2018 Toyota Camry
This year drew an ordinary 731 complaints for a Toyota Camry — the model's median is 389. What they were about is the unusual part: 13.4% of them mention pump, against 1.5% across the other years of this generation.
First year of a new generation. The Toyota Camry was redesigned for 2018. A first year carries problems nobody has found yet, and they are found by the people who buy it — which is worth knowing before you become one of them.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 731 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 389 |
| Involving a crash | 46 |
| Involving a fire | 4 |
| Recalls | 8 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 32 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- pump — 13.4% of this year's complaints, against 1.5% across the other years of this generation (8.9×). Owners wrote it as: pump, fuel pump, vacuum, vacuum pump.
- gear — 10.9% of this year's complaints, against 3.3% across the other years of this generation (3.3×). Owners wrote it as: gear, jerky, seems like, what gear.
- accelerate — 10.8% of this year's complaints, against 3.2% across the other years of this generation (3.4×). Owners wrote it as: accelerate, rear-ended, new transmission.
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
CAR IS HESITATING/SLUGGISH WHEN ACCELERATING FROM A STOP/ROLLING STOP. TAKES FOREVER TO GET TO HIGHWAY SPEEDS, WHICH IS EXTREMELY DANGEROUS. WHEN THERE IS TRAFFIC ON A HIGHWAY, CHANGING LANES INTO A LANE IN WHICH TRAFFIC IS GOING FASTER IS EXTREMELY HARD DUE T…
The brake vacuum pump failed while driving through the city. The part failed coming off a red light at an intersection. Lost braking power as soon as I drove off. On the notification screen, I received a "Low Braking Power" signal.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 19V503000 EQUIPMENT Fixed free of charge.
- 18V108000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Fixed free of charge.
- 18V200000 ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING Fixed free of charge.
- 18V211000 SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC Fixed free of charge.
- 20V682000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Fixed free of charge.
- 21V890000 SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC Fixed free of charge.
- 20V012000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Fixed free of charge.
- 25V028000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Fixed free of charge.
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 2018 Toyota Camry? What happened to yours?
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