NHTSA Complaint #11463140 — 2005 TOYOTA SIENNA

Our rear sliding doors have presented problems for us repeatedly in getting stuck so that passengers in the back cannot open their doors even with the doors unlocked and the child safety latch off. This can happen at all times of the year, in all kinds of weather. The doors can also freeze shut in the winter, especially when there's been rain or ice, as there is not a cover preventing moisture from getting into the door jams. At least with the freezing, we can eventually warm the car up or heat it up from outside, but the other issue, apart from weather, is quite disconcerting. Sometimes the passenger has had to be let out by someone outside the car, sometimes they've just had to climb over the front seat to get out the front door. This seems extremely dangerous considering there could be an emergency situation where it is a life or death matter for passengers to be able to get out of the car quickly on their own. We have at times transported numerous college students back to their university from meetings, only to find when we arrived at their stop, they couldn't open their doors to get out. We even had Toyota supposedly "fix" them for a high fee, only to find the door issue getting worse and worse very soon after. What is worse is that many, many people and reports speak of the problems with these doors but Toyota doesn't seem to do anything about it. I fear they are waiting until people do die before they take care of the problem. As a mother, I worry every time we have our daughter or others in the back seat/s to go anywhere, as we fear the inability of them to be able to get out of the car in case of any kind of emergency, let alone just trying to get out under normal circumstances. This is the first I've seen anyplace to write a complaint aside from trying to get Toyota to take care of it. Also, the questions below do not allow for accurate, if any information. There is no one date when this happened for us. It happens very often, but the form fills in a date.