VW Issues Stop Sale Order on Taos

If you’ve set sights on driving home a new Volkswagen Taos today, best cool your jets. According to a report by Automotive News, the model is under a stop-sale order by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Well, all-wheel-drive models are, anyway.

Apparently, there have been reports of 4Motion-equipped Taos vehicles shutting down its engine when rolling to a halt, a trait few drivers would appreciate. And, before you ask, this isn’t the standard start-stop system simply doing its thing to save fuel. Reports say the manufacturer is ‘researching a repair’, suggesting the company doesn’t currently have a fix for affected vehicles. In the meantime, we’re sure dealers will be more than happy to plug customers into a front-wheel drive trim.

It’s worth noting that Taos models running with 4Motion are equipped with a 7-speed dual-clutch gearbox instead of the more conventional 8-speed automatic found on front-wheel drive models. Could the DSG be stumbling when downshifting to a lower gear as the driver eases the machine to a halt? For what it’s worth, the engine remains the same across both trims – a 1.5L turbocharged four-cylinder making 158 horsepower and 184 lb-ft of torque.

Taos is an important model for Volkswagen, permitting it to play in the competitive subcompact crossover class. Having gone on sale in Q2 of this calendar year, the new trucklet has already racked up almost 5,000 sales in America through to the end of June, the only month it’s been on dealer lots. Since it is a fresh vehicle in the lineup, an argument can be made that every copy sold is an incremental sale.

For comparison, the Atlas and its Cross Sport cousin combined to shift nearly 70,000 units in the same time period, so Taos has a ways to go yet before it can even remotely claim superiority in the Volkswagen lineup. The brand also sold about 65,000 Tiguan SUVs in Q2 2021, by the way. If the Taos performed as well in the other five months of the year as it did in June, it would have still only sold about half as well as the Tiguan.

[Image: Volkswagen]