2012 Toyota HIGHLANDER HV - Ratings, Complaints and Recalls

The 2012 Toyota Highlander HV SUV AWD has an overall safety rating of 4 out of 5, which indicates above-average safety features and crash test performance. The car excels in side crash safety, with a perfect 5-star rating for both driver and passenger sides. Additionally, it scores well in frontal crash tests with a 4-star rating for both the driver and passenger sides. The car also has advanced safety features including standard electronic stability control, which enhances its handling and reduces the risk of skidding or loss of control.

Unfortunately, the Toyota Highlander HV does not come equipped with forward collision warning or lane departure warning systems. These features could have added an extra layer of safety by alerting the driver to potential collisions or unintentional lane departures.

In terms of complaints and recalls, the car has had 181 complaints reported, which is relatively high. Additionally, there have been 2 recalls issued for this model, indicating some potential issues that needed to be addressed by the manufacturer. Overall, while the Toyota Highlander HV has good safety ratings and features, potential buyers should consider the reported complaints and recalls before making a decision.

Top stats at a glance

Complaint Count

181

Recall Count

2

Investigation Count

3

Safety Rating

4/5

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Safety Features

2012 Toyota Highlander HV SUV AWD Safety Features

Here are the safety features that come as standard on the 2012 Toyota Highlander HV SUV AWD

Electronic Stability Control (ESC)

ESC is an advanced safety feature in vehicles designed to help drivers maintain control during challenging driving conditions. By continuously monitoring various factors such as steering angle, vehicle speed, and individual wheel speeds, ESC can detect and reduce the risk of skidding or loss of control. It achieves this by automatically applying brakes to specific wheels to stabilize the vehicle.

Standard
Forward Collision Warning (FCW)

Forward Collision Warning (FCW) is a safety feature in vehicles that helps prevent frontal collisions by alerting the driver of an imminent collision with a vehicle or obstacle ahead. Using sensors such as radar or cameras, FCW monitors the distance and speed of vehicles in front, and if it detects a potential collision, it provides visual and/or auditory warnings to prompt the driver to take evasive action.

No
Lane Departure Warning (LDW)

Lane Departure Warning (LDW) is a safety feature in vehicles that alerts drivers when their vehicle unintentionally drifts out of its lane without signaling. Utilizing cameras or sensors to monitor lane markings on the road, LDW detects when the vehicle crosses these lines and triggers visual, auditory, or haptic alerts to notify the driver of potential lane departure.

No

2012 Toyota Highlander HV SUV AWD Safety Ratings

Here we have the crash and rollover ratings for the 2012 Toyota Highlander HV SUV AWD Where possible we've included the ratings for the oldest and latest models of this car so you can compare how the safety ratings have changed over time.

Frontal Crash Ratings

Combines Driver and Passenger star ratings into a single frontal rating. The frontal barrier test simulates a head-on collision between two similar vehicles, each moving at 35 mph.

Test 2011 Score 2012 Score 2014 Score
Overall Front Crash Rating 4 4 4
Front Crash Driver Side Rating 4 4 4
Front Crash Passenger Side Rating 4 4 5

Side Crash Ratings

Combines Side Barrier and Side Pole Star Ratings into a single side rating.

Test 2011 Score 2012 Score 2014 Score
Overall Side Crash Rating 5 5 5
Side Crash Drivers Side Rating 5 5 5
Side Crash Passenger Side Rating 5 5 5
Combined Side Barrier Pole Rating - Front 5 5 5
Combined Side Barrier Pole Rating - Rear 5 5 5
Overall Side Barrier Rating 5 5 5

Rollover Ratings

The Rollover Resistance test measures the risk of rollover in a single-vehicle, loss-of-control scenario.

Test 2011 Score 2012 Score 2014 Score
Rollover Rating 4 4 4
Rollover Possibility % 0% 0% 0%
Dynamic Tip Result No Tip No Tip No Tip
Side Pole Crash Rating 5 5 5

Complaints for the 2012 Toyota HIGHLANDER HV

This chart show the number of complaints for each car component. A Higher number of complaints could indicate that this car might have a common fault. Something to look out for when purchasing one.

Component Complaints

Choose a component to see what complaints people have made about them.

Complaint:
"popping and clunking sound in steering or suspension. can be produced at speeds and at stand still. could it be this? https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2013/sb-10075792-2280.pdf https://www.carcomplaints.com/toyota/highlander/2013/steering/steering.shtml nhtsa action number: ea18006 https://www.consumerclasslawyersblog.com/snap-crackle-pop-intermediate-shaft-noise-coming-from-toyota-highlanders/"
Components Involved: STEERING
Date of incident: 2021-09-06

Complaint:
"when i drive the vehicle you can hear a clunking sound in the steering column. it happens at low and high speeds. when make a turn right, or left you hear clunking is the steering column. it feels like the steering wants to come off, took it to the dealer and they state to fix it will cost over 1000$. i head there was a defect in the steering column which toyota knows about, but has not done anything to recall and fix the problem."
Components Involved: STEERING
Date of incident: 2017-11-07

Complaint:
"crunch noise in the steering column when making turns."
Components Involved: STEERING
Date of incident: 2018-11-10

Complaint:
"it makes a loud clicking noise when you steer at all times"
Components Involved: STEERING
Date of incident: 2019-02-05

Complaint:
"steering shaft clunking noise when turn left or right at low speed. confirmed steering intermediate shaft failure by ira toyota technician on 7/31/2020 . this is 3rd times failure. 1st failure was jan/2012 and 2nd time failure was 11/2013."
Components Involved: STEERING
Date of incident: 2021-08-07

Complaint:
"had to install a new steering shaft assembly at the 5th yr inspection. the warranty was up, had to pay $451.82 myself. problem and noise from day one. told i could have been in an accident from it. this was on 3/29/2017 at diehl automotive in butler, pa. always clanked when turning wheel, loud noise. 1st time it was brought to my attention. many others out there same way."
Components Involved: STEERING
Date of incident: 2019-05-03

Complaint:
"when turning the steering wheel to the left or right a popping noise occurs at low speed."
Components Involved: STEERING
Date of incident: 2021-04-07

Complaint:
"steering wheel is clunking when turning left or right. see a lot of problems with this on the internet. noise definitely coming from the steering wheel assembly. *tr"
Components Involved: STEERING
Date of incident: 2019-01-01

Complaint:
"noticed a subtle knocking sound on the steering wheel one year ago. today it became more pronounced ,louder , as i turn the wheel either left or right. i wanted to know if there is a recall on this problem. and is it safe to drive my highlander ?"
Components Involved: STEERING
Date of incident: 2020-12-11

Complaint:
"tl* the contact owns a 2012 toyota highlander. when the contact attempted to turn the vehicle to the left or right, the steering wheel seized. in order to release the steering wheel, the contact had to retract the steering wheel quickly to the point that it would seize. the contact took the vehicle to west coast toyota (located at 3399 w. willow st, long beach, ca 90806) where it was diagnosed that the steering column failed. the vehicle had not been repaired. the manufacturer was made aware of the failure and referred the contact to the dealer. the approximate failure mileage was 150,000. the vin was unknown."
Components Involved: STEERING
Date of incident: 2020-05-11

TOYOTA Overall Complaint Ranking

This table shows the ranking of car manufacturers when it comes to most complaints and recalls. The manufacturer with the most complaints is at the top. However this doesn't necassarily mean they should be avoided. Some manufacturers might just have more popular or affordable cars which a lot of people have bought. Which means there's more scope for a complaint to be made. Use the ranking table below as a part your wider research into buying a car.

TOYOTA ranks 3 out of 44 in the complaints ranking table.

Manufacturer Complaint Count Recall Count Ranking
FORD 208,358 3,259 1
CHEVROLET 111,306 2,082 2
TOYOTA 81,019 1,852 3
HONDA 61,937 1,268 4
NISSAN 56,226 930 5
DODGE 45,756 827 6
HYUNDAI 44,150 649 7
GMC 34,441 1,410 8
KIA 29,832 501 9
CHRYSLER 27,698 254 10
TESLA 26,230 730 11
BMW 24,890 1,877 12
VOLKSWAGEN 23,125 829 13
MERCEDES-BENZ 19,066 2,925 14
SUBARU 18,513 703 15
MAZDA 10,599 364 16
PONTIAC 10,430 138 17
CADILLAC 9,434 444 18
AUDI 7,865 1,093 19
BUICK 7,851 279 20
SATURN 7,672 84 21
MERCURY 7,374 135 22
LEXUS 6,373 408 23
LINCOLN 5,897 423 24
ACURA 5,722 382 25
MINI 5,585 366 26
INFINITI 4,000 187 27
MITSUBISHI 3,912 397 28
VOLVO 3,875 727 29
PORSCHE 2,646 1,231 30
SUZUKI 2,272 123 31
FIAT 2,205 80 32
SAAB 1,536 76 33
JAGUAR 1,195 198 34
SMART 528 17 35
GENESIS 436 42 36
ISUZU 249 37 37
ALFA ROMEO 161 37 38
MASERATI 76 46 39
BENTLEY 46 159 40
POLESTAR 42 2 41
LUCID 14 6 42
CODA 4 2 43
MAYBACH 0 0 44

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