Reading a failure-mileage chart

2026-09-13 (September 13, 2026)

A failure-mileage chart answers a narrow question: at what mileage did owners say a problem happened in the complaints with usable mileage?

It does not show the probability that a vehicle will fail at a given mileage. To calculate that, you would need to know how many vehicles reached each mileage band without a reported failure.

Missing values change the picture

Some complaints omit mileage. Others use zero or contain implausible values. Vehicle Signal excludes missing, zero and invalid mileage and displays the number of usable observations next to the chart.

The chart uses the structured mileage field in the NHTSA bulk records. It groups reports into fixed bands, so you can compare the shape without assuming each report is mechanically equivalent.

Median is not a prediction

The median is the midpoint of the reported mileage values. Half the usable observations lie on either side, with the middle pair averaged for an even number of reports. It is not the mileage at which your vehicle should be expected to develop a problem.

Explore the 2021 Toyota RAV4 report and read the mileage methodology. Source definitions are available from NHTSA.