Federal complaint record · Toyota RAV4 · model year 2003

2003 Toyota RAV4

Owners submitted 314 federal complaint reports about this model year, placing it at the 54th percentile for complaint intensity within its 2001 to 2005 compact suv cohort. The largest reported component group is powertrain. Sample sizes and limitations are shown below.

Powertrain · 53% · group n = 209Engine · 12% · group n = 47Electrical · 11% · group n = 42Speed control · 7% · group n = 29Other · 4% · group n = 15
314
Complaint records on file
95,113
Median mileage at the reported problem · 272 complaints reported mileage
53%
Of classified component reports name powertrain · group n = 209
54th
Complaint-intensity percentile in a cohort of 25 model years

Powertrain · 5 in ten classified complaints

Where this record concentrates

All failure files
Component group 01 · Powertrain53%

Powertrain reports

Toyota RAV4 · model year 2003

Reports in this group209
Share of classified reports53%
Component groups on file6
Open the failure files

Adjacent model years · same badge, different data

The complaint signal has a shape

Compare model years
2002
0.4complaints per 1,000 estimated vehicle-years
527 matched incidents
This car
2003
0.3complaints per 1,000 estimated vehicle-years
314 matched incidents
2004
0.1complaints per 1,000 estimated vehicle-years
153 matched incidents

The line compares submitted complaints per 1,000 estimated vehicle-years, not failures per 1,000 cars. Vehicle-years use compiled US sales, a 0.25 prior-calendar-year plus 0.75 current-calendar-year model-year allocation, and the shipped survival curve. Rates appear only where estimated vehicles in operation are at least 5,000.

From the record · recurring narrative clusters

What recurring complaint clusters describe

How clusters are built
Transmission behavior · 168 reports

Reports describe harsh shifting, slipping, or shuddering

Cluster 1 of 32003 Toyota RAV4
Stalling or shutdown · 40 reports

Reports describe the vehicle stalling or shutting off while driving

Cluster 2 of 32003 Toyota RAV4
Loss of propulsion · 26 reports

Reports describe reduced power or hesitation while driving

Cluster 3 of 32003 Toyota RAV4

Cluster summaries paraphrase recurring symptoms reported to NHTSA. They are aggregate descriptions, not individual verbatim reports.

Records through 2026-07-19Published 2026-08-02 · Updated 2026-07-19

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NHTSA consumer complaint records can reveal recurring patterns across published model years. MotorCensus summarizes those records as one complaint-signal index, with a 95% interval and sample size, updated with each data snapshot.

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