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.
This has been a problem ever since I bought the car. I originally thought that the alignment was just off and needed to be corrected. However, after doing many, many different alignments at different places I noticed that it is a problem much bigger then I originally thought. I took it to the dealer and they just did an alignment and sent me home. Since I did not drive this car much I thought that their alignment will fix the problem but before you know it, the warranty is out and I am in trouble. Now, I have to buy a new set of tires every six months and its driving me nutz. The outter tread of the tire wears off so quickly that I simply cant afford to drive this car anymore. I wonder if anyone else has this problem? Should I talk to the dealer or Toyota directly?
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
This has been a problem ever since I bought the car. I originally thought that the alignment was just off and needed to be corrected. However, after doing many, many different alignments at different places I noticed that it is a problem much bigger then I originally thought. I took it to the dealer and they just did an alignment and sent me home. Since I did not drive this car much I thought that their alignment will fix the problem but before you know it, the warranty is out and I am in trouble. Now, I have to buy a new set of tires every six months and its driving me nutz. The outter tread of the tire wears off so quickly that I simply cant afford to drive this car anymore. I wonder if anyone else has this problem? Should I talk to the dealer or Toyota directly?
- dlazic, Falls Church, VA, US