2017 Toyota RAV4
This year drew an ordinary 304 complaints for a Toyota RAV4 — the model's median is 287. What they were about is the unusual part: 10.5% of them mention headlights, against 4% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 2 of the Toyota RAV4, which began in 2013 and ran to 2018. 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 | 304 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 287 |
| Involving a crash | 32 |
| Involving a fire | 24 |
| Recalls | 3 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 25 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- headlights — 10.5% of this year's complaints, against 4% across the other years of this generation (2.6×). Owners wrote it as: headlights, night, bulbs, deer.
- malfunction — 6.6% of this year's complaints, against 2.6% across the other years of this generation (2.6×). Owners wrote it as: malfunction, charging, system malfunction, shuts.
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
TOYOTA'S HEADLIGHTS ARE TERRIBLE AND MAKE IT HARD TO SEE AT NIGHT. THEY ARE USING THE SAME 9012 BULBS USED ON THE GMC SIERRA BEFORE YOU GUYS ISSUED A SAFETY RECALL FOR THE SIERRA'S HEADLIGHTS. SEE THIS FOR REFERENCE: HTTP://WWW.GMCPROBLEMS.COM/TRENDS/TERRIBLE-…
Even when properly aimed, with new headlight bulbs, visibility is poor at night. I recently had an incident while driving in town at less than 25 miles hour where I almost hit a deer that I could see on the side of the street, and this is actually not the firs…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 19V503000 EQUIPMENT Fixed free of charge.
- 17V295000 TIRES Fixed free of charge.
- 23V734000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
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 2017 Toyota RAV4? What happened to yours?
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