NHTSA Complaint #11650394 — 2012 TOYOTA RAV4

Over the last several years, I have experienced a minimum of four, possibly one or two more, incidents of this vehicle accelerating at a high rate while I have had my foot on the brake. In all of these cases, I was braking to come to a stop - braking quickly and hard in a couple cases. While braking and slowing, my engine revved/accelerated at a very high rate. In all of these incidents, I changed gears to neutral, and the acceleration stopped. These incidents were random and very far apart from one another in terms of time. In all cases, my foot was firmly (and only) on the brake pedal, and my floor mat was in the proper position and secure. There was nothing in contact with the acceleration pedal. On Monday, March 10, 2025, I got into my car in our garage to go to work. The car started normally. When I put my car into reverse, the engine started revving/accelerating at a very high rate and it was lurching, like it was trying to move. Luckily, my foot was firmly on the brake, and the brake held. I quickly put the car back into park, and the engine began revving/accelerating at an even higher rate. I then turned the car off. Again, I checked my floor mat, and it was in place and secured, my foot was only on the brake pedal, and there was nothing touching the acceleration pedal. This was a frightening experience, and at that point I decided that I would never drive this car again. If I did not have my brake firmly engaged, my car would have shot out of my garage when I put it in reverse. Upon researching the problem, my husband and I read about the unintended acceleration that many people have experienced with Toyotas, causing numerous deaths and injuries, and about the class action law suit with Toyota. Although the investigation seemed to chalk the incidents up to "user error" - foot being on the wrong pedal, floor mats affecting the acceleration pedal, etc. - I know with 100% confidence that none of these were the case. I will be notifying Toyota, as well.