10.0
really awful- Crashes / Fires:
- 0 / 0
- Injuries / Deaths:
- 0 / 0
- Average Mileage:
- 0 miles
About These NHTSA Complaints:
The NHTSA is the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints can be spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem. See the Back button — blue bar at the very top of the page — to explore more.
The torsion bars on our 2003 Toyota Camry suddenly failed to work. When the trunk was opened, it then had to be manually pushed up to the top open position, however it would easily and quickly come down if it was windy outside. Twice I was hit in the head or back while leaning into the trunk and putting something in or taking something out, a major problem because we were always putting in or taking our baby stroller out of the trunk, and we were afraid the trunk might also close on our son's hand or head if he were standing nearby. We reported this problem to our local Toyota dealer; they at first denied there was anything wrong with the trunk. But the service manager eventually understood and agreed with me about the problem. He ordered and replaced the torsion bars in our trunk; it fixed the problem at that time. This was one year ago. In October 2005, the same thing started happening again. While the trunk doesn't slam down on us yet, it does idle halfway up and must be pushed up or down to lock the position. We brought it back to our Toyota dealership and asked for the same service manager directly. He remembered us and is going to replace the torsion bars again, but claimed that he hasn't seen this problem happen in several years; apparently it was a recurring problem on older models. My main concerns with this issue are that first, it keeps on happening and secondly, this past summer on long island, NY, two young boys who were missing, were later found dead in the trunk of a Toyota Camry on their street. Apparently the trunk was broken and it shut on them, trapping them inside the vehicle during a heat wave. The police didn't find them in the car until a few days later. I don't know if the broken trunk had the same issue with the torsion bars that we have, but the news story concerned us enough to report this to you.
- Massapequa, NY, USA
- Natchez, MS, USA