2005 Toyota Camry
This year drew an ordinary 721 complaints for a Toyota Camry — the model's median is 389. What they were about is the unusual part: 31.5% of them mention accelerated, against 10.8% across the model's other years.
Generation 1 of the Toyota Camry, which began in 2002 and ran to 2006. 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 | 721 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 389 |
| Involving a crash | 223 |
| Involving a fire | 10 |
| Recalls | 5 |
| EPA combined | 22.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- accelerated — 31.5% of this year's complaints, against 10.8% across the model's other years (2.9×). Owners wrote it as: accelerated, crashed, suddenly accelerated, parking space.
- space — 8.3% of this year's complaints, against 1.2% across the model's other years (6.7×). Owners wrote it as: space, pulling parking.
- accelerator — 11.9% of this year's complaints, against 4.3% across the model's other years (2.8×). Owners wrote it as: accelerator, accelerator pedal.
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
WHILE PULLING INTO A PARKING SPACE WITH THE BRAKES APPLIED, THE VEHICLE ABNORMALLY [VIN] AND CRASHED INTO A POLE. THE AIR BAGS DID NOT DEPLOY UPON IMPACT AND THE DRIVER SUFFERED UNKNOWN INJURIES. THE POLICE WERE CALLED AND A POLICE REPORT WAS FILED ACCORDINGLY…
THE CONTACT OWNED A 2005 TOYOTA CAMRY. WHILE DRIVING DOWN A HILL AT 25 MPH, THE VEHICLE ABNORMALLY [VIN] UP TO 60 MPH. THE VEHICLE BEGAN SPINNING. THE CONTACT WAS UNABLE TO STOP THE UNINTENDED ACCELERATION. THE VEHICLE CRASHED INTO A TREE BUT PROCEEDED TO ACCE…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 16V396000 SEATS Fixed free of charge.
- 11V539000 ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING
- 10V035000 EQUIPMENT Fixed free of charge.
- 10V036000 EQUIPMENT Fixed free of charge.
- 04V595000 SEAT BELTS
How this was worked out
Every year of the Toyota Camry 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 2005 Toyota Camry? What happened to yours?
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