There are 4 owner-reported steering complaints for the 2025 Toyota RAV4in NHTSA's database. These are unverified consumer reports and may not reflect confirmed defects.
On two separate occasions, my car has shaken violently and stopped both times while idling one in my driveway one at a stoplight and then an alert that says engine stopped steering power low came on
This 2025 RAV4 will randomly move or jerk to the left while driving straight. It does not matter where you are in relation to the center of the lane. Sometime the movement is gentile and other time it is very strong bordering on violent. It will do the same thing with the lane keeping assistance, and pre-collision warning active or disabled. This issue could cause an accident if the jerky movement happened at the wrong time with another car alongside or approaching from the opposite direction. The movement has pushed me across the line a couple of times and it has happened at 15 mph all the way up to 65mph. The dealer did an alignment which did not change the problem. Now they want 425 to recalibrate the forward camara which 'might correct the issue'. This could get very expensive very fast when it should be covered under warranty. There are no warning lamps or messages to indicate the problem. This is a dangerous issue not just an inconvenience.
While waiting in a drive-thru with “hold” feature enabled, car vibrated abnormally and shut off by itself. When I attempted to restart the vehicle, I received an error message “Engine Stopped. Steering Power Low” and another screen also appeared that said, “Not Ready to Drive. Press Brake and Push Engine Start Switch.” I followed those instructions several times and the car wouldn’t start. Eventually had to put in neutral to get out of drive-thru. Once out of drive-thru, I once again attempted to restart the car, but this time it worked. Should mention it was raining pretty heavily outside when this happened.
2025 RAV4 - While driving the car, changing from reverse to drive the steering wheel got stuck and would not go back to straight position. This causes an accident and hit another car. There was not indicator that there is a problem. Inspection was done by the dealership and asap and they identified and confirmed of faulty steering wheel angle. This car was bought end of June and accident happened first week of October. The car is since with the dealership with no resolution yet. Dealership have us call Toyota, but we were not provided with any help. One and half month in, we continue to pay insurance but we do not have the car.
Complaints are unverified consumer reports submitted to NHTSA. A high complaint count may reflect vehicle popularity, not defect severity. Data sourced from NHTSA public records.
Data synced from NHTSA on Apr 26, 2026