Toyota Corolla

Which Toyota Corolla years should you avoid?

Going by 11,669 owner complaints filed with NHTSA, the Toyota Corolla years to avoid are 2009, 2010, 2005, 2006 and 2007.

• 20091,459 complaints, 7.8× a typical Corolla year, most often about the airbags.
• 20101,244 complaints, 6.6× a typical Corolla year, most often about the airbags.
• 2005854 complaints, 4.5× a typical Corolla year, most often about the airbags.
• 2006840 complaints, 4.5× a typical Corolla year, most often about the airbags.
• 2007836 complaints, 4.4× a typical Corolla year, most often about the airbags.

5 more years cleared the same bar; they are marked in the table below.

Better bets: among years old enough for a low count to mean something, the 2022 drew the fewest complaints without an unusual share of serious ones.

Too new to judge: 2025 and 2026. Complaints take a few years to arrive, so a new model year looks better than it is.

How this is worked out: each year is compared with a typical year of the same model, which takes most of the difference in sales out of it, and its share of serious failures is compared with every other car of the same model year, because older cars were complained about differently. A year needs 25 complaints to be judged at all. Complaints are unverified owner reports. Full method →