2018 Toyota RAV4
This year drew an ordinary 330 complaints for a Toyota RAV4 — the model's median is 287. What they were about is the unusual part: 7% of them mention feature, against 1.6% across the other years of this generation.
Last year of its generation. This Toyota RAV4 ran from 2013 to 2018, so it had the whole run for its faults to be found and fixed. Last years are usually the most sorted of a generation.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 330 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 287 |
| Involving a crash | 31 |
| Involving a fire | 32 |
| Recalls | 3 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 25 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- feature — 7% of this year's complaints, against 1.6% across the other years of this generation (4.2×). Owners wrote it as: feature, departure, pedestrian, hands.
- malfunction — 6.7% of this year's complaints, against 2% across the other years of this generation (3.3×). Owners wrote it as: malfunction, charging, system malfunction.
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
LANE DEPARTURE WARNING, SEAT BELT WARNING, PEDESTRIAN WARNING AND OTHER AUDITORY SAFETY FEATURE WARNINGS ARE NOT ADJUSTABLE AND THEREFORE MAY BE INADEQUATE IN PROVIDING THE INTENDED SAFETY FUNCTION. THE [VIN] SHOULD RETROFIT A CONTROL THAT MAKES IT POSSIBLE TO…
THE LANE DEPARTURE WARNING BUZZER'S WARNING CANNOT BE HEARD ON THE ROAD WITH THE RADIO ON LOW VOLUME OR WITH A RADIO OFF BUT DRIVING ABOVE 75MPH DUE TO THE ROAD NOISE. MULTIPLE COMPLAINTS TO DIFFERENT DEALERS RESULTED IN COMMENTS THAT THE BUZZER WORKS AS DESIG…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 19V503000 EQUIPMENT Fixed free of charge.
- 17V831000 EQUIPMENT 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 2018 Toyota RAV4? What happened to yours?
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