The Toyota Camry is the quintessential reliable car, to hear many satisfied owners tell it. However, there’s one woman out there with a 2023 edition who begs to differ.
The video documenting a concerning issue with the car comes from creator Karli Slaten (@karli.slaten). It has over 178,000 views.
“Is there anyone that can explain to me why my brand-new car—it’s a 2023, but I bought it in ’22, so it was brand-new. … Why [would] a new car … be leaking like this?”
She then takes viewers on an unsettling tour of what is clearly water damage to the trunk of her car. “This is my trunk,” she narrates. “You can see that’s all water. That’s mold,” pointing to spots in the car that appear to be a whitish mold.
“That’s water,” she then repeats, referring to a rust-colored pool near the spare tire in the trunk.
She then explains that when she reached out to the receptionist at the dealership, the person who would have been able to help her wasn’t in. She tried two more times, without luck, she says, leaving her at an apparent impasse.
“So, Toyota, you need to tell me what I need to do with my car. This should not be happening,” she adds.
Rating the Camry
Car and Driver, in rating the 2023 Camry, assigned it 8.5 out of 10 stars and praised it as a paragon of dependability.
“The Camry is a mainstay of the midsize sedan segment, which has been losing both entries and sales in recent years as the world has embraced SUVs,” that review started. “Nevertheless, while the market has changed, the Camry has continued to top the sales charts as the number-one selling passenger car, a spot it’s held for the past twenty years. It has a well-earned reputation reliability, and it offers a hybridized version that returns exceptional fuel economy.”
The review goes on to note that the interior leaves a bit to be desired.
“There’s a serious gap in material quality between the entry-level models and the more expensive versions, and the center section of the dashboard left some of us cold with its uninspired design,” the reviewer observes.
And water leak issues in Camrys aren’t entirely unheard of. A Redditor who posted in the r/Camry subreddit wondered about the source of a water leak around the passenger door doing damage to a ’22 edition.
“At first I thought it was a faulty door gasket, but upon further inspection it appears that water is coming in from between the two trim pieces,” the poster said. “I am taking it to the dealer next week.”
“Most of the new Toyotas have water intrusion issues including the RAV4 Corolla and Camry,” shared one respondent. “Cars with roof rails leak water into the headliner. And the door plugs on the doors get blocked up and fills your door with water and you have electronics in your door sitting in a pool of water. You definitely wanna take that in for warranty work right away.”
Taking it to the people
Slaten does ask in her video if anyone could explain it to her. And some obliged, including a group positing it could be a sunroof, which led her to post a response video around that specific theory that didn’t hold—because her car doesn’t have a sunroof.
“Call headquarters,” counseled one. “Also let them know which dealership is giving you the runaround.”
“Why are you waiting for them to call you?” urged another. “Why haven’t you taken it to the dealership? When you go in there, Toyota is notified when the car comes in and they have to fix it. They can’t say no.”
“This happened to me with my brand new 2014 Durango,” shared another. “Took an act of Congress to get [the] dealership to fix it.”
“I had a leaky Toyota! In a different spot,” someone else shared. “Show up at the dealership and make them handle it. They fixed me up after I was persistent. I actually ended up getting them to give me a different car because mine was an interior leak that affected my carpet & the car smelled weird.”
That narrative got a response from Slater indicating there might be a Part 2 video in the making.
“I actually went up there today and they told me there was nothing they could do,” Slater shared. “It was the service MANAGER who looked at my trunk and said that.”
Then she did a very 2025 thing.
“I just asked ChatGPT the general manager’s name and it gave me his phone number and email! I’m going to call tomorrow!”
@karli.slaten @Toyota this shouldn’t be happening to my car. i need someone to tell me what i need to do. #fyp #newcarfail #toyotacamry #fypシ゚viral #reachtherightaudience ♬ original sound – KARLI🤎WIFEY
The Daily Dot has reached out to Slater via Instagram direct message and TikTok comment and to Toyota via email.
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