indicate a defect involving the rear braking system, electronic parking brake, brake bias, calipers, or related components. The recurring premature rear brake wear has created repeated repair costs and raises concern that the braking system may not be functioning as designed. I would like this documented for safety review.

Car only has 16,000 miles on it. Started smelling antifreeze when the car was started. Took to dealer- faulty, failing head gasket. Bad since manufactured. Also, brakes had sounded loud since purchased. Told this was just the type of brakes. Upon inspection of the vehicle for the head gasket it was noted that the rear brake pads need replaced!! Again, this car only has 16,000 miles on it. From research it appears the head gasket and rear brakes are an issue for the 2023 Taos. Dealer/shop has had the car for 6 days and I was told if I needed a loaner it would now cost me $ out of pocket....for a manufactured failure.

After setting the emergency brake in wet conditions, rear pads fuse themselves to the rear rotors. When the E-Brake is disengaged, the car wont move. The solution is to stand on the gas until enough power dislodges the brake pads. After this exercise, there is a high spot on the rotors that needs to be scuffed off before normal operation resumes. This is a significant safety issue as many could try to dislodge the brakes and lose control when they unexpectedly release. I have taken to the dealer and have been told this is normal operation. A quick search of the internet yields others complaining about similar issues.

Went to a VW dealer in Sept of 2024. Dealer recommended that I get new rear brakes as they were low. VW had a service bulletin extending the warranty, but the dealer refused to offer warranty work as they were not worn enough even though they said they needed to be replaced. As of March 2025. the rear brakes are now metal on metal with no warning given under 30k miles. This is a known manufacture defect. Volkswagen in March 2025 refused to offer warranty, as it expired a few weeks ago. No warning given and known faulty rear brakes. A major safety issue.

Brake complaints in other Taos years