2011 Toyota Venza
This year drew an ordinary 59 complaints for a Toyota Venza — the model's median is 42. What they were about is the unusual part: 8.5% of them mention maintenance, against 1.7% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 59 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 42 |
| Involving a crash | 5 |
| Involving a fire | 2 |
| Recalls | 6 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 4/5 |
| EPA combined | 21.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- maintenance — 8.5% of this year's complaints, against 1.7% across the model's other years (4.9×). Owners wrote it as: maintenance, rust, corrosion, sub.
- heated — 10.2% of this year's complaints, against 3.4% across the model's other years (3×). Owners wrote it as: heated, seats, wiring, melted.
- passengers — 6.8% of this year's complaints, against 2.5% across the model's other years (2.7×). Owners wrote it as: passengers, described, love, bounce.
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
HEATED SEAT WIRING WAS DISCONNECTED BY THE DEALER TO PREVENT A FIRE AND NOTED THAT THE PLUG WAS MELTED AND THE SEAT WAS CHARRED, DUE TO A MALFUNCTION, MY HEATED SEAT ON DRIVER SIDE STOPPED WORKING, FOUND A NHTSA CHAMPAIGN ID 14V743000 THAT AFFECTED 2009-2011 T…
UNSAFE TO DRIVE RUST CORROSION OF SUB FRAME. VEHICLE KEPT IN GARAGE AND BROUGHT INTO TOYOTA DEALER EVERY 5K MILES FOR MAINTENANCE SINCE PURCHASE IN 2011. MY PROBLEM IS THE FAULTY SUB FRAME PART AND THE DEALERSHIP NEGLECT.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 14V743000 SEATS Fixed free of charge.
- 12V091000 EXTERIOR LIGHTING Fixed free of charge.
- 13V014000 AIR BAGS
- 11V306000 POWER TRAIN
- 13V123000 EQUIPMENT
- 21V257000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Toyota Venza 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 Venza? What happened to yours?
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