Toyota RAV4

Which Toyota RAV4 years should you avoid?

Going by 9,410 owner complaints filed with NHTSA, the Toyota RAV4 years to avoid are 2015, 2007, 2018, 2017 and 2019.

• 20153.8× the usual share of fires, crashes and deaths for a car of its age (41 fires, 37 crashes, 1 death).
• 20071,004 complaints, 3.5× a typical RAV4 year, most often about the steering.
• 20183.4× the usual share of fires, crashes and deaths for a car of its age (33 fires, 31 crashes).
• 20173.1× the usual share of fires, crashes and deaths for a car of its age (24 fires, 33 crashes, 2 deaths).
• 2019884 complaints, 3.1× a typical RAV4 year, most often about the fuel and propulsion system.

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

Too new to judge: 2025. 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 →