NHTSA Complaint #11613511 — 2023 VOLKSWAGEN ID.4

On occasion the car moves backward when I have it in Drive, and forward when I have it in Reverse. It commonly happens when doing a tight, 3 point turn. I noticed the issue shortly after I purchased the car in Mar '23 and first brought the car to the dealer for inspection after the 2nd time it happened in Jan '24. I've brought the car in many times for this and they cannot duplicate it or fix it (4 service records attached). There's no warning lights or error messages. I can visually see the gear shifter is in Drive, but when I put my foot on the accelerator the car moves backwards. It's the same when I visually see the gear shifter in Reverse, but the car moves forward. This has put my safety, the safety of my passengers, and the safety of people standing nearby at risk on multiple occasions. On one occasion, I was navigating a tight, multipoint u-turn, as I was trying to turn around between 2 large trees. My nephew stood outside the car waiting to get in. When I had enough clearance between the tree in back of me, and the back of my car, I put the car in Reverse to backup a few feet so that my nephew had enough space to open the passenger side door and get in. However, even though I had put the car in Reverse, it unexpectedly moved forward nearly pinning my nephew between the front of my car and the tree in front of me. I shouted at my nephew to step away from the car. I looked at the gear shifter again to ensure that I was in fact in Reverse, and then I tapped the accelerator gently to see if I could inch back away from the tree in front of me, but the car continued to move forward nearly hitting the tree. I had to put the car in Park, remove my seat belt, open the driver's side door, and step out of the car to get the car to "turn off" and "restart". When I got back in the car, and attempted to Reverse again, it worked as expected. I didn't log exact dates each time it happened, but I did first bring it to dealer for this problem on 1/4/24, with 8070 miles.