2018 Toyota Highlander
This year drew an ordinary 258 complaints for a Toyota Highlander — the model's median is 238. What they were about is the unusual part: 22.1% of them mention transmission, against 5.3% 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 | 258 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 238 |
| Involving a crash | 22 |
| Involving a fire | 1 |
| Recalls | 5 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 22.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- transmission — 22.1% of this year's complaints, against 5.3% across the other years of this generation (4.2×).
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
Transmission starting making a wining noise, and was told it will fail. Toyota is well aware of this issue.
Vehicle started making a whining noise and diagnosed at Lancaster Toyota as needing a new transmission at a cost of $8500. Ended up having transmission replaced at a local transmission repair shop for $7000.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 20V682000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Fixed free of charge.
- 20V012000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Fixed free of charge.
- 18E107000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
- 17V831000 EQUIPMENT Fixed free of charge.
- 18V211000 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 2018 Toyota Highlander? What happened to yours?
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