Other visibility problem on the 2013 Toyota Avalon
1 fire 2 injuries 3 of the 26 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
When other visibility problem gets reported
Owners of the 2013 Toyota Avalon report other visibility problem at a median of 10,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 1,500 miles and a quarter after 40,000 miles, from 16 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 75,000 miles. It is the 1st most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 600 miles at the tenth percentile to 75,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 74,400 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A spread this wide points at use rather than design. Towing, climate, service history and city mileage all move a failure like this, so the median is a weak guide to any individual car.
69% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 600 miles | 1,525 miles | 10,200 miles | 39,500 miles | 75,000 miles |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Of these reports, 1 a fire and 2 an injury are mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
Putting it right typically runs $150–$1,400 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 14 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2013, at a median of 10,000 miles, and latest on the 2009 at 120,000 miles.
By volume the 2013 is the worst of them, which makes this a problem of this specific year rather than of the model as a whole.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
There is a glare in the rear window that tends to always have a negative effect on visibility. I have never seen anything like this in my 40 years of driving and owning over 20 vehicles. It seems the angle of the window combined with the light gray rear deck material creates the distracting reflection/glare. At first I thought it was the port installed tinting that caused the reflection, but now I am beginning to think it is a design flaw. Also, I see you need my name and personal information on this form and you are promising to keep it confidential and private. Now how can anyone trust any government agency these days to protect information when one of the main functions of our government seems to be spying on all the citizens and acting like the ussr circa 1960? *tr
Complaint: sun glare reflection coming from dashboard, safety issue, similar to nets. On 04/01/13, james fewel toyota national hq, documented my dash glare issue under file #[xxx]: on 3-16-2013, we purchased a 2013 avalon from coggin toyota jacksonville. It has fl legal window tinting. The dash's chrome trim causes a glare issue on a sunny day, causing bright glare due to the amount of dashboard trim that is silver/chrome. It is a safety issue when there is so much glare coming from the dash area. What is toyota's recommendation is to rectify the issue? On 05/21/13, [xxx], service director, toyota avenues, responded: [xxx], I forwarded your pictures to our tech dept as well as submitted a product quality case. Response back from manufacturer has been that there is nothing that can be changed at this time to keep the glare coming off of the chrome trim panels. The ref for the dealer product report is case # [xxx] if you wish to call the cust spt center to update your case. Thank you, [xxx], toyota avenues [xxx]. On 05/22/2013 [xxx] at toyota hq responded: [xxx], we are sorry for the concerns this condition has caused and have…
Tl* the contact owns a 2013 toyota avalon. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds, there was a constant glare from the dashboard, affecting the contact's visibility of the roadway. The contact believed the failure to be a serious safety issue since he was unable to see approaching vehicles. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where the technician stated that he was unable to alter the design of the vehicle. However, the technician opted to clean the dashboard and windshield as a temporary remedy. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was 700 and the current mileage was 767. Updated 11/20/13*cn
Also reported on the 2013 Toyota Avalon
Other body or interior problem
Other speed control problem
Sunroof failure or glass breakage
Other electrical problem
Other brake problem
Wiring harness or short circuit
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 26 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does other visibility problem happen on the 2013 Toyota Avalon?
Across 16 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 10,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 1,500 miles and a quarter after 40,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other visibility problem on the 2013 Toyota Avalon?
26 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.2 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed