2014 Toyota 4Runner
This year drew an ordinary 77 complaints for a Toyota 4Runner — the model's median is 58. What they were about is the unusual part: 29.9% of them mention key, against 7.6% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 2 of the Toyota 4Runner, which began in 2010 and ran to 2024. 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 | 77 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 58 |
| Involving a crash | 5 |
| Involving a fire | 1 |
| Recalls | 7 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 4/5 |
| EPA combined | 18 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- key — 29.9% of this year's complaints, against 7.6% across the other years of this generation (3.9×). Owners wrote it as: key, open, emergency, difficult.
- thing — 14.3% of this year's complaints, against 3.4% across the other years of this generation (4.1×). Owners wrote it as: thing, same thing, pad, took dealership.
- within — 10.4% of this year's complaints, against 2.5% across the other years of this generation (4.2×). Owners wrote it as: within, inquire, pay repairs.
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
Three of the four locks do not work on a consistent basis. My car got broken into because the locks don't work. I just replaced three of the four locks for around $1,200.00. Neither the key fob nor the actual key would open the doors on the vehicle. This is an…
THE DOOR LOCKS ON MY 4RUNNER HAVE STOPPED WORKING. THEY WILL NOT WORK WITH THE KEY FOB OR WHEN YOU USE THE BUTTON INSIDE THE VEHICLE. YOU HAVE TO MANUALLY FLIP THE LOCK TO LOCK AND UNLOCK THAT DOOR. FIRST IT WAS THE DRIVER DOOR THAT WENT OUT THEN THE REAR RIGH…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 19V005000 AIR BAGS
- 19V741000 AIR BAGS
- 17V425000 STRUCTURE Fixed free of charge.
- 16V577000 ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING Fixed free of charge.
- 14V828000 EQUIPMENT Fixed free of charge.
- 15V515000 ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING Fixed free of charge.
- 20V012000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Toyota 4Runner 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 2014 Toyota 4Runner? What happened to yours?
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