Report: Volkswagen's Reported Death and Injury Claims May Be Too Low

Aaron Cole
by Aaron Cole

A study commissioned by Bloomberg, conducted by Stout Risius Ross, revealed that Volkswagen’s rate of injury or fatal crashes reported by the automaker was significantly lower than 11 other automakers and nine times less than the industry average.

“The data demonstrates that even on a fleet-adjusted basis, the number of reported incidents by Volkswagen is significantly below what one would expect based on those reported by other automakers,” Neil Steinkamp, a Stout Risius managing director, told Bloomberg. “They are also significantly below the reporting of automakers that have already been cited for non-compliance.”

The report calls into question whether Volkswagen has been accurately reporting crashes, as required by law. Volkswagen didn’t comment on the report.

Last month, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles reported that it had under-reported death and injury claims to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration under the Transportation Recall Enhancement, Accountability and Documentation (TREAD) Act. Earlier this year, Honda was fined $70 million for its errors in reporting under the law.

According to Bloomberg, an auto watchdog group said the low numbers from Volkswagen indicated that the automaker may not be correctly reporting safety data.

“NHTSA doesn’t have the resources to police all of this, but now they’re asking the automakers to tell them whether they’re in compliance,” Clarence Ditlow, executive director for the Center for Auto Safety, told Bloomber. “For the automakers, it’s a time of reckoning.”

Volkswagen reported 34 serious crashes for every million cars, according to the data. By comparison, General Motors reported 524 crashes per million vehicles and Nissan reported 78 crashes per million. Honda and FCA, who admitted they under-reported, reported 78 and 101 crashes per million respectively.


Aaron Cole
Aaron Cole

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  • Brandloyalty Brandloyalty on Oct 12, 2015

    The cause is obvious. VW drivers are sooo much more skilled than non-VW drivers. At least that's what VW drivers seem to want everyone to believe.

  • Flybrian Flybrian on Oct 12, 2015

    Does this include accidents caused by loss of control after dried trim adhesive gets into the driver's eyes? When vision is obscured by a falling headliner? When first responders cannot access the occupant because of a broken door handle? When occupants can't escape a vehicle because the interior door pull has disintegrated? When an owner suffers a stroke after reading a repair estimate for a scrambled key that requires a $1200 instrument cluster because that's where the immobilizer is ?

    • Northeaster Northeaster on Oct 13, 2015

      C'mon, it's the rain blowing in the driver's face through his/her window (which is open because the window regulator clips have failed) that causes most of the unreported accidents.

  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
  • Jalop1991 what, no Turbo trim?
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