AutoUtility currently tracks 10 official NHTSA owner defect complaints for the 2020 Toyota Avalon. Fuel & Propulsion System issues are the most frequently reported category, appearing in 5 complaints (50% of submitted records). Among these NHTSA complaint records, 1 filing cites a crash, 1 reports one or more fatalities.

Key Problem Findings
  • Total NHTSA Complaints: 10 reports
  • #1 Reported Problem Area: Fuel & Propulsion System (5 reports • 50% of submitted complaints)
  • Secondary Problem Areas: Driver Assistance & Safety Tech (2), Air Bags & Restraints (1)
  • Crash-Citing Complaints: 1 filings
  • Fire-Citing Complaints: 0 filings
  • Complaints Reporting Injuries / Fatalities: 0 injury filings • 1 fatality filings
Reporting Methodology: Statistics describe unverified consumer submissions voluntarily filed with NHTSA. Complaint volume is not normalized for vehicle sales volume or miles driven. Multiple components can be cited within a single owner complaint submission.
Total Complaints
10
Submitted to NHTSA ODI
Crash-Citing Complaints
1
Filings citing a collision
Fire-Citing Complaints
0
Filings citing smoke or fire
Complaints Reporting Injuries
0
Filings citing one or more injuries
Complaints Reporting Fatalities
1
Consumer filings citing fatalities

Most Reported Problems for 2020 Toyota Avalon

Top automotive subsystem defect categories ranked by unique owner complaint volume in federal records

#1 Problem Area 50% of complaints

Fuel & Propulsion System

5 owner complaints submitted to NHTSA ODI
⚠️ NHTSA Recall Context

NHTSA records list 1 official safety recall campaign for this model year involving the same broad component area:

*Component overlap means an official recall exists for the same broad vehicle system. It does not establish that an individual owner complaint was caused by, covered by, or resolved through that recall.
✓ 0 crashes or fires cited
#2 Problem Area 20% of complaints

Driver Assistance & Safety Tech

2 owner complaints submitted to NHTSA ODI
⚠️ 1 crash report
#3 Problem Area 10% of complaints

Air Bags & Restraints

1 owner complaint submitted to NHTSA ODI
⚠️ NHTSA Recall Context

NHTSA records list 2 official safety recall campaigns for this model year involving the same broad component area:

*Component overlap means an official recall exists for the same broad vehicle system. It does not establish that an individual owner complaint was caused by, covered by, or resolved through that recall.
✓ 0 crashes or fires cited
#4 Problem Area 10% of complaints

Steering System

1 owner complaint submitted to NHTSA ODI
✓ 0 crashes or fires cited
#5 Problem Area 10% of complaints

Brakes & Traction Control

1 owner complaint submitted to NHTSA ODI
⚠️ 1 crash report
Domain Share Note: Share percentage represents the proportion of unique complaint filings referencing each vehicle system. Because single complaints may cite multiple systems (such as engine and electrical simultaneously), domain percentages represent individual category incidence and may sum to over 100%.

Recent NHTSA Owner Reports for 2020 Toyota Avalon

Representative defect filings submitted by owners to the NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation

Fuel & Propulsion System NHTSA ODI ID: #11703613
Filed: 12/08/2025

"A couple of months ago, my car started running a little rough as it would sit in idle mode. When suddenly my check engine light came on. I checked the codes and they seemed to be P0445 Evaporitive emission system leak detected (large leak). And P0441 Evaporative emission system. Incorrect Purge..."

Incident Date: 10/10/2025 • Raw NHTSA Component: FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM
Air Bags & Restraints NHTSA ODI ID: #11625964
Filed: 11/18/2024

"To Whom It May Concern, I am filing this complaint to report Right Toyota in Scottsdale, Arizona, and Toyota Motor Corporation for their mishandling of a critical airbag safety recall (23TA15) on my 2020 Toyota Avalon Hybrid. The lack of transparency, misleading information, and failure to provide..."

Incident Date: 08/23/2024 • Raw NHTSA Component: AIR BAGS
Steering System NHTSA ODI ID: #11602383
Filed: 07/15/2024

"TIE ROD LOOSE I heard a clunking noise while turning the steering wheel to the left at very low speeds. Took car in for service Service Mechanic found left outer tie rod end "with play, loose" Safety issue: potential loss of steering ability while driving Vehicle has been inspected and repaired -..."

Incident Date: 07/10/2024 • Raw NHTSA Component: STEERING
Fuel & Propulsion System NHTSA ODI ID: #11556756
Filed: 11/25/2023

"When refueling vehicle, gasoline backs up immediately, doesn't shut off gas hose and pours out all over vehicle and feet of person refueling. Today is the 4th time it's happened. It's been to Gettle Toyota of Lakewood in Bradenton FL for this exact complaint and was told there's nothing wrong with..."

Incident Date: 11/25/2023 • Raw NHTSA Component: FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM
Driver Assistance & Safety Tech NHTSA ODI ID: #11476773
Filed: 07/31/2022

"on 3 lane expressway (US422)about 1/4 mile from where the lanes split( see attached). No cars in front of me but cars in the lane to my left slowed. My car suddenly braked causing the car behind me to swerve to my right to avoid a collision. The adaptive breaking (incorrectly) determined that there..."

Incident Date: 07/31/2022 • Raw NHTSA Component: VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE
Consumer Narrative Notice: Excerpts are sanitized text descriptions submitted by vehicle owners to the federal ODI database. They reflect the reporting consumer's observations at the time of filing and have not been independently confirmed by vehicle manufacturers or government investigators.

Complaint History for Toyota Avalon

Reported defect complaint volume across sibling model years (2015–2022)

Model Year NHTSA Complaints Crash Reports Safety Recalls Detailed Report
2015 Toyota Avalon 53 8 2 View 2015 Problems →
2016 Toyota Avalon 25 2 4 View 2016 Problems →
2017 Toyota Avalon 14 2 2 View 2017 Problems →
2018 Toyota Avalon 25 7 2 View 2018 Problems →
2019 Toyota Avalon 69 4 5 View 2019 Problems →
2020 Toyota Avalon Current Page 10 1 4 Current
2021 Toyota Avalon 27 2 2 View 2021 Problems →
2022 Toyota Avalon 8 1 0 View 2022 Problems →
Comparative Disclaimer: Complaint totals are unadjusted historical counts and are not normalized for vehicles sold, active fleet size, or total road mileage. Newer model years naturally have had less calendar exposure time to accumulate owner filings.

Detailed NHTSA Component Breakdown for 2020 Toyota Avalon

Complete distribution of consumer defect reports across all 6 granular NHTSA system and subsystem classifications

Vehicle Component / System Total Complaints Crash Reports Fire Reports Reported Injury Entries Reported Fatality Entries
Fuel & Propulsion System NHTSA category: FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM 5 0 0 0 0
Air Bags NHTSA category: AIR BAGS 1 0 0 0 0
SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 1 1 0 0 1
Steering NHTSA category: STEERING 1 0 0 0 0
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 1 0 0 0 0
Visibility / Glass NHTSA category: VISIBILITY 1 0 0 0 0
Data Attribution & Reporting Methodology: Complaints are unverified voluntary submissions to the NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation (ODI). Because multiple vehicle components can be cited within a single owner complaint submission, component-level rollups may sum to more than the unique complaint count (10). Injury and fatality entries in the detailed table reflect raw values entered by reporting consumers across individual submissions; they are not deduplicated casualty statistics and may include duplicate or unverified entries. Complaint volume is not normalized for sales volume or vehicle mileage and does not represent an audited component failure rate.

Official NHTSA Defect Investigations (1)

1 CLOSED

Formal safety defect inquiries and engineering analyses opened by the NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation (ODI)

Official Federal Inquiries: NHTSA opens a defect investigation when safety screening or consumer defect trends indicate a potential unreasonable safety risk. An open investigation is a formal inquiry and does not by itself confirm a defect or result in a mandatory recall.
CLOSED Defect Petition (DP) ODI Action #DP22005
Opened: 2023-01-27 • Closed: 2023-08-07

Pedestrian alert sounds

Affected Component: ELECTRICAL SYSTEM:PROPULSION SYSTEM

NHTSA received a petition on or about July 18, 2022, requesting that Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) 141 be applied to all electric and hybrid vehicles operating in the United States. The petition can be reviewed at NHTSA.gov under ODI Number 11486072. FMVSS 141 establishes performance requirements for pedestrian alert sounds for motor vehicles. The standard applies to hybrid and electric vehicles that have a gross vehicle weight ra...

✓ Resulted in Safety Recall Campaign: 22V063000 Official NHTSA File →
Official US Government Data Provenance

The complaint records on this page are retrieved directly from the NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) public database.

Local Production Store Compiled: August 2026 • Deterministic Audited Dataset • Zero Dynamic External API Runtime Latency.