NHTSA Complaint #11555958 — 2021 TOYOTA VENZA

On a trip out of town, after cruising for 3 hours on I-65, The drive power suddenly stopped and stuttered. The announcement screen started flashing a jumble of messages which only added to the hazard. First message was " Your feet are on the brake and accelerator." My feet were on the floor. We were on cruise control. I put on the emergency flashers to warn traffic not to run into us. The highway ran through a water filled swamp with the shoulder too narrow to be safe. I eased off on the power and pulled off the next exit which was a half mile away and coasted to a stop in a parking lot. It appeared to be overheating in the motor drive so we let it cool while locating a dealer. We struggled to get to the dealer, half mile at a time with pauses to cool. Dealer tech found the coolant for Motor drive was gone. Said there was a pinhole in the radiator. Said they did not have a replacement. Called all over. No replacement in US. Discovered there was a national back order for this part. A number of these radiators had failed. We were stranded, our trip aborted and 200 miles from home. The tech resorted to a JBWeld repair of the radiator & supplied us with 2 gallons of Toyota pink coolant and we made it back home. The local dealer reported the national back order had increased. We have had no further problem until today. Checking under the hood, we found that the motor drive coolant was down near the danger point. We filled it back up and will be checking it daily until it is repaired. This incident brought to light the following engineering deficiencies: No warning of loss of coolant. This is a critical system point of failure which could cause a fatal incident which would be attributed to "Loss of Control." False and distracting messages flashed on announcement screen, compounding the danger of sudden total and erratic loss of drive power in highway traffic. The Vehicle Diagnostic Report stated "Coolant Pump"A" Component Internal Failure." Obviously false also.