2006 Toyota RAV4
This year drew an ordinary 703 complaints for a Toyota RAV4 — the model's median is 287. What they were about is the unusual part: 33% of them mention steering, against 6.7% across the other years of this generation.
First year of a new generation. The Toyota RAV4 was redesigned for 2006. 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 | 703 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 287 |
| Involving a crash | 26 |
| Involving a fire | 5 |
| Recalls | 11 |
| EPA combined | 22 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- steering — 33% of this year's complaints, against 6.7% across the other years of this generation (4.9×).
- noise — 29.4% of this year's complaints, against 9.2% across the other years of this generation (3.2×). Owners wrote it as: noise, clunking, clunking noise, noise steering.
- shaft — 17.6% of this year's complaints, against 4.8% across the other years of this generation (3.7×). Owners wrote it as: shaft, steering shaft, intermediate, intermediate steering.
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
Clunking noise when turning steering wheel right or left. Numerous complaints from 006 RAV 4 owners. Fear that my steering will fail and cause an accident or Death. The issue is a defective intermediate steering shaft. Toyota will not issue a recall and will o…
THE INTERMEDIATE STEERING SHAFT ON THE RAV4 IS A KNOWN ISSUE AND SHOULD BE RECALLED. THE CLUNKING NOISE WHEN YOU TURN CAN DEGRADE INTO A STEERING HAZARD.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 16V596000 SUSPENSION Fixed free of charge.
- 16V096000 SEAT BELTS Fixed free of charge.
- 15V689000 VISIBILITY Fixed free of charge.
- 14V168000 AIR BAGS
- 16V396000 SEATS Fixed free of charge.
- 12V373000 SUSPENSION
- 13V383000 SUSPENSION
- 11V113000 VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
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 2006 Toyota RAV4? What happened to yours?
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