Owners have filed 13 complaints on the Toyota 86, covering 2017–2020. The system named most often is Engine (4 reports). Worst years by volume: 2019, 2017, 2020; cleanest: 2018, 2020, 2017. 2 reports describe a crash, 2 a fire. On average the car was 2.7 years old when the problem happened.
What breaks on Toyota 86
Grouped by the system owners named — percentages are shares of all 13 86 complaints. Open any row for the full reports in owners' own words.
Engine 4 Read
Note: even though this is a Toyota vehicle, it has a Subaru Boxer 4 engine. This issue has happened twice this year, once at a stoplight back on May 20 and again Oct. 16 while in line at a Chic Filet. In both cases pressing the brake harder helped keep me from moving forward. During the second instance, I put the car…
The contact owns a 2019 Toyota 86. The contact stated while driving 30 MPH with her grandson inside the vehicle, the contact heard a tapping sound coming from engine and the vehicle lost motive power. The contact was able to pull over to the right side of the road while awaiting tow truck assistance. The contact was…
On [XXX], my 2019 Toyota 86 experienced a sudden engine failure while I was driving, causing the vehicle to lose power and become undrivable. The vehicle was towed to Camelback Toyota in Phoenix, AZ. The dealership initially diagnosed the failure as being caused by an “overfilled oil” condition. However, the vehicle…
Fuel/propulsion System 2 Read
Brand new car list then 1000 miles shuts off gas leaks from under the hood to the ground and catches on fire with the less than 5 second
Toyota knowingly & willfully has manufactured and sold defective vehicles to consumers with a known safety risk defective fuel pump making the vehicles unsafe to drive, have not notified consumers of this major safety risk, have not compensated owners for the lack of use & the decrease in value of said car. The…
Structure 2 Read
I was still amd got hitby cadillac su
As my son was driving from davenport on I-4 to connect with I-75 on his way to naples, on thursday january 10, 2019 around 10:50 am, he suddenly encountered a large metal object on the road. He had no opportunity to to move over as there where many other vehicles on the road and he had no other alternative but to…
Seat Belts 1 Read
The contact owns a 2019 toyota 86 while driving 45 mph crashed into the front quarter panel of a 2004 toyota 4 runner. The drivers and passenger seat belts released upon impact without warning. The contact received burns and wrist injuries the passenger sustained chest and head injuries and medical attention was…
Electrical System 1 Read
My dash lights started to flicker then noticed water coming from dash onto my feet. Brought my car to toyota dealership and was told nothing was wrong with it. 1 month and 1/2 later car caught fire due to electrical issue behind steering wheel. I am holding all star toyota liable
Air Bags 1 Read
My SRS warning light keeps coming on every time I start my vehicle. The warning light on my dash bord it reads check SRS air bag system.it has been doing this for at last 4 weeks it won't go away regardless
Suspension 1 Read
Right and left strut mounts struts are making noise popping noise when turning the wheel also transmission is very hot in cabin. Back up camera blanks out on hot says
Steering 1 Read
Steering wheel and front end shimmies and shakes when braking at highway speeds. Very difficult to manage on mountain highways and freeways. Please have a look at the forum thread regarding this ongoing issue on this vehicle model at this link:…
86 years to avoid — and the clean ones
Complaints per model year. More reports usually means more cars on the road as well as more trouble, so read the crash and fire columns alongside the count.
| Model year | Complaints | Top system | Crashes | Fires |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Engine,fuel/propulsion System | — | — | |
| 2019 | Air Bags | 2 | 2 | |
| 2018 | Steering,wheels | — | — | |
| 2017 | Engine | — | — |
The same model year, different builds
Every complaint carries the first 11 characters of the VIN — plant, year, body and engine. That is a production series, and complaints are spread across them very unevenly.
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Distinct production series | 13 |
| Average complaints per series | 1 |
| Worst single series | 1 complaints |
| Average age at failure | 2.7 years |
A model average of 1 hides a worst series at 1. Enter a VIN above to see the numbers for that exact build instead of the model as a whole.
Owners reported these. Find out if yours is one of them.
- Complaints matched to the exact production run, not just the model
- What the car is worth given what tends to fail on it
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How we count
Every figure here comes from complaints owners filed with NHTSA — 1,100,006 of them, covering 1,982 models built between 1981 and 2026.
A complaint is an unverified report: someone wrote down what happened to their car. It is not a confirmed defect and not a recall. What makes the volume useful is the pattern — when thousands of owners of the same build describe the same failure, that is a signal no marketing brochure will give you.
Two things we do that the source does not. First, we compute the age of the car at the moment of failure from the incident date and the model year. Second, we group complaints by the first 11 characters of the VIN — the production series — so a bad plant run does not disappear into a model-wide average.
Frequently asked questions
What are the worst years for the 86?
By complaint volume, 2019, 2017, 2020 drew the most owner reports. Bear in mind that popular years put more cars on the road, so check the crash and fire columns too.
Which 86 years are the cleanest?
2018, 2020, 2017 have the fewest complaints on file. For recent years that can simply mean the cars are young.
How many complaints does the Toyota 86 have?
13 owner complaints filed with NHTSA, covering 2017–2020. Of those, 2 describe a crash and 2 a fire.
Are these complaints verified?
No. They are unverified reports from owners. NHTSA publishes them as filed and investigates only a fraction. The value is in the pattern, not in any single report.
Can I check complaints for one specific car?
Yes — enter its VIN above. We match the first 11 characters, which identify the plant, year, body and engine, so you get complaints on that exact production series rather than the whole model.