2023 Toyota Corolla Owner Complaints

This is the 3rd time it’s happened. It seems to happen after it’s rained and it’s wet and humid outside. I was at a red light waiting for it to change. The car starts making a buzzer noise and shows “ignition on” with “Engine stopped power steering low” and flashes to “press break firmly to restart.” Pressing the break does nothing and I cannot move the vehicle at all. This whole time the engine is off and I have to go into park to restart the car by pressing the start/stop button. It’s very dangerous when the light turns green because I cannot go anywhere.

2/15/2023

The automatic engine shut off failed. Normally when stopped the engine shuts off and restarts when pressing the gas. It did not do that and instead turned the vehicle completely off. I was waiting for traffic at an intersection to make a left hand turn when my vehicles engine shut off. Interior lights flashed and alarm sounded. Dashboard said engine was off and to press break firmly to restart. It did not work. Also had a power steering warning. I had to put the car in park and restart the vehicle. In the mean time the light had turned red and I was in the middle of the intersection at night, in the rain with a stalled vehicle that I bought last week and has less than 500 miles. A car nearly hit us as I put my hazard lights on and restarted the vehicle. My kids were in the car, it put not only ourselves in danger but also other vehicles on the road. I have not been able to reproduce the incident but it is at the dealership now. There were no symptoms of the incident prior to. I just went to turn and the car went nuts with lights and warnings and the engine was completely off and had to be restarted… IN THE MIDDLE OF A BUSY INTERSECTION. I see several other complaints and even videos where it did the exact same thing. This is for sure a safety issue.

2/15/2023

This is the 3rd time it’s happened. It seems to happen after it’s rained and it’s wet and humid outside. I was at a red light waiting for it to change. The car starts making a buzzer noise and shows “ignition on” with “Engine stopped power steering low” and flashes to “press break firmly to restart.” Pressing the break does nothing and I cannot move the vehicle at all. This whole time the engine is off and I have to go into park to restart the car by pressing the start/stop button. It’s very dangerous when the light turns green because I cannot go anywhere.

2/15/2023

My 2023 Corolla cross awd remains at the dealership due to the safety issue of it turning off, as everyone else is complaining / reporting. My concern is when I type 2023 Toyota Corolla cross awd into the NHTSA website it says there are zero complaints which leads consumers to believe this is a safe vehicle. However, there are multiple of the same complaints but they are being filed under the 2023 Toyota Corolla 4d fwd?

2/21/2023

This is the 3rd time it’s happened. It seems to happen after it’s rained and it’s wet and humid outside. I was at a red light waiting for it to change. The car starts making a buzzer noise and shows “ignition on” with “Engine stopped power steering low” and flashes to “press break firmly to restart.” Pressing the break does nothing and I cannot move the vehicle at all. This whole time the engine is off and I have to go into park to restart the car by pressing the start/stop button. It’s very dangerous when the light turns green because I cannot go anywhere.

2/15/2023

The automatic engine shut off failed. Normally when stopped the engine shuts off and restarts when pressing the gas. It did not do that and instead turned the vehicle completely off. I was waiting for traffic at an intersection to make a left hand turn when my vehicles engine shut off. Interior lights flashed and alarm sounded. Dashboard said engine was off and to press break firmly to restart. It did not work. Also had a power steering warning. I had to put the car in park and restart the vehicle. In the mean time the light had turned red and I was in the middle of the intersection at night, in the rain with a stalled vehicle that I bought last week and has less than 500 miles. A car nearly hit us as I put my hazard lights on and restarted the vehicle. My kids were in the car, it put not only ourselves in danger but also other vehicles on the road. I have not been able to reproduce the incident but it is at the dealership now. There were no symptoms of the incident prior to. I just went to turn and the car went nuts with lights and warnings and the engine was completely off and had to be restarted… IN THE MIDDLE OF A BUSY INTERSECTION. I see several other complaints and even videos where it did the exact same thing. This is for sure a safety issue.

2/15/2023

2023 corolla is having some issue with headlights [Low Beams]. I understood from Toyota that this is an safety feature which is designed as per the rules. This is an good idea and i am not denying it. The issue which i have is the person who is driving this car is not having clear view on the Road. The shadow's is completely hiding the left lane. If we are driving in full dark road, and towards left there is an divider, we are not able to get an clear view of the road where the divider is starting / ending. This is going to be an serious issue. I have not seen this kind of shadow in any other cars so far driven. The shadow is also much distractive.

3/8/2023

The shadows are serious issue. They are distractive, annoying, irritating and dangerous. It is a safety issue. As car go up and down on the road, they are longer or shorter (because of the light angle) . They are tiring and fatiguing. Eyes are drawn to it at night. Constant distraction. Not acceptable on a new car. Problem reported to the dealer. Dealer won't do anything. Went to 2nd dealer. They told me that all the 2023 Corollas have this problem and won't do anything. Case filed with Toyota. Case # 2304 11000333. No reply for 2 months. After talking to other 2023 Corolla owners, they don't have that problem. Also, the car still have the same problem with blind spot since 2019 (according to Toyota "by design"). However shadows are problem.

5/21/2023

I was at a stoplight and the car cut off. Not the normal auto power down feature, there was no power. A message saying press the brake down to restart appeared. Then a message saying steering power low appeared. The check engine light came on. I pressed the break down, and the vehicle did not restart. I put the car in park then restarted it and was able to drive again. But at the very next light, the same thing happened.

2/16/2023

At a stop, the engine shuts off. This is normal. In two instances, the vehicle threw up multiple warning lights (Press Brake Firmly to Restart) and would not start on the release of the brake. The second incident happened on a hill and the vehicle began to roll backwards. The vehicle then needs to be put in park, shut off and restarted. On the restart it moves again. The dealer was called about this, but said they didn't know it was a problem. They cannot replicate. The safety issue is that the car needs to restart to drive again. At a green light, the car is at risk of being hit since it won't be moving, as expected. It is also a problem that when the brake is released and the issue happens the car can roll backward.

2/20/2023

My wife & I were involved in a 4 vehicle accident on Tuesday September 12, 2023 at approximately 4:30pm. We were traveling north on Highway 17 ( Ogeechee road ) toward Savannah Georgia. We had stopped at the 2nd red light at Highway 204 & 17. The light turned green and the vehicles in front of me started moving, we proceeded north and went through the green traffic light at Little Neck road about 500 feet beyond the intersection all of the sudden everyone was stopped, before I could react to it I was rear ended by a 2013 Toyota Venza which in turn made me hit a 2016 Dodge Ram pickup truck which in turn caused him to hit the vehicle that was stopped a 2002 Chevrolet Silverado. I couldn't see why the Silverado was stopped because the Dodge Ram was blocking my view.. I would estimate my speed at the time of impact between 30mph to 40 mph.. The airbags in my car did not deploy, fortunately we were wearing our seatbelts. Luckily no one was seriously injured in this accident. So our main question is " why " didn't our airbags deploy??

9/14/2023

My car has a recall from the driver airbag maynot deployed. I scheduled an appointment with the dealership for fixing my car, I dropped off my car. 20 minutes later they call me and said it’s not available to get fix. I asked them what should I do, they said they don’t know. I called to the Recall center, they asked me to call to Toyota Brand. Then the girl at Toyota brand told me to call to the dealership. I don’t feel safe when my car has a recall on driver airbag has a problem. What if I got into the accident? Who will be the one has a responsibility for that? Also it’s a brand new car. And they said they don’t know anything or even tried to help me with another safer car. I feel unsafe when I driving within knowing that my driver airbag might not be able to help me of I get in a crash!

10/16/2023

The automatic engine shut off failed. Normally when stopped the engine shuts off and restarts when pressing the gas. It did not do that and instead turned the vehicle completely off. I was waiting for traffic at an intersection to make a left hand turn when my vehicles engine shut off. Interior lights flashed and alarm sounded. Dashboard said engine was off and to press break firmly to restart. It did not work. Also had a power steering warning. I had to put the car in park and restart the vehicle. In the mean time the light had turned red and I was in the middle of the intersection at night, in the rain with a stalled vehicle that I bought last week and has less than 500 miles. A car nearly hit us as I put my hazard lights on and restarted the vehicle. My kids were in the car, it put not only ourselves in danger but also other vehicles on the road. I have not been able to reproduce the incident but it is at the dealership now. There were no symptoms of the incident prior to. I just went to turn and the car went nuts with lights and warnings and the engine was completely off and had to be restarted… IN THE MIDDLE OF A BUSY INTERSECTION. I see several other complaints and even videos where it did the exact same thing. This is for sure a safety issue.

2/15/2023

Brake booster failure and lost power due to malfunctioned battery . Car could not start and had to be transported by road assistance to dealer for repair. Dealer had to replace Brake Booster as well as replace battery with a new one. Car was purchased brand new in March 2023. Only 10700 miles on it.

12/27/2023

At a stop, the engine shuts off. This is normal. In two instances, the vehicle threw up multiple warning lights (Press Brake Firmly to Restart) and would not start on the release of the brake. The second incident happened on a hill and the vehicle began to roll backwards. The vehicle then needs to be put in park, shut off and restarted. On the restart it moves again. The dealer was called about this, but said they didn't know it was a problem. They cannot replicate. The safety issue is that the car needs to restart to drive again. At a green light, the car is at risk of being hit since it won't be moving, as expected. It is also a problem that when the brake is released and the issue happens the car can roll backward.

2/20/2023

Some times the car turns off by itself When put on reverse Or when getting to a complete stop No check engine light turns on Dealer will not take care of it if the check engine light does not turns on This could lead to an accident!

6/16/2023

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)

11/2/2024

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

11/8/2024

Problem 1 there is insufficient visibility of the road at night to drive the car safely. The local police officer helped me measure the distance of road visibility from the front of the car and it was 78 feet. At night with the lights on the top 3/4 of the windshield appears black (opaque) - cannot be seen through. I can only see through the bottom 1/4 of the windshield (left to right, the whole width). Problem 2 the transmission had to be replaced. Problem 3 the computer console only connects to the cell phone 25% of the time. This prevents the ability to use GPS and emergency phone calling while driving. Toyota said there is no problem with the visibility, that the police is incorrect, and there is a known defect with the computer connecting to android phones (after they insisted it was fine). I've been a wreck over this - I don't feel safe driving the car, and can't drive it at night. Toyota has said there's nothing they are planning to do to address these issues, except perphaps there will be software fix for the console/phone connection problem someday. FYI I have all the repair documents but didn't know how to scan/upload them here. So let me know if you need these, and perhaps some other way I could get them to you. If there is an email address I could send pictures of them. Or you could obtain these from Lexington Toyota (Lexington MA). There was also a driving video at nighttime, and I have a video/audio of the transmission womp womp noise, but didn't know how to get those to you either.

8/7/2023

Low beam headlights have shadows that prevent me from seeing all roadway at night. vehicle has presented at the dealership in 6/07/23, but they failed to correct this potentially safety hazard issue. The issue did cause me to hit a piece of wood in the HYW causing an accident with a result of 2 damage tires and 1ring. I will present the vehicle again in 10-11 -23, but in advance one of the guys told me. is something that they don't have nothing to do because is something normal in some corolla. that alert me to start my investigation. Now I can see, I don't are the only one with this problem. Is a new car.

10/4/2023

Coming home from work at 9:40pm a deer hit my car. I got no notification from my car about an object near my vehicle. I stopped my car lights were flashing and the operator on my car assist came on about detecting an accident. My cab filled with smoke and a funny smell. I thought the car was on fire. So I jumped out ambulance and cops showed up. My car got towed to Clifton collision in Clifton Texas. Later I found out that the air bags should have deployed . All my seat belts are locked up in the front and back. But no air bag deployment. The air bag light is on. After 4 months of my vehicle in the shop with me making payments and insurance payments still no vehicle back for me. My car sits at Toyota in Waco. Jeff hunter toyota waiting on emcu for the air bags with no eta. All the seatbelts had to be cut out of the car and the air bags replaced. I have called Toyota advocate to try to resolve my problem and still no help from them. This is a major safety concern that could take someone’s life.

10/18/2023

The Adaptive Cruise Control and Forward Collision Warning DO NOT work in the rain. I have had 2 instances when using ACC where the vehicle would continue the set speed even though vehicles in front of me have slowed down. I have had to manually brake to avoid rear ending the vehicle in front of me. I have had 1 instance where a vehicle merged into my lane and barely missed the front of my vehicle although my vehicle continued at the set speed and I came within what appeared to be inches of that vehicle and had to manually brake to avoid a collision. This always happens when cruising on the interstate in the rain...system works fine when dry. This is apparently an issue with all Corollas or Toyota Safety Sense 3 because the dealer told me they have had several complaints about this.

11/9/2023

Just today, I was driving my 2023 corolla when I accidentally rear ended someone. We were getting off the highway and they were taking a right turn and second guessed themselves while I was focusing on the oncoming traffic. Usually my car would notify me of there being an obstacle in front of me as it is equipped with a pre-collision system. This time however, it did not brake or notify me resulting in me rear ending the car in front of me and causing damage to my car.

4/6/2023

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.

11/19/2024

The Adaptive Cruise Control and Forward Collision Warning DO NOT work in the rain. I have had 2 instances when using ACC where the vehicle would continue the set speed even though vehicles in front of me have slowed down. I have had to manually brake to avoid rear ending the vehicle in front of me. I have had 1 instance where a vehicle merged into my lane and barely missed the front of my vehicle although my vehicle continued at the set speed and I came within what appeared to be inches of that vehicle and had to manually brake to avoid a collision. This always happens when cruising on the interstate in the rain...system works fine when dry. This is apparently an issue with all Corollas or Toyota Safety Sense 3 because the dealer told me they have had several complaints about this.

11/9/2023

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.

11/13/2024

The Lane Departure System works poorly on county 2 lane roads. It is constantly obtaining and losing track of the left/right hand sides of a lane. (For reference, my 2017 Toyota RAV4 has no issues tracking the edges of these same roads.) The issue is that when it obtains tracking just before entering a curve, the system jerks the steering wheel in the direction that it thinks the vehicle needs to go. This happens suddenly and forcefully with no warning and I have had several instances where the system has steered the vehicle into the opposite lane or almost sent me into the ditch. System works fine on well lined interstate roads.

11/9/2023

Moisture and water got into the front head light causing it to go out . The blinker , low light and bright light on front driver went out while I was on the highway.

11/11/2025

I was Useing the lane keeping assist and steering assist. i was driving down the hyw and parts of the solid white line to the right of me was faded or missing with no sholders. a wide truck that was about to pass me going the opposite direction had crossed over the center lane line and the stearing assist jolted me to the right where there was no visible line as i tryed to turn the steerting wheel to the left the assist jolted me to the right as the line became visible again causing us to go in to a big ditch

4/8/2024

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?

3/2/2025

Potential Safety Issue regarding the Cruise Control for ALL 2023 Toyota Corollas and possibly all Toyota's with the Safety Sense 3.0 System. On these vehicles the cruise control is turned on automatically when the vehicle is started. There is a white indicator icon illuminated on the drivers display to inform the driver. However the owners manual says you have to turn the system on by pressing the Driving Assist Mode Switch inferring the cruise control should not automatically be turned on. Pressing this switch only allows you to switch modes from Dynamic Radar Cruise Control to Standard Cruise Control. My dealer advised that this is normal for my vehicle and the cruise control system is working as designed. I agree all functions of the system work, except there is no way to turn off the cruise control. Nothing about turning off the cruise control is stated in the owners manual either. Every Toyota from 2022 and older, and some 2023's, have an on off switch. The issue is once the cruise control is set (now a green illuminated icon), the set speed is always on the display until the vehicle is turned off. Even if you "Cancel" the set speed, the speed is always there (white icon) so you can "Resume" (green icon). If you no longer have use for the cruise control there is no way to just turn it off. Example: You have just exited the interstate highway onto a city street that is 25 MPH. The cancelled set speed is still displaying 70 MPH and while driving you accidentally hit the resume button on the steering wheel and the vehicle accelerates and hits the car in front of you. I know there are anti-collision features that might help, but a startled/panic driver can react in a very negative way and still cause an accident or injury. Even Toyota says not to depend on these safety features alone that it is the drivers responsibility to operate the vehicle safely. I did notify Toyota Brand Engagement Center, who filed a case, but said I would not be informed unless a recall.

12/17/2022

Low beam headlights have shadows that prevent me from seeing all roadway at night. vehicle has presented at the dealership in 6/07/23, but they failed to correct this potentially safety hazard issue. The issue did cause me to hit a piece of wood in the HYW causing an accident with a result of 2 damage tires and 1ring. I will present the vehicle again in 10-11 -23, but in advance one of the guys told me. is something that they don't have nothing to do because is something normal in some corolla. that alert me to start my investigation. Now I can see, I don't are the only one with this problem. Is a new car.

10/4/2023

Coming home from work at 9:40pm a deer hit my car. I got no notification from my car about an object near my vehicle. I stopped my car lights were flashing and the operator on my car assist came on about detecting an accident. My cab filled with smoke and a funny smell. I thought the car was on fire. So I jumped out ambulance and cops showed up. My car got towed to Clifton collision in Clifton Texas. Later I found out that the air bags should have deployed . All my seat belts are locked up in the front and back. But no air bag deployment. The air bag light is on. After 4 months of my vehicle in the shop with me making payments and insurance payments still no vehicle back for me. My car sits at Toyota in Waco. Jeff hunter toyota waiting on emcu for the air bags with no eta. All the seatbelts had to be cut out of the car and the air bags replaced. I have called Toyota advocate to try to resolve my problem and still no help from them. This is a major safety concern that could take someone’s life.

10/18/2023

See attached document for complaint

4/15/2024

Fuel Injector failed, causing the engine to run extremely rich, misfire, and cause severe drivability issues. Issue occurred just outside vehicle base warranty. Problem was verified and confirmed by vehicle dealership. MIL was illuminated when drivability issue and malfunction started.

7/19/2024

There's an electrical problem going on with all Toyota vehicles coming out with the new navigation system where goes out and keeps rebooting. Multiple times on cars a year have reported this issue. Causes a distraction as screen goes on and off randomly as you drive and backing up. Also without it you can't see your GPS and find routes. Just simple search and there's many complaints about this issue from consumers being affected as fast as 10 miles into owning car to month or six. Not worth repairing as goes out every other month and don't even last a year before goes out.

9/27/2025