CarComplaints.com Notes: Beware of the NHTSA complaint data for the 2008 Corolla. It is almost certainly misleading.
The problem with NHTSA data for the 2008 Corolla is that for months on end, the news media repeatedly told the public that several Toyota models have 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 now the NHTSA 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 Toyota acceleration problems" like they did about the NHTSA -- so although we have less complaint data than the NHTSA for the 2008 Corolla, our data for the Corolla is a far more statistically accurate representation of the Corolla's reliability than what the NHTSA data shows.
Our 2008 Toyota Corolla was bought new in July of 2007, used as our family vehicle. All scheduled maintenance was performed per Toyota specifications. I used Synthetic Blend oil changes every 5000 miles +/- 500 miles (Toyota Certified Mechanics said that synthetic blend should allow for 7,500 miles in between oil changes). Fast forward to November 29, 2011, the Corolla has 66,130 miles on it. While driving down the highway, the engine completely failed, a connecting rod came loose and blew a hole in the side of the engine. Toyota would not cover the entire cost of the engine, they covered about a third of the cost, but says that it is not their problem. I have talked to Toyota Customer Care and the executives about it and continue to say that the engine failing is not Toyota's problem, even though I can prove that I did my maintenance. Funny thing is, that had this happened 6,000 miles earlier, Toyota would have had to cover it under warranty.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
Our 2008 Toyota Corolla was bought new in July of 2007, used as our family vehicle. All scheduled maintenance was performed per Toyota specifications. I used Synthetic Blend oil changes every 5000 miles +/- 500 miles (Toyota Certified Mechanics said that synthetic blend should allow for 7,500 miles in between oil changes). Fast forward to November 29, 2011, the Corolla has 66,130 miles on it. While driving down the highway, the engine completely failed, a connecting rod came loose and blew a hole in the side of the engine. Toyota would not cover the entire cost of the engine, they covered about a third of the cost, but says that it is not their problem. I have talked to Toyota Customer Care and the executives about it and continue to say that the engine failing is not Toyota's problem, even though I can prove that I did my maintenance. Funny thing is, that had this happened 6,000 miles earlier, Toyota would have had to cover it under warranty.
- skyhighpilot, Aurora, CO, US