Global Volkswagen recall impacts 66,000 cars in Switzerland

Globally, the Volkswagen Group is recalling millions of cars. Keystone-SDA

Carmaker Volkswagen and its subsidiaries Audi, Seat and Skoda are recalling millions of vehicles worldwide due to a fault in the steering system. Germany is the country most affected by the recall.

According to Germany’s Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA), the recall involves a potentially faulty screw connection on the steering gear, which has to be replaced with a more corrosion-resistant one. The affected Volkswagen vehicles are the Tiguan, Touran, Golf Variant, Caddy and Golf models made between September 24, 2013 and July 1, 2024.

Worldwide, this potentially affects almost 2.16 million Volkswagen vehicles, of which just under 900,000 are in Germany, the statement added. Company spokespeople confirmed the recall to the DPA news agency on Friday, after news was first reported by the website “t-online.de”.

Around 66,000 vehicles in Switzerland

Vehicles from the VW, Audi, Seat and Skoda brands are also being recalled in Switzerland. According to the Swiss car importer Amag, answering an enquiry by the AWP news agency on Friday, this comprises a total of 40,073 VW vehicles and 8,619 Audi vehicles. In addition, there are 3,651 Seat vehicles and 13,700 Skoda vehicles.

According to Amag, the minor repair required on the vehicles will be done free of charge for the owners. They will get an information letter from Amag asking them to visit their authorised dealer to have the screw replaced.

The Swiss Federal Roads Office (FEDRO) has not yet published any data on the recall in response to an enquiry. FEDRO stated that, to date, no recall notification had been received from the importer following the KBA report. This is expected in the coming days.

Problems at Audi

According to the KBA, the same problem has arisen involving Audi Q3 models produced between October 31, 2017 and May 23, 2024. Almost 700,000 vehicles globally are potentially affected, of which a good 58,500 are in Germany. Seat models Ateca and Tarraco, made between April 2016 and September 2024, are also said to have the problem. The exact number of Seat vehicles affected worldwide was not yet known. Initially, no information was available in the KBA data for other Group brands such as Škoda.

How we produce news in English

Translated from German, reviewed by an English Department journalist.