2018 Toyota RAV4 problems
Owners have filed 448 complaints with NHTSA about the 2018 Toyota RAV4. Electrical system is the most reported problem area, at 30% of complaints. After that come engine (8%) and brakes (7%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 448 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Electrical system 30% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 53 and 52
- Injuries and deaths
- 29 and 0
- Typical mileage
- 11,000 miles 195 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 | 127 |
| 20k to 40k miles | 20 |
| 40k to 60k miles | 22 |
| 60k to 80k miles | 15 |
| 80k to 100k miles | 3 |
| 100k to 120k miles | 1 |
| 120k to 140k miles | 5 |
| 140k to 160k miles | 0 |
| 160k to 180k miles | 0 |
| 180k to 200k miles | 2 |
| 200k+ miles | 0 |
What the data shows
Among the 195 complaints that report mileage, the typical (median) problem appeared at about 11,000 miles. For electrical system specifically, the median reported mileage is about 17,000 miles (41 complaints with mileage).
Safety-related details: 53 complaints mention a crash; 52 complaints mention a fire; 29 injuries reported. Its complaints are more severe on average than those of 88% 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 2018 ranks 7th most-complained-about out of 30 model years of the Toyota RAV4 with enough data (331 complaints in that window). It is also covered by 3 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.
I was on the freeway driving home and a vehicle cut me on the freeway which resulted in me breaking a little heavier than usual but wasn't abnormal and resulted in the vehicle shutting down due to the battery jumping around in the engine compartment and then instantaneously catching on fire with no way of steering or guiding myself to safety the highway did arrive on scene as well as ambulance and they only asked for registration and vehicle ownership which I hadn't presented but since a tow truck was on its way…
This car started a fire on the road while it was in motion, and after I drove it over a mile on a city street on april 22nd, 2019. I stopped the car and turned off the car after I saw smoke came out of the hood in front of driver side windshield. I left the car immediately to call for help. Less than a minute, after I left the car, the fire started, the flames went up to 10 feet high in a short 2 minutes, in less than 10 minutes, before the firemen put fire off, the car was burned to the frame with nothing left…
The evening of sunday, march 28th, 2021 I was driving on interstate 84 in idaho near wendell, at approximately 83 MPH when the sunroof of my 2018 rav4 exploded without any warning. Luckily the shade panel was drawn, so no glass debris went into the car. My husband was in the passenger seat, and our 16 yr old daughter was sitting behind him. When I first heard the explosion, I thought we had a tire blowout, but I didn't feel a pull on the steering wheel.