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.
On 10/1/2022 in Berwick, PA while pulling into the Dollar Tree parking lot, smoke appeared in the passenger cabin and the vehicle accelerated on it's own. The brakes were applied and the vehicle continue to accelerate. The vehicle went down through a yard, across a road through another parking lot and crashed into a high curb before stalling out. The airbags deployed. My mother was transported to the hospital and is still in ICU with broken ribs, cuts and bruises. She was able to steer the vehicle away from a parked car, a person on a bicycle and missed a rose bush, no one else was injured in the incident. A police report has been completed, the vehicle is still in the custody of the towing company and has not been released to the insurance company.
The contact owns a 2005 Toyota Rav4. While driving 35 mph, the clutch malfunctioned. The contact stated that the vehicle switched out of third gear independently into neutral. An independent mechanic diagnosed that transmission fluid spilled out of the transaxle and that the clutch needed to be replaced. The vehicle was repaired, but the failure recurred. A dealer and manufacturer were not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 93,000.
The contact owns a 2005 Toyota Rav4. While driving approximately 30 mph and attempting to merge to the left lane, the vehicle hesitated to accelerate. The contact had to wait approximately four minutes in order for the vehicle to respond. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where it was diagnosed that the transmission failed. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 58,000.
We were approaching our garage when all of the sudden our 2005 Toyota Rav4 accelerated without me pushing the gas petal. We drove through the front of our garage, causing substantial damage to our garage and the SUV. Both garage doors had to be replaced and the front of our garage had to be reframed and dry-walled inside. My husbands 1977 Jeep-CJ7 that has been totally restored was damaged and had to be repainted. The SUV suffered damage requiring a new passenger door, new passenger side trim, new side mirrors, new headlights, and repainting of the front half of the SUV. We contacted the police and they said since the damage was done to our property no report needed to be filed. We did take pictures for the insurance company which we still have, and we can obtain a copy of the report from the insurance company and or the body shops. We also contacted the Toyota dealership and questioned whether there were any recalls or problems with any other Rav4S and they said no. We have noticed on several occasions that there seems to be some times when the throttle seems to accelerate while we are driving down the road, but nothing as severe as the accident. With the recent recalls of Toyota we are very concerned about another incident occurring and for the safety of lives.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Berwick, PA, USA