I'm no car genius, but my brand new 2019 RAV 4 I got in August is having transmission problems at lower speeds. It's a lease that I was thinking I might buy at the end of the term and now I'm hesitant because I'm afraid this will cause excessive wear and tear. I noticed when I give it a little gas and maybe take my foot off the gas pedal for it to "roll" and then reapply the gas it jerks really hard. I thought maybe it was just that motion but it happens a lot more than just in that scenario. Seems to be having more problems with transmission than my 2008 Honda Odyssey...

If Toyota doesn't address this I'll be taking my business elsewhere, if they do I'll probably end up buying the Rav4 as planned

You buy a Toyota for the reliability, I'm not angry but please just fix it..

At low speeds, the car lurches and kicks forward with a whiplash effect when re-accelerating, unless the car has come to a complete stop for full 2 seconds. It almost feels like the car doesn't shift into first gear until you press the acceleration, at which point you get sent forward by half a metre. Dangerous at times and almost caused an accident yesterday when i lightly tapped acceleration to reach the stop sign line.

Similar to this is how when braking, the car hesitates until it comes to a complete stop. Almost like it needs to slow down in sequences.

I'm so disappointed, I don't know where to begin. Complaint sent to Toyota Woodland. Let's see how this goes. Will update.

The new 2019 Toyota Rav 4 is full of problems. I am in the midst of addressing the problems with my dealer Copeland Toyota. As with all of the complaints below, mine is the same regarding slow acceleration to a point that this car is a safety hazard. At a stop sign or traffic light, when putting foot on gas pedal, there is a noticeably concerning delay and almost a kick back of the car, and at times it feels like it is going even stall out. When on the highway, it is a big safety concern. I've experienced it when changing lanes and someone is driving closely behind me. When accelerating to move over, the vehicle does the opposite and kicks back which has caused me to be in a near accident situation. Toyota must address these issues.

Also the Scout/Entue is AWFUL. Not only does it lose occasional signal which I have had to learn to tolerate, but it now NEVER connects to my phone which is required in order for it to work on the monitor! The Rav 4 is full of issues. I am not one to ever complain. This is my 5th Toyota and the first time I have complained and I feel that my complaints and concerns are valid where these are not just sweet "features" of a car that are not working properly. These are NECESSITIES that Toyota provides in this car, that are SAFETY CONCERNS because they are not working properly. I am waiting for a response from Toyota on how they plan to correct these valid concerns.

I noted the problem in the first week of ownership. When resuming from a slowing stop the transmission abruptly drops a gear and jerks forward hard. I do not step on it but resume normally. I generally drive or treat my cars gently wanting them to last as long as possible.

Some people described the forward Jerking as a whiplash effect. I would agree with that.

Another distressing characteristic is when coming to a complete stop the transmission seemingly drops into first with a pronounced but noticeable thump. Just about every time.

This happens in all Three driving modes [ Eco, Normal, Sport ]

Initially when the Auto Parking brake mechanism was on, the forward jerking was quite pronounced. After reading what seems like hundreds of posts on Edmunds.com I disabled the Auto Parking Brake and it did soften the force of the forward jerking . This problem is very disappointing to say the least. The only way to avoid this behavior is to come to a complete stop and then resume. This is not always practical when driving in heaving traffic.

We were at a park yesterday when another 2019 Rav4 owner pulled in. I asked him how he was liking his new purchase and while he was happy with it, he did mention the slow rolling stop jerky resume problem . His was the AWD LE model.

I did report the behavior to Wayne Toyota in Thunder Bay . The Service Manager was pleasant and professional and after a road test with me performed a computer scan. It did not reveal "Anything Abnormal". But he did reveal that 2 others Rav4 owners has mentioned the issue. As with others in online forums he concluded that waiting on Toyota to come out with a fix for this was the only solution.

This Rav4 LE performs very nicely on the highway and I specifically appreciate the Radar Cruise. But this Transmission issue really takes a lot of Joy out of Driving a brand new $30+ Thousand dollar Car.

I am hoping Toyota steps up to the plate and figures some way to resolve this issue. That would restore my confidence in Car companies and make this Rav4 owner very happy.

Otherwise, will drive for 3 years and trade in on a Subaru Forester.

Thanks CarComplaint.com

The transmission hesitates at starts from stops. When you floor the pedal to test the response, the transmission takes 6-10 seconds to get out of first gear and get into normal speed gears. It also jerks when stepping on gas to go from a stop sign or making a turn and is very sluggish. It also lacks power when turning or accelerating and the sluggish transmission is a major issue with these vehicles. The issues occurs primarily while slowing down and stopping and then accelerating, like in a rolling stop scenario or during stop and go traffic. On the freeway the vehicle is great. Elsewhere, it is less than great and needs to be recalled by Toyota.

Update from Oct 21, 2019: I have noticed a burning transmission smell from the engine when driving long periods or coming off a freeway. It is faint but noticeable and though no fluid spots on the pavement, it is a very odd odor for a brand new vehicle. I love the vehicle but I don't see myself owning it for life. Toyota claims nothing is wrong with it. I think we all have been scammed.

Update from Feb 3, 2020: I took my 2019 Rav4 le bought in June 2019, to a local dealer with the T-SB-0107-19 - ECU/AT PDF I printed out for them with the new codes to program it and the RAV4 drives perfectly and I am amazed. It drives just like a RAV4 should with no hesitation no hard jerk and in fact the engine is a little bit quieter and the ride is a hell of a lot smoother now

Toyota finally fixed the problem in that dealer I took it to told me he has had hundreds of people return their vehicles that he knows of and there was no fix but glad i found it released in August 2019

The dealer was unaware of this and was very appreciative of the information and is using it for all of the vehicles prior to August 2019

here is the recall sheet to give to your dealer https://www.rav4world.com/attachments/t-sb-0107-19-pdf.144924/

I was having issues with my new car lurching at lower speeds to the point that anyone riding in my car was noticing the issue. It seems to happen when I am going from a rolling stop and then accelerating instead of going from a complete stop to accelerate. The transmission pumps when accelerating and shifts very hard at times. This is not what I expected when I bought this car. My last car with over 200,000 miles had a better transmission than this new car.

I brought my car to the local Toyota dealership and they tried to tell me that it was my fault and that I needed to be more careful and not press the gas so hard. They also told me they would have to take apart my entire car to fix a wiring issue when in fact the lights hadn't been programmed yet. I ended up taking my car to another Toyota dealership which I trusted where they told me that Toyota corporate will have to create a program to fix this issue. The 2016 Toyota Tacoma had the same issue and it took until 2018 for Toyota to create a program to fix it. Call corporate and create a case with them about the issue.

I am copying this directly from a post on RAV4 WORLD because it clearly states my exact problem...

Here's a public service announcement for those considering a new 2019 Rav4. I purchased a new AWD LE back in January. You can take a look at the issues I've had with it in the sticky. At this point, my top two concerns have been a hard down shift into first when coming to a complete stop, and a "coast, accelerate, and jerk" problem where the vehicle won't respond to throttle input for up to half a second or so then jerk forward. I took it back to the dealership over a month ago for the hard shift on stop, and the service manager said it was normal after comparing it to two others on the lot, in spite of the fact that they did not actually have a pronounced thump when downshifting. So I had Toyota Care set up an appointment with a specialist two days ago. We test drove my vehicle and two others on the lot - he collected data on all three. I was able to get my vehicle to reproduce both issues, but they were not as pronounced as the worst I've experienced. The two dealer vehicles DID exhibit a thump when downshifting at a stop, but I was only able to get one of them to exhibit something sort of like the "coast, go, jerk" symptom.

The specialist looked at the data and did not find anything he considered abnormal, and he did not think that there was anything mechanically wrong with the vehicle. Based on that, in spite of the symptoms he witnessed, he stated that there was nothing wrong with my vehicle. He also tried telling me that the "coast, go, jerk" issue was not likely to happen in typical driving situations based on my contrived attempts to safely duplicate the problem in a nearby neighborhood. I did not accept that and explained a multitude of situations that it could and has occurred to me under typical driving situations. He also tried telling me that there was nothing abnormal about the shifting in spite of the fact that the half a dozen or so other new vehicles I've driven in the past 4 years never did any of this. He also tried to excuse it by telling me that it's such a complicated system!

Anyway, the service manager ended up getting angry that we were taking up so much of his time and basically kicked me out of his office, telling me that my vehicle was "sound". So now Toyota Care has followed up with me and tells me that Toyota's position is that there is nothing wrong with my vehicle. I'm actually quite astounded, and now that I've thought about it all after the fact, I'm quite angry about the situation. How can Toyota state that there is nothing wrong with my vehicle as if this type of behavior is normal and expect anybody to take them seriously anymore??? What reasonable person will be happy with this since it is likely to reduce the service life of the transmission, and the "coast, go, and jerk" issue could result in an accident in certain traffic scenarios?

So, the moral of the story is that if you do decide to buy a new Rav4, you'd be wise to test drive the daylights out of the one you end up buying, but also if you end up with a Rav4 with any of these symptoms, you're likely to end up with the same response I've gotten - at least for the time being.