2005 Toyota Highlander
This year drew an ordinary 225 complaints for a Toyota Highlander — the model's median is 258. What they were about is the unusual part: 13.3% of them mention accelerated, against 5.2% across the model's other years.
Generation 1 of the Toyota Highlander, which began in 2001 and ran to 2007. Everything below compares this year against the others in that generation, not against a different car wearing the same name.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 225 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 258 |
| Involving a crash | 35 |
| Involving a fire | 4 |
| Recalls | 6 |
| EPA combined | 20 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- accelerated — 13.3% of this year's complaints, against 5.2% across the model's other years (2.6×). Owners wrote it as: accelerated, crashed, vehicle accelerated, abnormally.
- floor — 9.3% of this year's complaints, against 2.8% across the model's other years (3.3×). Owners wrote it as: floor, suffered, severely.
- gas pedal — 8% of this year's complaints, against 2.3% across the model's other years (3.5×). Owners wrote it as: gas pedal, purchased car, speed mph.
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
What owners wrote
THE VEHICLE WAS STARTED AND AS THE CONTACT SHIFTED INTO DRIVE, THE VEHICLE ABNORMALLY [VIN] AND CRASHED INTO A HOUSE. A POLICE REPORT WAS FILED BUT NO INJURIES WERE REPORTED. THE VEHICLE WAS NOT YET TAKEN TO HAVE THE FAILURE DIAGNOSED OR REPAIRED. THE FAILURE…
SHE WAS PARKING THE VEHICLE IN HER GARAGE AT A RELATIVELY LOW SPEED. HER FOOT WAS ON THE BRAKE AND THE VEHICLE WAS SHIFTED TO PARK WHEN THE VEHICLE ABNORMALLY [VIN] AND CRASHED INTO THE GARAGE WALL. THE CONTACT WAS NOT INJURED. THE VEHICLE SUSTAINED MODERATE F…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 16V396000 SEATS Fixed free of charge.
- 11V539000 ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING
- 11V112000 VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
- 10V035000 EQUIPMENT Fixed free of charge.
- 06V253000 VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL Fixed free of charge.
- 10V499000 SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Toyota Highlander was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2005 Toyota Highlander? What happened to yours?
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