2017 Toyota Highlander
This year drew an ordinary 261 complaints for a Toyota Highlander — the model's median is 238. What they were about is the unusual part: 22.2% 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 | 261 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 238 |
| Involving a crash | 18 |
| Involving a fire | 2 |
| Recalls | 4 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 22.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- transmission — 22.2% of this year's complaints, against 5.3% across the other years of this generation (4.2×).
- upon — 14.6% of this year's complaints, against 5.3% across the other years of this generation (2.8×). Owners wrote it as: upon, stated upon, our 2017, highlander vin.
- pump — 10% of this year's complaints, against 3.7% across the other years of this generation (2.7×). Owners wrote it as: pump, fuel pump, reduced, water pump.
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
I own a 2017 Toyota Highlander with 6 cylinders (engine model 2GR-FKS). It has 107,000 miles. I brought it to my dealer for inspection and service, and noted that it was making a whirring/whining sound upon acceleration. There were no warning messages on the d…
upon starting the vehicle, she heard abnormal clicking sounds. There was no warning light illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the dealer who diagnosed that the water pump had failed and needed to be replaced. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure.…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 18E107000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
- 17V520000 EQUIPMENT Fixed free of charge.
- 17V295000 TIRES Fixed free of charge.
- 20V682000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE 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 2017 Toyota Highlander? What happened to yours?
Loading comments…