CarComplaints.com Notes: The Toyota Matrix is the mechanical twin of the Pontiac Vibe.
Both models were a joint GM-Toyota venture, manufactured together at a NUMMI production facility in Fremont, CA. Only the heating & A/C systems are different.
10.0
really awful
Crashes / Fires:
1 / 1
Injuries / Deaths:
1 / 0
Average Mileage:
69,523 miles
About These NHTSA Complaints:
This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.
So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.
My clock started going out. Sometimes it would be on and other times it would go off and now it turns on and off in its own time factor when I am drivng and the car is in motion and when I am stopped at traffic lights.. I asked the Toyota dealer if they could fix my clock. I had them do a diagnostic test on the clock which cost around $110 approx.. they said they could fix my clock for $416.31 and that is was connected to my air bags. My Toyota dealer said they replaced my takata airbag on the front passenger side on 2-18-2016, and told me the other airbags were not takata. But I wondered if my clock doesn't work and it's tied into my airbags, if I get into a wreck will my airbags deploy or not deploy becasuse I haven't fixed my clock?
1. had to change all automatic door locks at least twice at $400 a pop. 2. had to replace all 4 coils to engine at a cost of $810.53 3. had to have my transmission rebuilt do it failing while of I295 on my way home from work. At a cost of $3631.49 4. after transmission work had to have my transfer case internal sealed at a cost of $711.55 when we bought this car at Toyota in December 2005, we were led to believe that this car was built longevity or for the long haul with only having to do routine maintance which I have kept up on every 5000 miles as recommended by Toyota. My biggest concern is the transmission cost. Firestone stated that Toyota recommends a transmission service every 50,000 miles but my maintance book says only do that if you either tow, off roading, or dirt roads for long period of the time. I did neither, so Toyota says no need to do service. I did contact Toyota advocate after I had my trasmission done at cottman transmission and they could not help me cause I went to an outside vendor. My car had only 148,745 miles. Toyota says they would not pay for transmission unless there is a recall. For my search on the internet there is documentation that Toyota knew there was a problem with the transmissions failing but did not want to do a recall but would only compensate if there is a recall. I just want to be heard and possibly compensated for some of my repairs that should not have happened. I bought this car because I wanted to keep it a long time and now it is costing me more than it is work.
My vehicle caught on fire in my driveway approximately 5-10 minutes after I returned home from from my job, which is 12 miles from my home. It was dark, and the only unusual thing I noticed was one of my headlights was out and the other seemed dim. I mentioned it to my husband and he said he'd replace the bulbs. Within minutes I heard sirens, but I wasn't in a room that faced the driveway and the fire department was already on scene when I realized the front end of my car was fully engulfed. The fire took approximately 20 minutes to fully extinguish and the heat damaged an adjacent vehicle. No one was injured and my home was not damaged. The car was stationary, parked and unoccupied when the fire broke out. The fire department determined the cause as mechanical and their report is pending. A police officer responded but did not file a report after ruling out criminal activity. I do not know what specifically caused the fire but the attached photos show the damage, including to the adjacent car.
The contact owns a 2006 Toyota Matrix. The contact received notification of NHTSA campaign numbers: 15V286000 (air bags) and 10V384000 (electrical system); however, the parts needed to do the repair were unavailable. The contact stated that the manufacturer exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repairs. The manufacturer was made aware of the issue. The contact had not experienced a failure.
The contact owns a 2006 Toyota Matrix. While depressing the brake pedal, the vehicle stalled without warning. The vehicle was able to restart after several attempts. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The vehicle was not included NHTSA campaign number: 10V384000 (engine and engine cooling). The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 98,000.
- Auburn, MA, USA
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Clock randomly works. Seems to be in all Toyota matrix in the mid 2000S. But of course Toyota wants a huge price for a replacement for their faulty soldering job.
After only 2 years of owning this vehicle the variable speed wiper arm quit working, only the variable speed feature does not work which tells me there is a problem with the quality of this part. This is not something I have ever heard of failing on a vehicle and certainly never after only 2 years. The vehicle did have a lot of miles on it and was out of warranty but in South Texas we don't use wipers that often so this points to a quality control issue.
Check engine light on the vehicle stall out while driving. Mileage 114,522 3 year old car. ECM module replace. Dealer replace the unit. $871.46 dollars call Toyota main headquarters spoke to customer service.they claim the vehicle is a AWD all wheel drive and it's not on the recall. I have check Toyota main web site recall. Engine type izz-fe with ECM from 2005-2008 is on the recall. They are lying to me. A three year old car stalling out and trying to get reimburse.Toyota is giving me a run around.
During normal driving conditions dry weather flat road, car began to miss, run rough and shut down while on the road. I was able to still get vehicle to side of the road without incident. I believe a less experienced driver may have not had the same results. This sounds strangely related to the current ECM recall. They did not change my ECM, but replaced my camshaft timing gear to the tune of $440. Do I have another pending problem" or maybe they did additional testing and replacing" I have no record of this....if someone would like to investigate this. I have the part.. also.. I was able to finally get it restarted with check engine light on and it was running very poorly. Had to keep rpms up to keep from stalling.
Driving though town, when vehicle stalled at intersection. Pulled over and vehicle started and drove, then stalled again...had no prior problems with 2004 Toyota Matrix until now. Vehicle starts and runs normal then stalls intermittently..vehicle is Toyota certified...
2006 Toyota Matrix: Engine stalled and check engine plus oil light came on while approaching highway onramp. Pulled off. Checked for loose wires. Tried to start engine, engine started and was able to drive 100 miles home without a problem except that the check engine light stayed on. Next morning, engine started but accelerator would not respond. Engine simply idled. Turned it off, called tow. Tow truck driver was able to start engine and reverse out driveway. Engine stalled again but luckily in the street. Towed to mechanic. Dtc code PO607. Mechanic said failed ECM and only Toyota can fix due to reprogramming parameters. Towed to dealer. Dealer confirmed failed ECM. Over $900 to fix.
My car was running fine and died in the middle of the road and the engine light came on. Light when off later in day. Next day - died on busy highway - restarted and would going go about 5 miles per hour. Next day trying to get to the shop died and took several times to get started and then 5 miles per hour again. They know there is something wrong with this part -- they should have to fix no matter the mileage....it is noted in a bulletin.
Computer failure, quite suddenly the car stopped working, jerked and slowed down. All the service lights on the dash board came on. After a couple minutes the car could be turned on but after about 1.5 miles the same thing would happen. The highway was avoided but it occurred on a local road with lots of cars. The hazards were turned on but it was a frightening and concerning incident. Aaa was called to tow the car to the dealer. At the dealer a computer part was replaced. The car has been working for 48hrs. The car was only four years old.
2006 Toyota Matrix stalls, check engine light comes on. The car had to be towed into the dealership, where, after resting over night, ran fine and the check engine light turned off. However, I requested that the dealership run the diagnotics, which showed an error code P0607 in the system which means the ECM is defective. I had the ECM replaced at a cost of $867.57, plus $95 for the tow. Now I learn that a tsb was issued on this problem for this vehicle back in 2007, and although my Matrix was in the dealership for maintenance and service dozens of times, at no time was the defective ECM replaced, nor was I told of the problem. This car is primarily driven by my wife, a social worker for a child welfare Agency in the Chicago area. She is often in very unsafe neighborhoods, and was in such a neighborhood the morning before the car stalled -- luckily for us -- only a mile from our house. Toyota says that the part was under warranty pursuant to federal law until 80K miles. My Matrix has 85K. Toyota refuses to cover the cost of the repair unless it issues a recall on the vehicle. But under the present tsb, of which I was only made aware through an internet search after having the stalling problem, Toyota has no intention of covering the cost of repairing this known and admitted defect. If this is not resolved by a recall, others will have stalling vehicles on a highway and get severely injured or killed, or in a bad neighborhood and get mugged or raped, or on the way to the hospital and suffer health complications from delayed medical care, etc., etc. Please take immediate steps to force a proper resolution of this problem. By the way, when I called Toyota (800-331-4331), I was told that there are several other tsbs on my Matrix, but that the representative cannot tell me what they are until I am having the problem covered by the tsb. That is unconscionable. Look what that did for the similar approach with the floor mat and acceleration problem.
My complaint was first filed on 3/25/2006 (ODI # 10153679). This is the 2nd complaint about the defective Toyota Matrix that I drove in 2006. I was driving a 2006 Toyota Matrix and lost total control over the vehicle. I was driving on rt 2 West bound out of boston during evening rush hour. I was trying to change lane to my right and found there was a car approaching and honked at me. I had not left my lane yet and tried to pull my car straight back. The car reacted by shifting too much to the left and I tried only to adjust it, keeping in mind that was a power-steered system, to keep it straight. There was a 1-2 seconds afterwards the car seemed to be on track and I was driving fine. After that 2 seconds, the car accelerated all of a sudden, gas pedal was down to the floor, the car veered toward the left on it's own. I tried to maintain it straight but in vain and completely lost control over it. The wheel was so solid and it was impossible to steer the car even just a little bit. It spun counterclockwise over 3 lanes toward my left and hit the central guardrail and stopped. The vehicle was totaled. The police issued me a ticket on the spot. Other than complaint ODI # 10153679 filed at this website after the incident, I also filed a complaint at Toyota's website on the same day (3/25/2006). The Matrix model was stopped in 2007 and continued in 2008 with an advertisement that it was a complete new design. I later checked the internet and found a very similar accident happened in New York state on 10/9/2005. A woman named [xxx], 55 of West harverstraw was driving a Matrix. Her car spun off route 287 in harding and she was hospitalized afterwards. Information redacted pursuant to the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6).
On October 3, 2008, while driving my 2006 Toyota Matrix I had to accelerate rapidly to merge onto a busy street. I immediately smelled a odor coming from my vents of burning wiring. My check engine light came on. I pulled over and made some calls to service stations and the Toyota dealership. Was advised to take it to the dealer. Did. After investigating the issue for several days they decided my ECM was bad and replaced it. With the recent Toyota recalls, I finally decided yesterday that I should check into if I am involved. My vehicle is Toyota certified and they do have record of the ECM failure to my vehicle. I also wanted to report it to you folks, just in case it is in fact the computers that are faulty. It is unknown to me whether the replacement computer they put in my car is a 2006, or what year ECM it is. My ECM failed immediately after rapid acceleration and my vehicle is not on the recall list.
I was stopped at a busy intersection during morning rush hour when my car stalled. I tried unsuccessfully several times to restart the engine. After allowing it to sit for several minutes, the car finally restarted. I moved the car into a parking lot and allowed it to sit, idling, for several minutes. When I put the car back into drive, it lurched forward. Despite pressing on the gas, it would not accelerate past 10 mph. I had the car towed to the dealership, where they said the engine control module had failed. It was under warranty but, had it not been, would have cost me $900. I purchased this car new in 2006, and it has been serviced regularly.
I have a 2006 Toyota Matrix and the vehicle started jerking when it shifted out of 1st gear. It jerked so hard that I had to be careful to not lose control of the vehicle. Also the vehicle would stall when I would be in heavy traffic. The shifting issue occurred every time I drove it after the problem started. The stalling issue occurred around 5-6 times when I was driving. I recently took it into the dealership and they replaced the ECM for a cost of over $700 since I was out of factory warranty. So far, the problem has been corrected however, I noticed a service bulletin in 2007 which I believe Toyota should have informed customer's. this was very scary when it occurred and luckily I didn't end up in an accident.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Madras, OR, USA