Consumer Complaints
| Fail date | miles | occurences | Purchase date |
|---|---|---|---|
| ENGINE | |||
| 03/02/2013 | 106083 | ||
| I was exiting a parking lot onto the street. i suddenly lost power while i was waiting to merge into traffic. my car was in drive but i had my foot on the break when my car went dead. there were warnings flashing at me from my dashboard. i put my car in park. turned off the engine and restarted my car but the same thing happened plus i began to roll backwards do to the slight incline in the parking lot exit. i quickly put my car in park again, turned on my hazard lights, and waived the cars behind me to go around. i was able to put my car in reverse and back it up to a safe area in the parking lot. i called the toyota dealership in charlotte where i purchased the car at and continued having it serviced. they told me to have it towed to the nearest dealership immediately. i called the service department at team toyota mall of ga to let them know i was bringing it in. after their mechanic determined it was the faulty inverter in the transmission, i was told it would cost me $8,000 to fix it. i still owed $15,000 on the car. i found out about the recall on 2006-2007 highlander hybrids for the same faulty inverter. the dealership said my car was ineligible for the recall since the vin was not listed. i called toyota as advised and opened a case number. i received the worst customer service and constant run around from toyota. they offered to give me $1,000 towards the repairs or $2,500 for a new or toyota certified used vehicle. i'm still waiting to find out why my car wasn't included on the list though it met the criteria. i am truly shocked by the dismissive attitude i'm currently getting from toyota as if they didn't know about the faulty inverter. my car broke down on my way home to north carolina. now i'm trapped in georgia with no way of getting home to my husband and children. i'm still waiting on toyota's decision about my case, in ga. | |||
| 09/03/2012 | 40162 | ||
| Tl-the contact owns a 2007 toyota highlander hybrid. while driving approximately 55 mph, the engine stalled without any prior warning. the engine failed to restart and was towed to an authorized dealer who stated that the faulty spark plug coil pack contributed to the engine malfunction. the vehicle was repaired under the service warranty. the manufacturer was notified of the defect. the approximate failure mileage was 40,162. kmj | |||
| 09/03/2012 | 40162 | ||
| Tl-the contact owns a 2007 toyota highlander hybrid. while driving approximately 55 mph, the engine stalled without any prior warning. the engine failed to restart and was towed to an authorized dealer who stated the faulty spark plug coil pack contributed to the engine malfunction. the vehicle was repaired under the service warranty. the manufacturer was notified of the defect. the approximate failure mileage was 40,162. js | |||
| 08/19/2012 | 107000 | ||
| Tl- the contact owns a 2007 toyota highlander hybrid. the contact was driving 50 mph when the vehicle stalled. the vehicle was taken to a dealer for diagnosis and the contact was informed that the inverter failed. the vehicle was not repaired. the manufacturer was notified but offered no assistance. the vin was unavailable. the failure and current mileages were 107,000. kmj | |||
| 08/19/2012 | 107000 | ||
| Tl- the contact owns a 2007 toyota highlander hybrid. the contact stated while driving 50 mph the vehicle stalled. the vehicle was taken to a dealer for diagnosis and was informed that the inverter failed. the vehicle was not repaired. the manufacturer was notified but offered no assistance. the vin was unavailable. the failure and current mileages 107,000. dt | |||
| 08/12/2012 | 106000 | ||
| Tl- the contact owns a 2007 toyota highlander hybrid. the contact stated that while driving 20 mph the vehicle stalled and failed to restart. the vehicle was towed to an independent mechanic who diagnosed that the hybrid inverter failed and needed to be replaced. the manufacturer was made aware of the failure. the vehicle was not repaired. the failure and current mileages was 106,000. pmb | |||
| 08/12/2012 | 106000 | ||
| Tl- the contact owns a 2007 toyota highlander hybrid. the contact was driving 20 mph when the vehicle stalled. the vehicle failed to restart. the vehicle was towed to a private mechanic. the mechanic confirmed the hybrid inverter failed and needed to be replaced. the manufacturer was contacted. the vehicle was not repaired. the failure and current mileages were 106,000 . rds | |||
| ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING | |||
| 04/18/2012 | 124000 | ||
| While driving this vehicle on rt 138 in newport ri, i was accelerating and suddenly experienced a complete loss of power and was able to coast the vehicle out of the travel portion of the roadway. vehicle required a flatbed tow truck to bring it to balise toyota in warwick ri. service department informed me that the inverter had failed and that the repair estimate would be approximately $9400. after researching on the internet i found that this was a fairly common problem with the 2006 and 2007 models and that there had been a recall for certain models. my vehicle's vin does not fall under the recall and the inverter. i have contacted toyota's coroprate office regarding this problem, neither corporate nor the dealer offered up the information that nearly 100,000 of these vehicles had been recalled for this issue. i asked the people in service if there was a chance that my vehicle was affected by the recall. they looked up the part number for my inverter p/n g9200-48031 s/n ph09ym084 and told me that it was not a recall item. the failure mode resembles the multitude of failures that were covered under the recall which leads me to believe that the recall was not broad enough in its scope. i have yet to hear back from toyota on what if anything they are going to do to absorb this out of control repair cost. | |||
| 09/25/2011 | 19300 | ||
| While driving on a highway at 65mph, the vehicle suddenly lost all power. i managed to steer car off to side of road, narrowly avoiding accident. the car did restart, but this stalling and power shut off reoccurred once more. dealership (dunning toyota, ann arbor, mi) examined car; test drove it; and said nothing was wrong. i indicated that there was a real problem and safety concern. after my prodding, they admintted that there was, in fact, a voluntary recall, but the needed parts were unavailable. it is one thing to postpone treating a car for a voluntary recall when that car has not experienced the problem. my car, however, has had this problem and i feel the manufacturer should find the needed part to repair the car to ensure its safety. i asked to have the service manager call me back but i have not yet received that call. | |||