10.0

really awful
Crashes / Fires:
2 / 1
Injuries / Deaths:
1 / 0
Average Mileage:
174 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.

2021 Toyota RAV4 miscellaneous problems

miscellaneous problem

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2021 Toyota RAV4 Owner Comments (Page 1 of 2)

problem #29

Dec 292022

RAV4

  • miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

While pulling into what I thought was a parking spot, the left front wheel hit an 8" drop off. Almost immediately after the wheel was back up and level with the other wheels. The vehicle then began surging forward. I hit the brakes but they did not go down. Tried again and the same result. I then hit a hard plastic container and a brick wall. This stopped the vehicle and I was able to put it in park and turn off the engine. Truthfully, once the wheel fell went into the drop off, I had no control of the car. The brick wall has a crack in it and the container is ruined. Toyota Product Liability was called but they have not contacted me. Thankfully the wall did not collapse and no one else was injured. I have pain in left arm and shoulder but hopefully only bruising. The issue has not been confirmed by anyone and I do not know if there were any warnings because I was focused on trying to get the car stopped. There might have been some alarms, I am not sure.

- Skiatook, OK, USA

problem #28

Dec 132022

RAV4

  • miles
Since I bought my brand-new car 1. the engine has stopped 5 times. 2. My windshield cracked. 3. There is low tire air pressure indicator that appears once in a while. A new battery was replaced, and it now cannot start. The message on the screen indicates: "IGNITION ON, Voltage abnormality steering power Low. Visit your Dealer." I took it the Dealer and now they are not able to find out what the problem is because I had to jam started the car for it to be towed.

- Essex, MD, USA

problem #27

Nov 302022

RAV4

  • miles
2021 Toyota REV4 with just over 5,000 miles. I got off from a parking lot and drove 1/2 miles, The screen shown "Vehicle Alert" and asked to check engine with message "A malfunction in the electronic control of the engine, throttle, or automatic transmission has been detected". I smell very strong gasoline, then stop the vehicle. I check the gas tank, it's normal. I opened the hood and saw a puddle of gasoline on engine part, between the battery and the engine but lower than the battery. It's so dangerous to drive with leaking gasoline so I park my car on a street

- Portland, OR, USA

problem #26

Oct 292022

RAV4

  • miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

I was parked at a store, engine off. Was in there 3 minutes and another customer ran inside and said a car was on fire, the employee asked if it was mine. I ran outside and it was indeed mine. The rear tail light was all melted and on fire, billowing smoke was coming out the sides of the hatch so I opened it quickly to get the fire out. The store employee put the fire out with his fire extinguisher. No prior warning lights were present when driving it before this occurred. The car is at Toyota dealer presently while they determine the cause.

- Clinton, IA, USA

problem #25

Sep 292022

RAV4

  • miles
Windshield cracked for no reason. I noticed very fine cracks which are spreading. I park inside of a garage and do very little highway driving. The windshield cracked in its own.

- Throop , PA, USA

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problem #24

Sep 162022

RAV4

  • miles
I was driving on the highway, 45 minutes into my 3 hour trip. As I was approaching a bridge, I suddenly heard a very large bang- sort of like a gunshot. I immediately looked around and noticed my moonroof in my vehicle had completely shattered. It was still held together, but I very quickly closed the moonroofs inner cover to assure no glass would fall into my car. Noticeably, there was small shards of glass all over my center console. I could hear the glass falling onto my moonroof, and could see glass flying behind me with a vehicle traveling behind. I very well could have suffered injuries/cuts if the glass had shattered onto me. Not only is this dangerous for me, but the people behind me. It could have cracked their windshield, or even given someone a flat tire. Now I am left to travel 2 hours not knowing what could potentially happen next. I took the rest of the travel slow. This happened with absolutely no warning. It was sudden, loud, and scary. I am left to pay for this now because there is no recall or warranty.

- Biddeford, ME, USA

problem #23

Jul 232022

RAV4

  • miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

The driver side mirror shakes when you drive over any bump in the road at any speed. It is amplified at speeds over 50mph. Toyota did a TSB on passenger side mirror but refused to complete the same repair on driver side. Toyota said only if the dealership acknowledged it shakes would they repair. The dealership stated the mirror shake was as expected although they tested the vehicle on a road with a 45mph speed limit. Then demonstrated another rental vehicle to say it was fine.....but who knows if that rental had the repair or not. Then Toyota says my only recourse is to take the car to another Toyota dealer 25 miles from my home.....and if they don't agree the mirror shakes I'm out of luck. The mirror shakes so bad on the highway it would be better if wasn't there. It's unsafe and Toyota holds you hostage to fix the known issue with their own repair bulletin. It's like they don't want to pay for the repairs so tell customers nothing is wrong. I found dozens of posts online from 2021 Rav4 owners and the same experience. It's also shocking to me they repaired one side when both mirrors shook to begin with.

- Melbourne, FL, USA

problem #22

Aug 082022

RAV4

  • miles
I was driving and was only 5 miles from my home and I heard a loud pop like an explosion. My moonroof/sunroof had spontaneously exploded. Then I heard glass moving around as I slowly continued home. When I got home I inspected what had happened and took a picture and called the dealership I purchased the car from. I have only owned the car for 7 months.

- Langhorne, PA, USA

problem #21

Jun 092022

RAV4

  • miles
Driving 35 MPH the sunroof glass shattered. there were no other vehicles going by and no rocks were seen. If the sunroof shade were open the glass would have fallen on top of the driver possibly causing injury or an accident. I have found reports of this happening to other vehicles online.

- Eastsound, WA, USA

problem #20

Jul 102022

RAV4

  • miles
i see other complaints on social media and i went to check my car afterward and noticed the same problem low coolant levels. my car has 3199 miles it shouldn't have low levels. i have a 2021 XSE hybrid, my brother has a 2022 xle hybrid also having it worse then i do his level is lower even he has about 6k miles on the car, then it comes down to my moms 2022 xle gas car the coolant is even lower and she only has 1k miles on the car. i've called toyota usa left a message, ive also left a message in the service dept in longo toyota where i bought the car no one is working today.

- Alhambra, CA, USA

problem #19

Apr 242022

RAV4

  • miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

The 2021 Toyota RAV4 has extremely poor right forward visibility and obstruction by the hood and the A pillar. These cars are unsafe. The front hood does not slope down, so visibility is obstructed, and the A pillar and mirrors (rear view and front right side mirror) further obstruct views. I took a photograph of the right front view and 50% or more of the view when looking right is obstructed. These cars should be taken off the road.

- Berkeley, CA, USA

problem #18

Apr 132022

RAV4

  • miles
1. For two different occasions the high beams wouldn't turn on at night on a dark road and rainy day. Took the vehicle to Toyota but mechanic reported that he couldn't reproduce event. I had to drive very slowly with normal lights as I could. 2. For two different occasions the vehicle wouldn't start I almost had the vehicle towed but using the toyota app and the key fob was able to remote start and then start the vehicle. I can't imagine what would have happened if the car turned off in the middle of an intersection and wouldn't turn on. 3. The adaptive cruise control has a glitch that I have told Toyota. If you're going over 30 mph and the vehicle in front of you has been in a complete stop for a while, the car may not stop you have to manually stop or crash. This could be extremely dangerous.

- Newnan, GA, USA

problem #17

Apr 062022

RAV4

  • miles
The component that failed was the glass of my sunroof. My sunroof somehow exploded on me while I was driving. There were no vehicles or other things that would have caused rocks to fly and hit the dead center of the sunroof. If you look at the images you can tell that the glass is pointing upward and not downward. I was lucky that I had my son shade cover closed., If it was not closed I would have had large pieces of glass fall in my vehicle and potentially cause cuts and lesions from the glass. This could not be heat related as it was at 6: 58am. This problem has not been identified by any dealer or independent repair center but it's very similar to many others who have had these complaints on your website and consumer reports. The components have not been inspected by the dealer or police and there were no warning signs of any kind no visible original cracks or anything that would have caused it to do what I did. I did attempt to contact Toyota but they refused to assist and told me to contact my insurance, the dealership crown toyota refused to assist and told me to contact my insurance and said that you rock must have hit. They also wouldn't repair it because they will not accept payment from my insurance company which is Mercury.

- Eastvale, CA, USA

problem #16

Apr 032022

RAV4

  • miles
On our car, as well as many other new cars, unless the rear doors are unlocked, you cannot open them from the inside (or outside for that matter). It is not the child safety lock. There is no emergency egress. There is no cylinder for a key. Toyota says it's a normal function. My concern is: In an accident, and possible subsequent fire, if the electrical system is disabled (shorted battery, etc.) nobody will be able to open the rear doors from the inside nor the outside. Anybody in the rear seat will be trapped unless they can get out the window, or through the narrow opening between the seats. Even if the electrical system isn't disabled, if the passengers in the front seat are unconscious or unable to unlock the doors, the passengers in the back seat will be trapped unless they can reach the unlock button. We tested my friend's Honda today and it functions the same way. Please consider looking into this as it is a very dangerous design flaw. Thank you.

- Hamilton, MT, USA

problem #15

Apr 032022

RAV4

  • miles
While driving on the highway the sunroof spontaneously exploded outwards sending glass shards behind the vehicle and also down into the cabin. There was no impact with any objects and the vehicle was not passing under any structures. It was moderate temperature day ~60F so the roof was not especially hot or cold. There is dashcam footage available showing nothing abnormal happened at the time of glass failure.

- Union City, CA, USA

problem #14

Dec 152021

RAV4

  • miles
I was driving down an open road when I suddenly heard a loud rattling noise and a huge explosion. Luckily, there wasn-€™t any cars around us and we weren-€™t going very fast. As you can imagine this was very shocking and distracting and I was eventually able to pull over to the side of the road to investigate what had happened. I had my 9 month pregnant sister as well as my 4 month infant in the car. What we found was the sunroof of my car had exploding upwards and there were shards of glass everywhere. We had been experiencing extreme weather conditions the past few days and had to assume this to be the cause. There was no one around us nor anything above us and my car is kept under a carport. An external force would not cause the sunroof glass to explode upwards, it would be the exact opposite and smashed downwards.

- 92026, CA, USA

problem #13

Dec 122021

RAV4

  • miles
I found the moonroof of my 15-day old 2021 Toyota RAV4 spontaneously exploded while sitting parked in my driveway. As the shade that covers the moonroof was open, I incurred minor abrasions from not realizing that the "s* on my console" was not dust or fuzz, but tiny shards of broken glass that I had already swiped with my hand. There is a large, jagged hole near center on the rear section of glass and the entire moonroof is shattered. Strangely, the glass around the hole is bowed outward as if something was shot through from the inside of the vehicle. Thankfully I was not driving & did not have my kids in the car with me when it happened because there would have been definite safety issues for me, my passengers, and any others out on the road with me. The car was last used about 6:30pm on Saturday, 12/11/21 and not used again until about 11:15am on Monday, 12/13/21. It spent the time not being used parked towards the rear of my driveway, shaded by my house. There are no trees or other possible falling hazards near my driveway and nothing found in or around my car to suggest a projectile/object was involved.

- Hickory Hills, IL, USA

problem #12

Dec 082021

RAV4

  • miles
Water is leaking into the cabin from around the roof rails, this could lead to water getting into the side airbag system and causing a failure in the airbag system.

- Ocala, FL, USA

problem #11

Oct 222021

RAV4

  • miles
I have a 2021 Toyota RAV4. There is a noise in the B pillar. The sound is faint, dealership has replaced the entire seatbelt. The noise is still there. Today was the 4th time to the dealership, the technician drove and service advisor both was in the vehicle today and all of a sudden they can't hear anything. The driver side mirror also shakes when driving and by just shutting the door. My safety concerns are both the B pillar and mirror shaking. I'm concerned the B pillar may not have been properly welded and may fail in a collision The rattle started at 22 miles and now has approximately 1800 miles.

- Elizabethton, TN, USA

problem #10

Oct 172021

RAV4

  • miles
Moon roof exploded and shattered while driving down the road in normal conditions, no other issues. Vehicle is less than 3 months old with 7,000 miles. It sounded like a gun shot and only because I reacted without panic did it not cause me to have an accident because of the major distraction. Pulled over and no other damage. Had to drive 45 miles per hour to my destination or glass would have sprayed on anyone behind me. Currently, had to tarp and duct tape damage because dealership will not fixed under warranty unless I can prove it was a defective glass/part. My dealer did text me and I have it that there are problems but it-€™s so hard to prove it will be my expense out of pocket. I would appreciate any help on other Toyotas having a similar problem and wanted to officially report to help out the next person if I can-€™t obtain proof of a defective part.

- Russiaville , IN, USA

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