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CarComplaints.com Notes: Beware of the NHTSA complaint data for the 2003 Camry. It is almost certainly misleading.

The problem with NHTSA data for the 2003 Camry is that for months on end, the news media repeatedly told the public that several Toyota models had an unintended acceleration defect, & to go to safercar.gov (the NHTSA's website) to file a complaint.

So, the NHTSA received a disproportionate number of complaints about Toyota unintended acceleration issues because of the national news media attention, to the point where their data is unreliable taken in context with any other vehicle that did not receive national news attention.

CarComplaints.com typically receives more complaints per day about vehicles than the NHTSA does, but the news media did not repeatedly say "go to CarComplaints.com to report your Camry acceleration problems" like they did about the NHTSA -- so although we have less complaint data than the NHTSA for the 2003 Camry, our data for the Camry is a far more statistically accurate representation of the Camry's reliability than what the NHTSA data shows.

6.8

fairly significant
Crashes / Fires:
0 / 0
Injuries / Deaths:
0 / 0
Average Mileage:
9,556 miles

About These NHTSA Complaints:

This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.

So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.

2003 Toyota Camry brakes problems

brakes problem

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2003 Toyota Camry Owner Comments

problem #4

Jul 242004

Camry 4-cyl

  • Automatic transmission
  • 123 miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

2003 Toyota Camry le with anti-lock brakes - brakes slip and vehile does not slow down when applied on a bumpy surface.

- Windsor Mill, MD, USA

problem #3

Mar 102004

Camry 4-cyl

  • Automatic transmission
  • 13,500 miles
While driving down a hill when I applied brakes towards bottom of hill and front brakes began to vibrate and caused front end to shimmy.

- Moon Twp, PA, USA

problem #2

Feb 212004

Camry 4-cyl

  • Automatic transmission
  • 5,600 miles
Our 2003 leased Toyota Camry has been great for the first year. We currently have approx 5600 miles on the car. During January and February of this year we experienced two separate ABS (antiskid brake system) activations. In both incidents the car was on dry, clean, hard surfaced roads. There was no gravel, dirt, ice, etc or any foreign matter on the roads. The roads were also dry. No rain was falling. In both incidents the car was gong less than 30 mph and in both cases the car was descending a slight hill. When the operator applied brakes the ABS system activated and no amount of brake peddle pressure changed the stopping ability of the car. Kickback thru the brake peddle was felt by me. The stopping distance was increased dramatically. In the first incident my wife was alone in the car and coming down a hill to a stop light. She could not stop the car before the light and had to make a hard right hand turn to prevent hitting cars or being hit by cars that were going 45+ mph on their road thru the light. At the intersection. Fortunately there had been a break in traffic so when she turned right at the red light there was a break in traffic so theree was no impact. In my situation I was driving my wife to a shopping center and was also coming down a slight hill and coming up behind traffic which was stopping at a stop sign. I could not stop the vehicle. I was getting kickback thru the brade peddle and the car brakes were cycling on and off and thus I had to swing around the car ahead and onto the righthand shoulder to avoid hitting the car ahead and almost had to climb an embackment to regain control of the vehicle. Immediately after my incident, the later of the two incidents, we drove right to our Toyota leasing Agency and turned the car over to the maintenance department. Toyota got us a rental vehicle while they check the car out. So far they have told me that in checking the ABS computer it shows no fault codes.

- St. Louis, MO, USA

problem #1

Dec 242003

Camry 4-cyl

  • Automatic transmission
  • 19,000 miles
Camry 2003 brake failure. Brake pedal froze when driving and would not press down at all. Frantically, while driving between 25 mph and 30 mph, after approximately 1500 feet, the pedal went down after repeated attempts to get the pedal down. (I had the car towed to the dealer and they could not recreate the problem and tested the brakes. Though the brakes showed that they were functioning correctly, the problem was that the brakes failed due to the brake pedal completely freezing. I had to continually try to push the pedal down and frantically warned my children in the car that the pedal was stuck and wouldn't budge, that I lost the brakes. Luckily there wasn't anyone else on the road because it was at least 1500 feet before the pedal eventually went down, with tight hesitation).

- Matawan, NJ, USA

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