Potential Transmission Defect in Second Generation Toyota RAV4

The New York Times carried this report earlier this week:
Although customer satisfaction studies have often given Toyota’s RAV4 “cute ute” high marks for quality, some owners are furious at the automaker because it failed to warn them of a serious transmission problem. Had Toyota warned them, they say, they could have avoided expensive repairs.

Benjamin Birkbeck of Yarmouth, Me., who owns a 2002 RAV4, is one of those consumers. His wife, Rhonda, was trying to merge into traffic when a suddenly faulty transmission meant she was “almost run over by a semitruck,” he wrote in a complaint on the Center for Auto Safety Web site. “This is a safety issue. My wife was almost killed.”

Dianna Radford of Albuquerque, N.M., had to pay about $4,000 for a repair on her 2002 model. “I have owned Toyotas for 12 years and I will never buy another one, the way I was treated,” she said.

They are not alone. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has more than 120 complaints about transmission problems with the 2001–2003 RAV4, of which Toyota sold about 250,000. Often the blame is put on the engine control module (E.C.M.), which tells the transmission what to do. Read more here.

As I know, there is only 1 production site for RAV4 models - the Tahara plant in Japan, which is also a main production site for most Lexus models. So if there is any issue with the car, it would mean RAV4 models sold between 2001 to 2003 in all over the world are affected. Toyota have not issued any recalls for the RAV4 so far, neither have they commented if the problem is only specific to North American market RAV4s. According to the report, the problem only affects RAV4 models manufactured between 2001 and 2003, meaning the pre-facelift (minor change) models.

Almost all the second generation RAV4 models on this side of the world (Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia) were imported from Japan via parallel importers. Like many domestic Japanese Toyota models, there are far too many variations in their trim level. Generally the facelift models can be identified with a more modern looking front grille.
Pre-minor change model
Minor change model
Note that the above only refers to Japanese domestic market models. North American market models have a slightly different front fascia and US Federal regulation required amber coloured turn signal lights.

A large number of RAV4 models were imported into various countries via parallel importers. The problem with buying a grey market / parallel imported cars is finding out its service history. Even if you manage to track down the service history, you are almost not going to be notified of any safety recalls issued because the local official Toyota distributor will not be responsible cars not sold by them, and neither will they have the contact details of these owners in their database.

But so far, there does not seem to be any widespread / major transmission issues reported (within the local automotive community) by owners of second generation RAV4. Still, if you happen to own one of these models, you might want to be alert of any issues.

Related link :
Recall on China Market Toyota Camry - Defective Brakes
Product Recalls