Coscienzios

Model years to avoid

Toyota RAV4

What it says about you

Opinion

The most popular thing in its class and you did not care, because it works. You looked at the CR-V. It was close. This one was available sooner.

Not measured, not from the data, and offered in fun. Everything below this is not.

22 model years on record, 7,756 complaints filed.

The years to look at closely: 2019 (coolant bypass), 2007 (steering). Everything else drew a normal number of complaints for this model.

What owners report, and when

Faults that dominated the complaints of more than one model year. Not the same question as which year to avoid — a car can have an ordinary number of complaints every year and have most of them be about the same thing.

  • bags 2005, 2011, 2012 peak 28.4% of that year's complaints
  • steering 2006, 2007 peak 33% of that year's complaints
  • camera 2023, 2025 peak 9.2% of that year's complaints
  • malfunction 2017, 2018 peak 6.7% of that year's complaints

Every year

  1. 2026 nothing on record 7 complaints
  2. 2025 3 recalls 76 complaints
  3. 2024 3 recalls 167 complaints
  4. 2023 3 recalls 147 complaints
  5. 2022 1 recall 139 complaints
  6. 2021 1 recall 381 complaints
  7. 2020 6 recalls 627 complaints
  8. 2019 coolant bypass 873 complaints
  9. 2018 3 recalls 330 complaints
  10. 2017 3 recalls 304 complaints
  11. 2016 3 recalls 251 complaints
  12. 2015 4 recalls 302 complaints
  13. 2014 4 recalls 196 complaints
  14. 2013 2 recalls 255 complaints
  15. 2012 5 recalls 266 complaints
  16. 2011 11 recalls 287 complaints
  17. 2010 14 recalls 400 complaints
  18. 2009 15 recalls 327 complaints
  19. 2008 14 recalls 575 complaints
  20. 2007 steering 1,002 complaints
  21. 2006 11 recalls 703 complaints
  22. 2005 5 recalls 141 complaints

What does a Toyota RAV4 say about you?

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Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints — compared against itself rather than against other cars, so popularity and age do not decide the answer.