2013 Toyota Highlander
This year drew an ordinary 416 complaints for a Toyota Highlander — the model's median is 238. What they were about is the unusual part: 11.1% of them mention accelerating, against 2.5% across the other years of this generation.
Last year of its generation. This Toyota Highlander ran from 2008 to 2013, 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 | 416 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 238 |
| Involving a crash | 52 |
| Recalls | 3 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 4/5 |
| EPA combined | 20 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- accelerating — 11.1% of this year's complaints, against 2.5% across the other years of this generation (4.4×). Owners wrote it as: accelerating, hesitation, hesitates, few seconds.
- couple — 6.3% of this year's complaints, against 1.3% across the other years of this generation (5×). Owners wrote it as: couple, find problem.
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
CAR HESITATES UPON ACCELERATING FROM A STOP AS IF IT WAS COASTING. IT DOESN'T HAPPEN EVERY TIME BUT IT HAS OCCURRED FROM THE DAY I BOUGHT IT. THE HESITATION CAN BE FROM 2-4 SECONDS. IT ALSO HAPPENS WHEN TURNING FROM A STOP. PLAYING WITH THE GAS PEDAL DOESN'T S…
VEHICLE HESITATES WHEN ACCELERATING, USUALLY WHEN MAKING A TURN FROM A STOP OR MOVING SLOWLY. IT IS ESPECIALLY HAZARDOUS WHEN TRYING TO MAKE A LEFT TURN IN FRONT OF ONCOMING TRAFFIC. HAS HAPPENED MULTIPLE TIMES, NOT JUST THE DATE BELOW. THE DEALER CAN NOT DUPL…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 14V148000 SEATS Fixed free of charge.
- 13V123000 EQUIPMENT
- 13V014000 AIR BAGS
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 2013 Toyota Highlander? What happened to yours?
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