CarComplaints.com Notes: Beware of the NHTSA complaint data for the 2003 Camry. It is almost certainly misleading.
The problem with NHTSA data for the 2003 Camry is that for months on end, the news media repeatedly told the public that several Toyota models had an unintended acceleration defect, & to go to safercar.gov (the NHTSA's website) to file a complaint.
So, the NHTSA received a disproportionate number of complaints about Toyota unintended acceleration issues because of the national news media attention, to the point where their data is unreliable taken in context with any other vehicle that did not receive national news attention.
CarComplaints.com typically receives more complaints per day about vehicles than the NHTSA does, but the news media did not repeatedly say "go to CarComplaints.com to report your Camry acceleration problems" like they did about the NHTSA -- so although we have less complaint data than the NHTSA for the 2003 Camry, our data for the Camry is a far more statistically accurate representation of the Camry's reliability than what the NHTSA data shows.
10.0
really awful
Crashes / Fires:
1 / 0
Injuries / Deaths:
2 / 0
Average Mileage:
65,000 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.
The driver side floor mat is not fixed to the underlying floor. It slides around. This condition was apparent from the day I bought the car. The Toyota dealership said there was nothing they could do. Before I recently heard this could be an actual danger by interfering with the gas or brake pedals, I just straightened it out when I saw it has moved out of place. Now I removed the mat but this means the floor below is not protected from dirt, etc. It bothers me that Toyota never thought this was an issue. Now I find out that later models were recalled for this problem. They still will not do anything because it's a 2003 and not under a recall order. I wanted to file this complaint so it known that the 2003 Camry (xle) has this problem too.
My wife was pulling into our daughters daycare to drop her off as she does every morning and while pulling into the parking spot and when applying the brake the vehicle surged forward at a high throttle speed jumped the curb and went crashing into the building. Even pumping the brakes didn't stop the car. The only way to get the vehicle to stop going forward was to jam the gear selector into reverse and then the vehicle went backwards at a high rate of speed (brakes still didn't work) and then had to jam the gear selector to park to stop the vehicle. Update as of today. Our vehicle is currently at a Toyota dealership and service center and the service manager said there is no problem with the brakes, and we are scared of the through of driving this vehicle again. It seems to be a electronic issue and connected to the speed control. I have found a message board on the internet where 97 other similar incidents have been reported. And Toyota does a recall on the floor mats? hmm I smell a cover-up and a possible class action lawsuit.
- Saint Johns, FL, USA
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- Rochester, NY, USA