2020 TOYOTA RAV4 Complaints

The contact owns a 2020 Toyota Rav4. The contact stated that the mirror housings of the vehicle were melting. The dealer and the manufacturer were not notified of the failure. The vehicle was not diagnosed nor repaired. The approximate failure mileage was 8,500.

I am reporting a PROBLEM - the headrests on the front driver and passenger seats will NOT stay down on my 2020 Toyota Rav4- they always slowly keep moving upwards- I guess from the natural vibrations of the road. I complained at the Toyota service department (at Wilde Toyota in Milwaukee Wisconsin) and they said that is how their headrests work in the Toyota Rav4 - they don't stay down. While this may not be an issue for a tall person, an average person of 5 ft 5 inch tall or shorter would have a serious problem with their head being smacked around when the headrest won't stay down - I have never experienced a headrest that won't lock in place and stay there- I think this could be terrible if I got into an accident and my headrest was in the wrong position. I am shocked that Toyota does not care. I think you should check into this. A manager there did acknowledge he has heard of this problem before and has had a few people complain about it but they don't think it is a big deal. - they were tall men so they didn't care - they like the headrest all the way up as far as it goes.

My car’s distance to empty never goes above 420 miles, despite a visit to the Lexington MA Toyota dealership with this complaint. Published range is about 580 miles. The dealership reset values in the car, but this did not make any difference, and at no point during my ownership of the car (which was bought new) has the range on the dashboard when the tank is full exceeded 430 miles.

The contact owned a 2020 Toyota RAV4.The contact stated while stopped at a red light the vehicle was struck from behind by a Ford F-150 which resulted in none of the air bags deploying. The contact sustained a broken nose, cheeks, dislocated shoulders, and back injury. The contact was transported by ambulance from the scene of the collision. A police report was taken and the vehicle was towed to a junkyard where it was determined to be destroyed. The manufacturer was informed of the failure and the contact was awaiting a reply. The failure mileage was approximately 54,354. The malfunction airbags according to Toyota Manufacturer.

Car sat for 4 days while we here hiking. Battery went dead. We were 15 miles up a gravel road and thankfully someone came by who had jumper cables. Reported issue to Toyota today and will take to dealer. Apparently, Toyota has no current fix for the battery drain when vehicle is off. Searched online and found 100s of reports of this same issue from 2019, 2020 rav4 owners, both hybrid and non-hybrid.

While driving on the freeway, the panoramic sunroof exploded. I have photos showing the glass exploding up & outward (away from the vehicle), rather than downward as one would see if the glass had been impacted by a foreign object. Had I not had the sunroof screen closed glass would have come down onto myself along with any other passengers who could have been inside the vehicle, and possibly caused an accident with other vehicles. Currently the vehicle is at the Toyota dealership and I am awaiting inspection from Toyota's corporate department and my insurance company. There was no warning prior to this event occurring.

I have had issues with my 2020 rav4. I have had kickbacks during acceleration, antifreeze/coolant loss, abnormal amount of blow-by, engine runs loud at times, car shakes when I start it, weird noise from under the hood, the dash lights and screen lights went dark once. I have been to multiple dealerships not long after I bought it and they said they “could not duplicate the issue”.. when I went to them regarding the antifreeze leak they said it is normal in new cars which I know is absolute lies. I need help as they are not willing to find the issues. I have pictures and videos to back this up.

A different problem that involves steering is when using speed control (cruise control). I only have attempted this while on the PA Turnpike at faster speeds, or a highway with a higher speed limit, but when engaging speed control with lane centering assistance, vehicle will sometimes pull you too close to the left side of your lane. In some cases, it will almost appear to others you are drunk as it is working to keep you centered in your lane, but at times it will just pull you to the left side of your lane, so close to others that traffic will beep and I'll want to poop my pants, because it harder to pull back to center when this is doing the steering for you in cruise control mode. Have turned off lane center assist and the speed control works fine, including slowing you down as traffic slows. But with lane center assist on, and using cruise control, this is when erratic behavior exists. Dealer could not duplicate the issue - would require taking this on a fast moving highway, like the PA turnpike, and hope it happens while out on that trip. Does not always do it, and have to been able to figure out why it does it (I.E. double yellow line vs. white intermittent line). When it happens, it puts you too close to traffic next to you and could cause other vehicles to either impact with you or make them swerve out of the way thinking you are coming into their lane. Very serious when it happens, moving at high rate of speed, and lane centering when using speed control is very strong and harder to override vs. the small bump it gives you when not using speed control and too close to the shoulder for example. That lane correction works well, albeit a bit weak to correct. Has happened since new, August 2020. And continues to happen sporadically.

Ongoing problem with an intermittent steering issue. The problem is that this is an intermittent issue and hard to get to dealer during time of concern, and while they could troubleshoot the issue before the issue fixes itself. The concern ALWAYS happens upon starting vehicle. Never happens when you are already going and issue is not present. Steering wheel will pull right, or left, upon start up, and then at some point it fixes itself and problem is no longer an issue. Could happen at any time upon start up, cold or hot weather, fresh start, or going back out after having been on road already, just no rhyme or reason for it. The safety issue is that when turning, when it is pulling, is that it pulls you towards the curb/shoulder, or towards oncoming traffic. Additionally, it will also not return the wheel after a turn, so if it was pulling left, and you are turning left for example, you have to manually get that wheel back or it'll just keep going left. I've experimented with turning off lane keep assist, lane centering (cruise control), put it in different modes like trail, sport, etc. and even stopped on the shoulder, and tried to re-start the vehicle. Nothing can stop it consistently. And it fixes itself within a 10 minute period. I have checked the AWD monitor screen to see if a wheel is pulling harder than the others based on the display of power going to wheels, no luck. It has been doing this since day one. Not every trip. Not even every week. Sometimes it could happen 5x in a week, and sometimes it could be 2 weeks before it happens again and then again in another couple of weeks. Not the road either. Must be paying attention when starting out because it could happen on any trip, during a trip if stopping and re-starting vehicle while on a trip, etc. because it can/will pull you. I have a video, albeit hard to really see much but shows car pulling. Also note this is NOT a torque steer because it could happen on acceleration OR not.

I bumped the car in front of me when starting from a red light at an intersection. Impact speed was less than 3 MPH. The damage from this impact resulted in repair cost of almost $4,200. This is outrageous and an example of poor design on the part of Toyota. It is my understanding that the standards require vehicles to absorb up to 5 MPH frontal impact with no damage. Had I known this vehicle was so poorly protected I would have chosen to purchase something else.