CarComplaints.com Notes: Beware of the NHTSA complaint data for the 2004 Camry. It is almost certainly misleading.
The problem with NHTSA data for the 2004 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 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 2004 Camry, our data for the Camry is a far more statistically accurate representation of the Camry's reliability than what the NHTSA data shows.
10.0
really awful
Crashes / Fires:
1 / 0
Injuries / Deaths:
0 / 0
Average Mileage:
64,466 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.
2004 V6 Toyota Camry with 60,911 miles: Total loss of power upon acceleration. The car would not move. Car was towed to Toyota and they had to replace the throttle body assembly and gasket for $1176.12. This is outrageous for a car with this mileage and all Toyota personnel I dealt with stated it was extremely rare. Research I have done on the internet indicates there are many other Toyota owners experiencing the same problem.
I recently had to push my car along a dangerous highway in the middle of rush hour because it broke down. I bought the 2004 Camry because I believed it to be one of the safest and dependable vehicles on the road... safe, was not one of the words I used as hundreds of cars rushed by me at 70 miles per hour while I pushed my car across the highway! when I called Toyota and told them my problem, they sent a tow truck to get my car. Two hours later the toe truck arrives. Another two hours goes by and I get a phone call from the Toyota dealership telling me that because I didn't clean my throttle body regularly, it needed to be replaced... they said that they "had never seen anything like this in 25 years.." which after I did a bit of research, I knew was a lie. Being as, I found hundreds of blogs complaining about this very issue. But I figured the mechanics were trying to scare me so I would pay the outrageous price for the new part. The service manager, jason, told me that the throttle body was so dirty he could hardly get it open and it needed to be replaced immediately! after I paid the $250 for the diagnostic and the toe, (which I was told would be covered by the dealership) I towed the car back to my house where I was going to clean the throttle body myself. When I got it out in less than 30 minutes (the service engineer desperately tried to convince me to leave it with him because it was and I quote "a huge pain in the ass for someone without my experience") I got the throttle body out and had my cleaner in hand, but it didn't seem very dirty. I was puzzled, because the mechanic said it was to grimy to even open up?? and they were not able to clean it. I had been lied to. (shocker... a mechanic lied to someone to sell an expensive part!) I read in my cheltons manual how to clean and reassemble the part and did so. Only... the part still did not seem to work right. The problem was internal, and not external. It is a faulty part.
- Santa Rosa Beach , FL, USA
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When attempting to leave parking space my 2004 camery V6 with brake depressed car car accelerated with very high RPM. Could not stop the car hitting a GMC truck. When car could not move the truck it stopped.drove home with no problem. Called dealer they stated if the car was not having the problem now they couldn't fix it. After driving it my husband had the same problem, we took it to the dealer and didn't want the car back until the problem was corrected. Dealer could not duplicate problem. Returned car after stating they would start file.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Plano, TX, USA