NHTSA Complaint #11634769 — 2007 TOYOTA SEQUOIA

Rear hatch/latch. I purchased my 2007 Sequoia lightly used in 2013. Luckily I purchased a 3 year extended warranty also. Within a year my rear hatch broke for the 1st time, I was unable to open the rear gate, my warranty covered the parts & Labor, within a year it broke again, this time the door would not latch closed, it freely opened & would or could not be secured. This happened while out of town (Fairbanks, AK. In Feb. -40 degrees) luckily the dealership had the parts & was able to fix it quickly. Still covered by my extended warranty. That dealership told me about the consistent problem & I was told about the cheap parts, but also a poor design as far as weather & grime able to reach the components & cause corrosion quickly. It broke one more time before my warranty expired (#3) again unable to open the rear gate. That repair didn’t even last 3 months, But the warranty was expired & I had a very reliable mechanic replace it this time (#4). Much cheaper than what Toyota wanted to charge me. He did a little weather preventative repair and I actually got nearly 2 years on that repair. He also said it was a terrible design flaw on the rear hatch, & there was significant corrosion on many other parts in the rear gate. He cleaned it up as well as possible. When it broke the 5th time, I was furious, & couldn’t see the point of the $750.00+ repair (Alaska is more $$), again was broken in the unable to open position. So I used the window & crawling over the seats method for over a year, until my window started making horrible noise when opening. I made an appointment with Toyota in Anchorage, AK to repair it this time as I had a recall taken care of at the same time. The only visible corrosion on the vehicle was around the latch, the window does not work properly, & you hear parts rattling when you open & close the gate now. I realize the open gate break is not common, But that was a horribly dangerous situation, recall is needed immediately for safety & reputation