2007 Toyota Highlander
This year drew an ordinary 123 complaints for a Toyota Highlander — the model's median is 258. What they were about is the unusual part: 22.8% of them mention brakes, against 7.5% across the model's other years.
Last year of its generation. This Toyota Highlander ran from 2001 to 2007, so it had the whole run for its faults to be found and fixed. Last years are usually the most sorted of a generation.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 123 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 258 |
| Involving a crash | 11 |
| Involving a fire | 1 |
| Recalls | 4 |
| EPA combined | 19.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- brakes — 22.8% of this year's complaints, against 7.5% across the model's other years (3×).
- pedal — 17.9% of this year's complaints, against 7.2% across the model's other years (2.5×).
- technician — 13% of this year's complaints, against 3.2% across the model's other years (4.1×). Owners wrote it as: technician, repaired vin, where technician, contact driving.
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 CONTACT WAS DRIVING APPROXIMATELY 75 MPH UPHILL WHEN THE VEHICLE BECAME UNRESPONSIVE TO THE CONTACTS ATTEMPTS TO ACCELERATE. THE CONTACT WAS ABLE TO DRIVE AT A LOWER SPEED AND THE VEHICLE WAS TAKEN TO THE DEALER WHERE THE TECHNICIAN TEST DROVE THE VEHICLE…
WHILE HE WAS ATTEMPTING TO APPLY THE BRAKES AT 5 MPH THE PEDAL FELL TO THE FLOOR. THE VEHICLE LURCHED FORWARD OVER A STONE LEDGE. THE VEHICLE WAS TAKEN TO THE DEALERSHIP , BUT THE TECHNICIANS COULD NOT DUPLICATE THE FAILURE, THEREFORE THEY COULD NOT PROVIDE A…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 14V743000 SEATS Fixed free of charge.
- 16V396000 SEATS Fixed free of charge.
- 10V035000 EQUIPMENT Fixed free of charge.
- 10V036000 EQUIPMENT 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 2007 Toyota Highlander? What happened to yours?
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