2003 Toyota Avalon problems
NHTSA has received 353 complaints about the 2003 Toyota Avalon, and 52% of them involve air bags. After that come cruise control (14%) and steering (5%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 353 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Air bags 52% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 68 and 2
- Injuries and deaths
- 42 and 2
- Typical mileage
- 80,000 miles 179 complaints with mileage
Source: NHTSA owner complaints
Where the complaints are
Share of this model year's complaints by the part of the car involved. One complaint can name more than one part, so the shares can add up to more than 100%.
When problems show up
View the numbers
| Mileage | Complaints |
|---|---|
| 0k to 20k miles | 28 |
| 20k to 40k miles | 19 |
| 40k to 60k miles | 17 |
| 60k to 80k miles | 21 |
| 80k to 100k miles | 34 |
| 100k to 120k miles | 15 |
| 120k to 140k miles | 21 |
| 140k to 160k miles | 10 |
| 160k to 180k miles | 7 |
| 180k to 200k miles | 2 |
| 200k+ miles | 5 |
What the data shows
Among the 179 complaints that report mileage, the typical (median) problem appeared at about 80,000 miles. For air bags specifically, the median reported mileage is about 99,000 miles (62 complaints with mileage).
Safety-related details: 68 complaints mention a crash; 2 complaints mention a fire; 42 injuries reported; 2 deaths reported. Its complaints are more severe on average than those of 86% of model years in our database.
Looking only at complaints filed within five years of the model year (so older and newer years are comparable), the 2003 ranks 18th most-complained-about out of 25 model years of the Toyota Avalon with enough data (57 complaints in that window). It is also covered by 2 safety recall campaigns.
What owners wrote
A few complaints as filed, shortened and with personal details removed. The first ones are among the most serious reports for this model year; the rest are typical.
My mother-in-law who always wore her seat belt was driving home at night and somehow ran off the road hit a little cherry tree and was thrown from her car & killed her. The side nor the front air bags went off. And apparently the seat belts failed too. The highway partrol can't figure out what happened.
Tl* the contact owns a 2003 toyota avalon. While parking the vehicle the accelerator pedal engaged without warning. The contact was driving 5 MPH. The contact depressed the brakes and the vehicle would not stop, and it crashed into a parked ford pick up truck. The road conditions were not a factor. The vehicle was towed ,and the contact was unable to drive the vehicle. The contact sustained a shoulder injury due to the seat belt.
Car was idling in park, placed shift into reverse, car accelerated forward with motor racing into a bench, destroying it. Jammed shift back into park shut off motor. Restarted car. Place shift in rev and backed off bench. Car worked properly. Had car towed to repair shop.
Tl* the contact owns a 2003 toyota avalon. The contact stated that while driving at an unknown speed, the vehicle lost power intermittently. The contact stated that warning lights illuminated on the instrumental panel. The vehicle was taken to a dealer. The contact was included in NHTSA campaign number: 14v147000 (air bags) but the dealer determined another failure. The failure mileage was 10,000 and the current mileage was 21,000.