4 safety recall campaigns, 5 defect investigations, 272 owner complaints filed with NHTSA.
Complaints are reports from owners of this model year, not findings about any particular vehicle, and a model that sold in large numbers will collect more of them. They are counted here as filed; nothing is inferred from them.
If the sliding electrical contacts are not protected by lubricant, debris and moisture that get into the switch may cause a short circuit and the switch assembly may overheat and melt, increasing the risk of a fire.
The vehicle may enter a fail-safe/limp-home mode that limits the drivability of the vehicle. It is possible that the hybrid system will shut down while the vehicle is being driven, causing the vehicle to stall unexpectedly, increasing the risk of a crash.
If the switch overheats, it may melt, possibly resulting in a fire.
INADVERTENT ACTIVATION OF THE CSA AND/OR THE SEAT BELT PRETENSIONER CAN CAUSE INJURY TO A VEHICLE OCCUPANT.
Two 2008 TOYOTA HIGHLANDER HYBRIDs can have entirely different histories, and a recall campaign usually covers a build-date window rather than a whole model year — which a VIN does not encode, so only the door-jamb label settles it. Scanning the VIN adds the decode, the crash tests, the fuel economy and the complaints matched to that exact engine, trim and assembly plant.