2023 Toyota Corolla

Description of problem/issue: Dear Reader: I recently purchased a new (certified preowned) vehicle and ever since then I have been experiencing some concerns with its handling on the road. This letter seeks to communicate this matter to the proper establishment for some possible recourse. On level roads while the steering wheel is centered straight up (near/over 40mph), the car tends to automatically glide to the left of the lane or coast quickly to the right and won’t stay centered in the lane very long without driver input to steer the car back to the center of the lane. Then when re-centering the car it roams in the other direction, and so forth (an oscillating effect). The issue is that the car diverts from the center of the lane and to maintain the center of the lane the driver has to constantly work at pulling the vehicle back to center. This is not the type of driving performance that I would expect on a new or certified new vehicle. It is both a nuisance and a hazard having to constantly steer the vehicle to center up in the lane. The car’s auto Lane Assist and Departure Assist and auto Steering Assist features are turned off during this time. And even when all these Driver Assist Features are turned back on the drifting/pulling pattern is quite pronounced or seems to be compensating in my opinion. A Google search of the term “2023 Toyota corolla pulls to both sides” produces some great results as to the possible cause and effect. I have never driven a vehicle that diverts so quickly from its own lane so shortly after the driver’s hand is removed from the steering wheel. Nevertheless, the issues that I pointed out remains very alarming and nerve-racking for me! For safety reasons I’m still not pleased with how the car handles on the road. I wonder if there are any Safety Recalls, current or pending, concerning any of the steering or alignment components/features that would help resolve this problem?

When driving at night, there is a shadow in the headlight, that shines onto the road and makes driving at night difficult. This shadow looks like it comes from a tall screw or bolt in both headlights. The lights work correctly, but the shadow causes the driver to have a dark "spot" in the beam of light, which then makes it hard to see clearly while driving in dusk, or darkening circumstances. I took the vehicle in to the Toyota Dealer where I bought it and had them investigate this. They said they couldn't repair it, as it was part of the construction of the headlight itself. The Toyota repair people did see the shadow when the lights were turned on to face a wall in a darkened garage bay.

The contact owns a 2023 Toyota Corolla. The contact stated that after starting the vehicle, an audible chime was heard, and unknown RED message was displayed on the instrument panel. The vehicle was taken to a dealer however, the dealer was unable to duplicate the failure or determine the cause for the failure. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and the contact was provided a case number. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The failure mileage was unknown.

We were driving on [XXX] near Norcross, GA about 200 ft from exit [XXX] at a constant speed of around 70 mph, when suddenly the vehicle displayed 'system malfunction' and started veering on its own and the brakes wouldn't work. It kept veering to the right and crashed into a vehicle 2 lanes away and rebounded back to the original lane and came to a halt with a message displayed 'Shifting to P'. The malfunction and loss of control, along with the brakes not functioning those few seconds/minutes put our lives and others' on the road at risk. The vehicle is available for inspection. The vehicle was towed on the day of the accident and then taken into a Toyota dealership and is currently there. The vehicle has not yet been repaired. Toyota sent a third-party inspector to gather data from the vehicle but that turned out to be merely the crash data up to 5 seconds prior by which time the malfunction had already occurred and the vehicle speed was down from 70mph to 31mph. The incident occurred on Thursday, [XXX]. We do not feel safe driving that vehicle again. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

Multiple malfunctions causing the engine to misfire and eventually seize completely. Toyota never found out the issue but the engine failed. The suspect poor build quality. The engine, brake collision system, fuel pump all went out. Car was rough idling for about two weeks before the engine completely failed. Toyota has lemoned it.

Since purchasing this vehicle new, I've had several occasions (not on just the most recent date noted in this case) where the car will issue a false Pre-collision Alert and apply the brakes for about 1 second while using the Adaptive Cruise Control. However, this happens while me and the drivers around me are driving "normally" and there are no vehicles in front of me nor attempting to merge into my lane. There does not seem to be a particular set of conditions that cause this false alert and they happen randomly, but it is startling when they happen since there is no observable reason for it. Fortunately, there has not been anyone tail-gating me when this happens because this could easily cause a rear-end collision if someone were following too close. I've notified my local dealer about this issue more than once, but they cannot find anything wrong.

To start, on [XXX], I was going through an intersection on a country road and my automatic emergency braking engaged for no reason. My car stopped despite no other vehicle or object being in my way or anywhere close to me. I found it really weird but did not think much about after the fact. I have also heard a rattling noise under my hood since [XXX] and have reported this to Toyota and tried to have it fixed multiple times (and showed them videos) but they were never able to duplicate the noise so it has not been remedied. On [XXX] I was traveling on a highway during rush hour and the traffic in front of me came to a sudden stop. I braked as hard as I could; my automatic emergency braking did not engage and I rear ended the car in front of me (minimal damage to that car). We both immediately pulled partway onto the narrow left berm (we had both been in the left lane to get onto another highway). My car then turned off by itself and gave me an engine warning (I believe low engine oil- I had just had it serviced 3 days prior). The other car owner and I exchanged information quickly and decided to drive away because we were blocking rush hour traffic and it was dangerous. However, my car would not start back up. I called 911 and they came to use their vehicle to push me to the right side of the highway onto an exit where I was no longer blocking traffic. During the wait, I felt like I was going to die with traffic honking and swerving to avoid me. When the police officer was moving my car, the parking brake engaged when I put the car in neutral and would not turn off, so the smell of burning rubber was strong since the tires would not roll. Once the tow truck driver arrived he was able to use jumper cables to disengage the parking brake but the car still would not start. There were no prior warning lights. The car not starting was confirmed by the dealer- they are holding off doing maintenance to have an engineer check out the car and figure out what happened. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INF

On [XXX], around 7:45 PM, My husband and I were driving on [XXX] from Atlanta to visit family at John’s Creek. We were driving at a steady speed of approximately 70mph on the second lane from the left when all of a sudden, the vehicle displayed a 'malfunction' alert and began swerving uncontrollably. Despite our attempts to regain control, the car swerved right, striking another vehicle three lanes away. We had no control over the steering or bringing the car to a safe stop. After colliding with the other vehicle, it then returned to its original lane and came to a sudden stop with a message displayed stating 'Shifting to P'. During this incident, an SOS call was automatically placed to Toyota, and we were subsequently connected to 911 through them. Our vehicle got damaged due to this and so did the other vehicle that got hit. The vehicle not only endangered our lives but was also a potential harm to others on the road. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

On10/19/2024, the driver was driving down a road that was coming down from a slope and the road curves to the left. As the driver was braking to decrease the speed down to 30mph or below (she was going around 35mph from what she remembers) and turning the steering wheel left, all the curtain air bags deployed, the seatbelt locked and she was unable to turn the steering wheel. She couldn't see due to the airbags and the seatbelt locking her back so when she felt/heard scraping on the right she feared she was going to crash into trees so she yanked as hard as possible to the left and the car then stopped. She remembers that the screen flashed something like an SOS but then it faded. Bystanders helped her out of the car as she was still in the car (she was very shaken) and they tried to put the car in neutral as it was blocking the road to push it but they were unsuccessful as the wheels had locked. The police and a tow truck was called by a bystander. Other than a small scrape on the right fender of the bumper, there was no damage to the car. Nothing was in the road. The bystanders asked her if she had a stroke or some medical issue since there was no collision, no damage notable on the car and the car just stopped on the road. Inside all the curtain bags are deployed. The police officer and the tow truck driver thought that the sensor for rolling might have gotten triggered but there was nothing that they could see that would have triggered it. Toyota was contacted and the insurance company was unsure if this was considered a collision. Toyota wanted to investigate the car themselves and we signed a letter giving them permission to download data and information from the car. We were told they would be sending someone to physically look at the car.