2017 Toyota Corolla
This year drew an ordinary 188 complaints for a Toyota Corolla — the model's median is 219. What they were about is the unusual part: 7.4% of them mention engaged, against 1.5% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 3 of the Toyota Corolla, which began in 2014 and ran to 2019. Everything below compares this year against the others in that generation, not against a different car wearing the same name.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 188 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 219 |
| Involving a crash | 47 |
| Involving a fire | 1 |
| Recalls | 3 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 32 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- engaged — 7.4% of this year's complaints, against 1.5% across the other years of this generation (5×). Owners wrote it as: engaged, duplicated, speed control.
- safe — 8.5% of this year's complaints, against 3% across the other years of this generation (2.8×). Owners wrote it as: safe, car again, spartanburg.
- every time — 6.4% of this year's complaints, against 2% across the other years of this generation (3.2×). Owners wrote it as: every time, since toyota, speed bump.
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
What owners wrote
WAS DRIVING MY CAR HOME FROM WORK AND ABOUT 5 MINUTES AFTER I STARTED IT AND BEGAN TO DRIVE, I WENT OVER A SPEED BUMP GOING 5MPH AND SUDDENLY MY THEFT ALARM SYSTEM STARTS GOING OFF AND INCESSANTLY HONKING. MY HAZARD LIGHTS ALSO BEGAN TO BLINK AND MY HIGH BEAMS…
CLUNKING NOISE, SOMETIMES VERY NOTICEABLE WHEN GOING OVER SPEED BUMP AND TURNING STEERING TO RIGHT OR LEFT. TOOK THE CAR TO TOYOTA DEALERSHIP TWICE. BOTH TIMES THEY SAID THE NOISE IS NORMAL. BUT INDEPENDENT MECHANIC SAYS THERE IS PROBLEM WITH CV JOINT AND BUSH…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 20V024000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 19V503000 EQUIPMENT Fixed free of charge.
- 17V295000 TIRES Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Toyota Corolla was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2017 Toyota Corolla? What happened to yours?
Loading comments…