NHTSA Complaint #11694646 — 2025 TOYOTA RAV4 PLUG-IN HYBRID

With the car stopped & the transmission in the Drive or Reverse position with foot off the brake pedal: 1. Pushing the Power button once to turn the car off results in the transmission automatically shifting from Drive or Reverse to Neutral without automatically setting the Parking Brake. 2. If the car's front-end is on a slope pointed up-slope the car will freely roll backwards. If the car's front-end is pointed down slope the car will freely roll forward. The above sequence is very dangerous when on a steep slope. This problem was first experienced in a Home Depot parking lot that was uneven. Parked with the nose up-slope in a small depression. The Power button was pushed while the transmission was still in the Drive position & the car immediately started rolling backwards. Fortunately, nobody was behind the car. I quickly pushed the brake pedal to stop the rolling. The proper way to shut off the car, of course, is to put the transmission in the Park position first, which automatically engages the Parking brake, confirmed by a light on the manual Parking Brake switch. I also own a 2007 Prius, bout new. That car has a paddle trans lever, Parking Brake & Power switches. The parking brake is all mechanical with a parking brake pedal. Whereas the 2025 RAV4 does NOT have a parking brake pedal -- it has a switch. Pushing the Prius' Power Switch (off) automatically locks the transmission regardless of the trans mode (D, R, N) such that the front wheels lock& the car will not move, regardless of the parking brake setting. Thus, the Prius is intrinsically safe with locked front wheels unable to turn on a slope regardless of the parking brake setting. I discussed this with Toyota & my dealer. The dealer reported another customer had also complained about this problem. Toyota quickly closed my complaint #251006003193 with no explanation stated. See the attached PDF doc.