NHTSA Complaint #11605684 — 2021 TOYOTA RAV4 PRIME

Spontaneous Shattering of Sunroof Glass while driving While driving westbound on [XXX] near Cambridge, Ohio at approximately 6:05 PM my wife and I heard what sounded like an explosion or shotgun blast on the roof of the car. We had a Thule cargo box on top, so my immediate reaction was it has blown open. I pulled off the road and opened the shade to the sunroof to see if the Thule box was damaged. It wasn't the box, it was the glass of the sunroof, which had spontaneously shattered. Pieces of glass rained down on us. Thankfully, the shade was closed, or, as the driver I would have been showered with glass while driving at 65 mph. Had we been in traffic when the explosive shattering of the glass occurred, this would have made it a dangerous event. Further, had we not had the shade closed, we would have been showered with glass fragments. There was no obvious cause. No cars were in front of us to have thrown up a rock. The Thule cargo box protected the glass from something falling from the sky. The only cause could be the glass spontaneously shattered. I had cleaned the car prior to our departure. I cleaned all of the glass surfaces, including the sunroof. There were no marks, visible damage, or scratches visible. I tried to take the car to a Toyota dealer in Oshkosh, WI, but they were unable to see me. When we returned to Maryland, I took it to Jim Coleman Toyota. I explained what had occurred and gave them photos. The information was sent to Toyota and they declined to cover the sunroof. I did a quick search after the incident and learned that this is not the first case of the sunroof glass of a 2021 RAV4 has spontaneously shattered. Toyota refuses to accept that the glass may have a manufacturing defect. The Toyota dealer estimates the cost of repair to be about $1900 and I have filed a claim against my USAA auto insurance. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)