2024 Toyota Corolla: What to check before buying

Sudden stalling and loss of power lead this category. Dealers often trace these cases to a low 12-volt battery. Drivers see messages such as "Engine stopped, power steering low" or hybrid system warnings, and charging or replacing the battery does not always cure the fault. Hybrid owners report losing power brake assist tied to the Skid Control ECU recall, including a repeat failure after the recall fix. Startup failures where the car cannot detect the key fob come up often. One report involves a fatal crash. Others describe cold-start misfires, a high-pitched A/C whine, and a liftgate that stopped opening after the brake recall.

Slipping in the CVT and clutch is the main complaint. Owners describe hesitation from a stop, jerking, surging, and random transmission slips at 20 to 40 mph. Some cars lose forward power on the highway and need a tow. Transmission replacements come early, including one at 7,000 miles and an AWD CVT after 6 months. Manual-transmission owners report the clutch slipping in upper gears, and one failed clutch was denied under warranty as a wear item. Another car showed a Drive Start Control malfunction and could barely move. Dealers often find nothing wrong.

Cars pull hard to one side on their own, or the wheel locks up, and some end up hitting guardrails, poles, curbs, and medians. Two of these reports are crashes, and some cars were nearly new, with under 100 or 5,700 miles. Other owners stall out with an "Engine stopped, steering power low" message and stay stuck in traffic until they restart the car. Some describe a wheel that stiffens for 3 to 4 seconds while merging or stays off-center after turns. Dealers frequently cannot reproduce the problem.

Low-beam headlights throw shadows and dark bands across the road, worst on curves, hills, and left turns. Drivers end up using high beams. Toyota and dealers call this normal design, and adjusting the lights does not fix it. The problem shows up from new, as early as 3 miles in one report. Other complaints describe a headlight failure warning that dealers could not repair, cracked headlight lenses with dim output, weak taillights on the Corolla Cross Hybrid, and a touchscreen that brightens at night. That brightening screen played a part in one minor crash.

The most serious reports describe brakes that stop working or feel soft. One highway crash injured 4 people, and in another case the pedal went to the floor. The second pattern is the Pre-Collision System braking hard with nothing in the way. Parked cars on bends, a cyclist, or an empty parking lot set it off, and owners fear being rear-ended after these false stops. In one case the soft brakes came back after a dealer brake bleed. Several reports concern the Corolla Cross.

False automatic emergency braking brings the car to a full stop with nothing ahead. It happens at around 15 to 20 mph, and in one case at 60 mph on the highway. One driver says it happened after the pre-collision recall was done. Adaptive cruise control also misbehaves. It misses sedans and small SUVs in rain without warning the driver, and it drops out on long downhill grades and rough bumps. Dealers found no fault in these cases. Most of the reports involve the Corolla Cross.

Every report in this category describes airbags that did not deploy in a crash, and every one involves injuries. The crashes include a side impact at about 25 mph, a rear-end collision, and a multi-vehicle crash where the driver had to be cut out. One car showed an SRS malfunction warning after the crash, and the dealer cleared the code without writing a report. Another owner says emergency braking also failed, even though the skid control and braking recall had been done. In at least one case, Toyota's inspection found no failure.

In both reports the car moves forward or fails to stop at parking-lot speeds, and both end in collisions. One car moved ahead with the brake pressed during the shift into park and rear-ended a parked vehicle at 3 to 4 mph. The insurer declared it a total loss. The other rolled over a curb after a left turn into a parking space, and that owner reports an earlier similar incident and links the problem to a recall. No airbags deployed in these low-speed impacts.