2008 Toyota Highlander
This year drew an ordinary 403 complaints for a Toyota Highlander — the model's median is 238. What they were about is the unusual part: 9.4% of them mention cable, against 2.9% across the other years of this generation.
First year of a new generation. The Toyota Highlander was redesigned for 2008. A first year carries problems nobody has found yet, and they are found by the people who buy it — which is worth knowing before you become one of them.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 403 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 238 |
| Involving a crash | 44 |
| Involving a fire | 14 |
| Recalls | 13 |
| EPA combined | 19.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- cable — 9.4% of this year's complaints, against 2.9% across the other years of this generation (3.2×). Owners wrote it as: cable, spiral, spiral cable, airbag system.
- booster — 7.2% of this year's complaints, against 2.2% across the other years of this generation (3.3×). Owners wrote it as: booster, brake booster, trouble, brake failure.
- models — 8.2% of this year's complaints, against 3.2% across the other years of this generation (2.6×). Owners wrote it as: models, hundreds.
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 55 MPH WHEN THE AIR BAG WARNING INDICATOR ILLUMINATED CONTINUOUSLY. THE VEHICLE WAS TAKEN TO AN INDEPENDENT MECHANIC AND AN AUTHORIZED DEALER, WHO BOTH STATED THAT THE AIR BAG SPIRAL CABLE WOULD NEED TO BE REPLACED. THE VE…
WHEN THE VEHICLE WAS STARTED THE AIR BAG WARNING INDICATOR WAS CONSTANTLY ILLUMINATED. THE FAILURE RECURRED EACH TIME THE VEHICLE WAS STARTED. THE VEHICLE WAS TAKEN TO THE DEALER AND WAS DIAGNOSED THAT THE SPIRAL CABLE ASSEMBLY WAS FAULTY AND NEEDED TO BE REPL…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 14V743000 SEATS Fixed free of charge.
- 14V168000 AIR BAGS
- 16V396000 SEATS Fixed free of charge.
- 15V689000 VISIBILITY Fixed free of charge.
- 11V245000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 12V491000 VISIBILITY Fixed free of charge.
- 10V035000 EQUIPMENT Fixed free of charge.
- 09E028000 EQUIPMENT Fixed free of charge.
Showing 8 of 13. The rest are on NHTSA's site.
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 2008 Toyota Highlander? What happened to yours?
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