Unclassified problem on the 1996 Toyota Camry
22 crashes 1 fire 21 injuries 2 deaths 46 of the 52 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.
Only 8 reports for this mode came with an odometer reading, which is too few for percentiles to mean anything. The page is here because someone linked to it; treat the figures as anecdotes, and see the full report for this year instead.
When unclassified problem gets reported
Owners of the 1996 Toyota Camry report unclassified problem at a median of 110,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 95,000 miles and a quarter after 145,000 miles, from 8 reports that carried an odometer reading.
It is the 64th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 55,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 155,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 100,514 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
When the reports scatter this far, the mileage is telling you about how these cars were driven more than about the part itself.
13% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 56,011 miles | 93,393 miles | 108,500 miles | 142,500 miles | 156,525 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, 22 a crash, 1 a fire, 21 an injury and 2 a fatality 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.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 28 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2020, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 1998 at 125,000 miles.
By volume the 2007 carries the most reports, with 281; the 1996 has 52. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.
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.
Air bags failed to deploy with head on collision with pine tree,my son was driving between 35-40 MPH. He had a slight concussion,and neck was sore for couple days, he was wearing seat belts.*ak
Tl*the contact owns a 1996 toyota camry. While driving 10 MPH, the vehicle accelerated without warning. The contact was unable to stop the vehicle, which caused her to rear end another vehicle. The air bags failed to deploy. Nhtsa recall # 96e001000 (vehicle speed control) was found. The mechanic has not inspected the vehicle to determine the cause of failure. A police report was filed. The current and failure mileages were 100,000. Updated 02-01-08. *kb
Tl*the contact owns a 1996 toyota camry. While driving 45 MPH, the contact was involved in a crash and rear ended another vehicle. The air bags failed to deploy. A police report was filed. Both passengers were wearing their seat belts, but one was injured and transported to the hospital. The vehicle was severely damaged, but could still be driven. The contact has pictures. The current and failure mileages were 150,000.
Also reported on the 1996 Toyota Camry
Other engine problem
Other body or interior problem
Other brake problem
Other electrical problem
Other speed control problem
Cruise control failure
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 52 reports is not enough to publish percentiles from. It stays reachable because somebody looking at this exact car would rather see the reports than be told there are none.
Complaints are voluntary, so 52 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 unclassified problem happen on the 1996 Toyota Camry?
Across 8 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 110,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 95,000 miles and a quarter after 145,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is unclassified problem on the 1996 Toyota Camry?
52 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.6 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