all vehicles · every Highlander year · method

Toyota Highlander 2009

Safety complaints filed by owners in the first three years, per 1,000 sold.

0.49 per 1,000

1.0 times this nameplate’s own median · from 46 complaints filed in the first three years, of 174 ever. 95% lower bound 0.35.

Against its own model years

The model year carries far more information than the badge, so this is the comparison that matters.

Model year	Per 1,000	Complaints
2008	1.37	143
2009	0.49	46
2010	0.62	54
2011	0.46	44
2012	0.40	44
2013	0.65	81
2014	0.29	40
2015	0.49	75
2016	0.28	49
2017	0.41	84
2018	0.44	102
2019	0.62	151
2020	0.30	68
2021	0.52	124
2022	0.51	123
2023	0.67	131

What owners describe

Phrases over-represented in these complaints compared with the same component on every other vehicle. Counts are complaints containing the phrase.

Service Brakes 55 complaints

actuator	26	46%
brake actuator	13	24%
malfunction	10	18%

When it breaks

32% of reported failures happened before 30,000 miles (median 60,200 miles, from 139 complaints that recorded one).

No clear early or late pattern.

What NHTSA did

3 investigations covering this model year, 1 of which list a recall campaign.

Steering Column Separation

What owners and forums say

Not built yet. This panel is meant to carry community sentiment beside the filed-complaint data, so the two can be compared. Showing something weaker here would defeat its purpose.

Check this yourself

Example records behind this page:

10263737 · 10279530 · 10292349 · 10293809 · 10302531 · 10302943

Limits of this figure. It counts safety complaints filed with the federal government, which is a floor on failures and not a census: problems that only cost money are under-reported. Complaint rates also reflect how likely a brand’s owners are to file, which cannot be separated from how often the car fails. Sales are calendar-year and the denominator for this nameplate is automated checks only, not verified against an external source.