2015 Toyota Highlander Hybrid: what breaks, and at what mileage
What breaks on the 2015 Toyota Highlander Hybrid
Only 5 defect reports have been filed with NHTSA about the 2015 Toyota Highlander Hybrid, which is too few to compute mileage percentiles or a risk score. The reports reported audio or connectivity failure.
When each failure gets reported
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
How reports accumulate
Every report with an odometer reading, cumulative, from 0 to 200,000 miles. A curve that climbs early is a car with early problems, whatever its total.
- Line share of reports filed by that mileage
Every reported failure mode
| Failure mode | System | Reports | With reading | 25th | Median | 75th | Per 1,000 | Typical repair | Severity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Audio or connectivity failure | infotainment | 1 | 0 | — | — | — | 0.0 | $150–$900 | Low |
| Exhaust leak or fumes in the cabin | emissions | 1 | 1 | — | 16k | — | 0.0 | $250–$2,000 | High |
| Other electrical problem | electrical | 1 | 1 | — | 16k | — | 0.0 | $250–$2,000 | Moderate |
| Other lighting problem | lighting | 1 | 0 | — | — | — | 0.0 | $120–$1,200 | Moderate |
| Unclassified problem | other | 1 | 1 | — | 16k | — | 0.0 | — | Moderate |
This year had no usable recall paperwork, so the fleet-size estimate is the median of other years of the same model. Repair costs are typical independent-shop ranges for the failure, not figures from these reports.
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The odometer reading is the one the owner gave.
Exhaust leak or fumes in the cabin
I unknowingly failed to turn off my car last night. It has a keyless ignition (fob) and sets off an alarm when left on. Unfortunately, last night my husband arrived home at the same time and between 2 garage doors closing and excited, barking dogs I didn't hear the alarm. We went to bed shortly thereafter. My husband woke up very early and heard our carbon monoxide detector going off in the garage. When he opened the door he discovered it was very hot and the detector was registering high levels of cm. He opened the garage doors and windows in the house. I have since researched this. Several people have died under the same circumstances. I feel lucky. The car is a hybrid so it was alternating all night between the engine and the battery. We also had a cm detector in the garage which is not legally required. The manufacturers need to have an automatic shutoff for the keyless systems or many more innocent people will die. Please fix this now.
Other electrical problem
The hatch continues to fail even after they replaced "defective" part. The batteries had to be replaced because they had failed. On 3/2/17 I was sitting in the driver seat with the car in park with the engine running and suddenly the driver seat moved all the way forward, then the back straightened completely and the side view mirrors adjusted all the way up. I placed a call to the dealership at 2:51pm, was told I'd get a call back. I drove the car home with my adult daughter. Radio was off. When I was stopped in either traffic or a light we could hear a motor trying to start. I made it home safely. I had the car towed to the dealership and was advised that since they could not replicate the problem it didn't happen. They returned the car to me without any documentation of a complaint.
Every year of the Toyota Highlander Hybrid
Scores compare each year against other cars of the same model year, so a low number on an older car is a real result and not an artefact of age.
Shorter is better. Years with too few reports to score are shown without a bar rather than as a zero, because no data is not good news.
What the reports on file say
The complaints recorded against the 2015 Toyota Highlander Hybrid are audio or connectivity failure (1 report), exhaust leak or fumes in the cabin (1 report, around 16k miles), other electrical problem (1 report, around 16k miles) and other lighting problem (1 report). With a sample this size these are anecdotes rather than a pattern, and they are shown because somebody looking at this exact car would rather see them than nothing.
Why this page is short
A model year needs about 8 reports before percentiles mean anything, and this one does not have them. Complaint volume tracks how many cars were sold and how long they have been on the road, so a thin page usually means a rare car, a new car, or a car whose owners do not file.
Other years of the same model do have enough: 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2021. The mechanical parts are often shared across those years, so their pages are the better guide to what this one is likely to do, with the caveat that a shared part is not a shared production line.
Where this comes from. Every figure above is computed from NHTSA owner complaints and recall records for this exact make, model and year. Complaints are voluntary and self-selected, so treat counts as a floor. The methodology page writes out each formula, and the same numbers are available as JSON.
What breaks at my mileage Compare with another car
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed