2016 Toyota Highlander
This year drew an ordinary 109 complaints for a Toyota Highlander — the model's median is 258. What they were about is the unusual part: 8.3% of them mention looked, against 3.1% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 3 of the Toyota Highlander, which began in 2014 and ran to 2019. 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 | 109 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 258 |
| Involving a crash | 14 |
| Involving a fire | 1 |
| Recalls | 3 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 21 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- looked — 8.3% of this year's complaints, against 3.1% across the other years of this generation (2.7×). Owners wrote it as: looked, wanted, because visibility.
- straight — 6.4% of this year's complaints, against 1.5% across the other years of this generation (4.2×). Owners wrote it as: straight, oncoming, oncoming traffic.
- thought — 7.3% of this year's complaints, against 2.8% across the other years of this generation (2.7×). Owners wrote it as: thought, seen.
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
DRIVING SOUTH ON 12/20/2017, ON US-287 NEAR THE OKLAHOMA/TEXAS BORDER WITH NO OTHER VEHICLES VISIBLE IN FRONT OF US OR ONCOMING TRAFFIC, THE FRONT SECTION OF OUR SUNROOF SUDDENLY EXPLODED. LUCKILY THE SHADE WAS DRAWN OR SMALL PIECES OF GLASS WOULD HAVE FALLEN…
WHISTLING/SQUEAKING NOISE FROM ENGINE WHEN TURNED OFF AFTER DRIVING. TOOK A VIDEO AND SHOWED DEALER WHO THOUGHT IT WAS UNUSUAL BUT NO DIAGNOSIS ON MULTIPLE VISITS.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 18E107000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
- 16V775000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
- 16V420000 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 2016 Toyota Highlander? What happened to yours?
Loading comments…