all vehicles · every Tacoma year · method

Toyota Tacoma 2012

Safety complaints filed by owners in the first three years, per 1,000 sold.

0.29 per 1,000

0.8 times this nameplate’s own median · from 36 complaints filed in the first three years, of 295 ever. 95% lower bound 0.19.

Against its own model years

The model year carries far more information than the badge, so this is the comparison that matters.

Model year	Per 1,000	Complaints
2008	0.77	112
2009	1.22	156
2010	0.72	78
2011	0.22	24
2012	0.29	36
2013	0.35	53
2014	0.20	32
2015	0.27	45
2016	1.08	200
2017	0.61	118
2018	0.55	122
2019	0.58	143
2020	0.20	48
2021	0.17	42
2022	0.15	37
2023	0.17	41

What owners describe

Phrases over-represented in these complaints compared with the same component on every other vehicle. Counts are complaints containing the phrase.

Engine 122 complaints

air injection	72	59%
secondary air	72	59%
trac off	33	27%
light trac	20	17%
switching valve	15	13%
tacomas	14	12%

Fuel/Propulsion System 52 complaints

secondary	34	65%
secondary air	33	63%
air injection	31	59%
injection	31	59%
trac	17	33%
trac off	15	29%

When it breaks

20% of reported failures happened before 30,000 miles (median 57,000 miles, from 261 complaints that recorded one).

Failures arrive late and spread out, which looks like wear. Service history matters more than model year here.

What NHTSA did

1 investigation covering this model year, 1 of which list a recall campaign.

Electrical overstress

What owners and forums say

Not built yet. This panel is meant to carry community sentiment beside the filed-complaint data, so the two can be compared. Showing something weaker here would defeat its purpose.

Check this yourself

Example records behind this page:

10434747 · 10450425 · 10451669 · 10468882 · 10468883 · 10472875

Limits of this figure. It counts safety complaints filed with the federal government, which is a floor on failures and not a census: problems that only cost money are under-reported. Complaint rates also reflect how likely a brand’s owners are to file, which cannot be separated from how often the car fails. Sales are calendar-year and the denominator for this nameplate is automated checks only, not verified against an external source.