2011 Toyota RAV4
This year drew an ordinary 287 complaints for a Toyota RAV4 — the model's median is 302. What they were about is the unusual part: 18.5% of them mention visibility, against 7.3% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 1 of the Toyota RAV4, which began in 2006 and ran to 2012. 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 | 287 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 302 |
| Involving a crash | 44 |
| Involving a fire | 8 |
| Recalls | 11 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 3/5 |
| EPA combined | 22.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- visibility — 18.5% of this year's complaints, against 7.3% across the other years of this generation (2.5×). Owners wrote it as: visibility, wiper, amount time, time recall.
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
NOTIFICATION OF NHTSA CAMPAIGN NUMBERS: 16V096000 (SEAT BELTS) AND 15V577000 (VISIBILITY/WIPER). THE PARTS NEEDED FOR THE REPAIR WERE NOT AVAILABLE. THE CONTACT STATED THAT THE [VIN] EXCEEDED A REASONABLE AMOUNT OF TIME FOR THE RECALL REPAIR. THE [VIN] WAS MAD…
A RECALL NOTICE FOR NHTSA CAMPAIGN NUMBERS: 16V096000 (SEAT BELTS) AND 15V577000 (VISIBILITY). AFTER CONTACTING THE DEALER AND THE [VIN] ON MULTIPLE OCCASIONS, THE CONTACT WAS INFORMED THAT THE PARTS NEEDED TO REPAIR THE VEHICLE WERE NOT AVAILABLE. THE CONTACT…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 16V596000 SUSPENSION Fixed free of charge.
- 15V577000 VISIBILITY/WIPER
- 15V689000 VISIBILITY Fixed free of charge.
- 14V743000 SEATS Fixed free of charge.
- 16V396000 SEATS Fixed free of charge.
- 16V096000 SEAT BELTS Fixed free of charge.
- 13V014000 AIR BAGS
- 12V029000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
Showing 8 of 11. The rest are on NHTSA's site.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Toyota RAV4 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 2011 Toyota RAV4? What happened to yours?
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