Cruise control failure on the 2005 Toyota Camry
7 crashes 3 injuries 10 of the 10 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 cruise control failure gets reported
Owners of the 2005 Toyota Camry report cruise control failure at a median of 5,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 5,000 miles and a quarter after 25,000 miles, from 10 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 72,000 miles. It is the 18th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 300 miles at the tenth percentile to 35,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 32,750 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
Reports bunched into a band this tight usually mean the component has a life of its own: it goes at roughly the same mileage regardless of who owns it.
90% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 330 miles | 3,526 miles | 6,450 miles | 27,485 miles | 33,080 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, 7 a crash and 3 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 $200–$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 26 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2016, at a median of 400 miles, and latest on the 2004 at 150,000 miles.
By volume the 2007 carries the most reports, with 71; the 2005 has 10. 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.
New vehicle driven 108 miles. The only problens notices was the radio would turn itself on when hitting a slight bump in the road. Cruise control light did not go off when brakes were engaged, but would disconnect cruise control. Was parking in a mall parking lot parrall to access road. Speed no more than 1 or 2 MPH. Front wheel dropped into hole. The accelorator caused the car to lurch forward. Applied brakes but was unable to keep car from moving forward at a slow speed of 5 MPH. Turned right, to avoid striking handicap parking sign, into the path of a pickup truck traveling on mall access road. Struck truck and continued forward toward pedestrians on sidewalk. Managed to avoid them and the engined stopped at that point. I applied the brake so hard I injured my right hamstring muscle and was unable to walk. Toyota seized vehicle for inspection and has not released or inspected it as of this date.
Dt: 2005 toyota camry xle, cruise control does not hold vehicle back. This is not a problem on level ground or up hill. If the vehicle is going down hill, the cruise control will not stay, causing the vehicle to accelerate at a faster speed than is safe under the circumstances. After the consumer purchased the vehicle, the dealer and the manufacturer told consumer that was the way the vehicle performed. Consumer considers this is a safety issue, and it is not acceptable, consumer filed a complaint # 20050706 on july 6, 2005 with toyota. There are no other known problems with this vehicle and it is still under warranty. *ak
Dt: the cruise control took off and accelerated on its own. Went two yards and hit a telephone pole. Upon impact, the air bags did deploy. Contacted toyota, there were supposed to call back, come and look at vehicle. . This happened on august 12, 2005. The consumer did not want to give phone number.*ak
Also reported on the 2005 Toyota Camry
Other speed control problem
Other powertrain problem
Seat belt or retractor failure
Other brake problem
Other engine problem
Airbag failed to deploy in a crash
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 10 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 cruise control failure happen on the 2005 Toyota Camry?
Across 10 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 5,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 5,000 miles and a quarter after 25,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is cruise control failure on the 2005 Toyota Camry?
10 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.3 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