NHTSA Complaint #11715832 — 2000 TOYOTA CAMRY

@45,679 miles, the (plastic) driver door handle popped of the car when lifted without thumb just enough to begin to open the door. This was during the beginning of a big snowstorm. Luckily I was not idling the engine while cleaning the windshields or I could have been locked out of the car with the engine running. Now I must drive with 2 keys. The original owner of the vehicle, my mother was XXX when she bought it on 10/31/1999 for $23, 470 with 8 miles on the odometer; salespeople never mentioned the door handles were plastic. The failure was complete fracture all at once, not progressive; I suspect the plastic strain hardened from repetitive stress, making this a design defect rather than material quality. The driver's door latch is a safety issue; now I must struggle to enter the car, and you never know where you might be when you need quick entry, like in a rain. Paid cash w/ trade in for car. Door handle not yet repaired, but claim filed with Toyota Customer Experience Center (ref. # XXX). Request Toyota replace or repair door handle at their expense, preferably with aluminum handle on driver door lest problem recur. Also the car needs an OE solar panel to keep the battery charged for low mileage use. I replaced previous battery with new 7 yr warranty one on 1/22/25 and despite idling to recharge for 1 hr at a time, the battery now remains recurrently low. The vehicle was not sold for a given yearly mileage use, and my mom, now deceased, bought it for reliable safety during retirement & old age as my father died; the vehicle now belongs to our family trust, of which I am trustee. I request Toyota pay for a solar panel to be installed above rear window deck, on rubber tubed bolts spaced above the speakers, to keep battery recharged. Battery charge is obviously a safety issue, and idling is a pollutive, unforeseen expense. Both these issues should likely be recall issues because of the vehicle purchase price involved, as design negligence.