'I Got $0 From Toyota:' Dealership Tells New York Man His RAV4 Is Safe to Drive Despite Recall. Then He Takes It on the Road

• Toyota

Highway driving is already nerve-wracking enough: you’re hurtling down the road like a ground-level missile.like an earthbound rocket, dodging potholes, tailgaters, and your own intrusive thoughts. So low-key always worrying about your car’s high speed reliability is a needless added stress.

For one New York man, that anxiety was all too real. His Toyota RAV4 began having electrical issues last year. But the dealership dismissed his concerns, “They told me nothing was wrong with the car,” says @tapforme_mtg1. 

Safe to Drive?

In a TikTok viewed 20,000 times,  @tapforme_mtg1 stands in front of the charred remains of a car. It looks like something out of a post-apocalyptic movie. If it were a cartoon, the car would be drawn like it’s disgorging the entire contents of its engine onto the asphalt.

By the time @tapforme_mtg1 had to scramble for his life out of his burning vehicle, he says he’d taken it to the dealership four times. The car would stall out mid-drive, even on the highway. Later he discovered that there was a recall for this very problem. And still the dealership purportedly kept insisting the car was “safe to drive.”

The explanations he got regarding the RAV4 ranged from “we don’t have the pieces [for a repair]” to “it’s safe.” In fact, the day before it exploded, he’d taken the car in and gotten another all clear to drive.

What Happened to His RAV4?

“See the battery cases weren’t holding the battery correctly, eventually they would shift, causing corrosion and then cars would explode,” he explains. 

Then he describes the terrifying incident: “I was inside the car when it stopped and I heard these clicking issues happening, turning into white smoke.” 

Later, when he talked with the person who investigated his car, @tapforme_mtg1 says he asked if this was an issue with the recall. The investigator reportedly couldn’t tell him because he’d seen so many exploding RAV4s that he couldn’t remember which one belonged to @tapforme_mtg1.

Gallery: 2017 Toyota RAV4

Zero Dollars 

So now @tapforme_mtg1 is down a vehicle. His reimbursement from Toyota? “Zero dollars,” he says. Nothing for a rental, nothing for a tow. “Recall was willing to pay people some money if they replaced their batteries. But for people like me whose lives were completely exploded and destroyed, I didn’t get anything.”

Meanwhile the class action lawyers “got like $13,000,” he says.

Strong Opinions

Though reactions in the comments vary, @Yingying summarized viewer feelings, “Toyota owes you a new car. Had you gone public about this with your local TV news station and named the dealership and Toyota corporate on the evening news about this, you would have gotten more.”

Another commenter reinforced that this has been an ongoing issue, “I remember when you shared the pictures last year glad you got out safely but damn man you got zero compensation is wild. That really sucks,” wrote @yargathsbadatmarvelsnap.

Another chimed in, “I’m a Toyota tech, they had an interim fix before they had a permanent fix and the interim fix came out like 1-2 years ago and if they did that and this still happened your dealership should’ve put you into a rental on Toyota corps’ dollar until the parts came in to fix the issue,” said @jorgevalerajr.

There’s still legal recourse, suggested another person, “Seriously. Contact a lawyer. Often you can pay them from the settlement money and they’ll tell you if you have a case. If you have docs proving they told you it was safe to drive, you could be in for a good payout.”

In The News

Though this is a terrifying event, @tapforme_mtg1’s experience is not singular. In 2023 CBS reported, “Toyota is recalling roughly 1.9 million RAV4 sport utility vehicles in the U.S. because the batteries can shift during sharp turns and potentially cause a fire.”

The recall affects “certain RAV4s from the 2013 through 2018 model years.” Additionally, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it has received multiple reports that the batteries may have caused fires, loss of electrical power or engine stalling. The agency also had “multiple reports of fires that started on the driver's side of the engine compartment where the battery is located.”

Toyota advises RAV4 owners to take their cars in for inspection. And not “to park the RAV4s outdoors.”

Motor1 has reached out to @tapforme_mtg1 and Toyota for comments and updates. We’ll update this article if either responds.