NHTSA Owner Complaint Log
This page lists owner-reported complaints filed with NHTSA for the 2023 Toyota RAV4 Prime. Complaints are unverified consumer reports submitted to NHTSA and do not by themselves prove a defect or defect rate.
The primary instrument display started to go out when it was cold, below 50'F. This could be mitigated by running the engine or running the defrost for a period of time to warm up the area around the display. When it was too cold this winter, that was no longer effective and the display would not come on at all. The car would drive and all of the instruments displayed on the screen would work (cruise control, etc.), but there was no way to know how fast I was going and if there were any warning lights illuminated. Running the car long enough without the display until the environment warmed, the display would come on, showing the animated start up sequence, then showing whatever speed and other car conditions were current. It took three tries for the dealership to finally see this issue, because they would put the car in the warm garage before working on it, and the display would come on. The dealership now has the car, and is seeking a replacement display, saying it is an electronic issue.
I slowly turned right into a parking space, braked to stop but the car didn't stop and instead lurched, jumping forward over the parking curb and hitting a small wall. My foot was on the brake pedal the entire time. It happened at 9:00am on a clear day. I was alone in the car and uninjured. Damage to the car was extensive and estimated at nearly $40,000. As a result, car was totaled by the insurance company.
A Toyota advertisement for an optional subscription service, called Drive connect, takes over the display randomly, including when I am using the display for directions with GPS. There have been many instances where I have been using the display for directions, when this banner takes over the screen, and I have to abruptly reach over and turn it off so that I can continue following the directions. I have missed turnoffs because of this. And I do not think that it is safe to have to reach over suddenly to switch the display back to GPS again. I don't see any reason why the driver should not have a choice when it comes to the displays default behavior, especially when following directions on maps with GPS
The lane keeping assistance has the ability to detect if the driver is not holding the wheel and will disconencted lane keeping assitance after three beeps.... At that time the adaptative speed control is not disconnected and vehicle will even continue to accelerate neither braking is activated. these may result in an accidente if the driver falls sleep or has health issue...
Glass sunroof exploded at 65 mph in the highway.
Distracting connected services spam. When the car is turned on, the center console displays a "safe driver" warning, then after a number of seconds, a message instructing driver to sign up for connected services for navigation appears and won't display a default screen or last screen displayed until driver selects another display option. I was never on the navigation menu, nor do intend to ever use the navigation menu, and yet the solicitation appears. This is not only annoying, but distracts the driver from other information that the driver intends to see on the center console. If Toyota motor sales wants to not allow navigation except for subscriptions, it should be limited to when a driver presses the navigation button, but not distract the driver by spamming when the center console should be displaying whatever the driver has selected and forcing the driver to "cancel" by finding the button on the center console to what was originally displayed when the car was turned off or a default screen of user choice.
Driver was parking the car in a parking lot at a very slow speed. The car suddenly shot forward at a very high rate of speed, requiring evasive steering from trees and a fence, until the car crashed head-on into another vehicle. The driver is very certain the brakes only were applied during the entire time the car shot forward. Airbags were not deployed. Bystanders were within six feet of the car at one point during the acceleration, prior to the crash. There were no injuries. Earlier, on the day of the crash, the car had a sudden, strong, yet brief acceleration of the vehicle during normal braking while approaching a rotary, unlike normal ABS. ABS itself seemed unneeded (the approach to the rotary was well within the speed limit, on dry condition roads). This issue occurred twice in the two months prior to the accident. There were no known warning messages in the car or the phone app for the car in any of these cases or at the time of the crash. The manufacturer has been notified of the crash, a product liability case has been opened, and an engineer was sent to look at the car. A data download from the airbag event data recorder (Bosch CDR) was done, a report was generated, and the report was provided to the car owner. No data in the formatted report is provided regarding Vehicle Speed, Accelerator Pedal, Cruise Control Status, Brake Torque, etc. Unformatted hexadecimal data is included in the report, without a data schema to decipher the data. It is not known if any other analysis or information about the car was reported by the engineer, beyond the Bosch CDR report. The owner is not aware that the problem has been reproduced or confirmed by anyone involved, or of any other inspections than the one described here. Manufacturer has not yet provided the owner with a report response. The car is currently at an auto repair shop and no repairs have begun. The shop is awaiting an appraisal by the insurance company before doing the repairs.
Sliding sun roof glass explosion while driving. Glass is clearly projected to the exterior of vehicle and not due to stone/rock hit. No overpass or vehicles in front of driver at the time. No other damage to vehicle. Serious injury could occur when glass falls into the passenger compartment of the vehicle cutting or blinding the driver. The Dealer/Certified Toyota service center replaced the glass under warranty after inspecting the broken sun roof glass.
Data synced from NHTSA on May 4, 2026