NHTSA Complaint #11717531 — 2021 TOYOTA HIGHLANDER

The liftgate has had issues from the moment I purchased this vehicle. It had 30,000 miles and we purchased all extended warranty options. The liftgate often fails to close, especially in cold weather. There have been times I have to manually push the liftgate closed certain instances. This would not even work, and I unknowingly started driving my vehicle while the liftgate was still open about an inch or two essentially, the liftgate seems to have a mind of its own sometimes it will work just fine more more often often than not it malfunctions. This is dangerous because it could easily cause a head injury or trap a child or a family member inside the car if it will not open or closed properly. We took the car to our dealership to have it repaired while under warranty. My car care technician reported that there was dust/dirt which voided my warranty coverage. I paid a lot for the warranties and for this woman to report dirt on my vehicle’s backend and that then causing my warranty coverage to not be valid was just ridiculous. We fought for an exception to be filed and they never spoke of this again. Dishonest and untrustworthy, this is how I would define my Toyota dealership. The issue was noted immediately to dealership/technicians. We had them provide us with a repair quote that was very costly and so we would not let them do the work. There is a massive amount of information for this problem and it is a common occurrence. Toyota is facing a class action lawsuit alleging that some of its “Highlander SUVs contain defective power-door components. This problem allegedly prevents the automatic open/close feature on the back door, also known as the “liftgate,” from working properly and has already cost some car owners thousands of dollars in repairs. According to the suit, Toyota knew about the defect and hid this information from the public.” Thus, the tech noted “dirt” to conceal a much bigger problem, make $$ off a loyal customer, revealing dishonest practices.