We were on a family trip with two young kids in the mountains and going very low speeds... maybe 10 miles per hour. Our car stopped working. In the middle of a rush hour in heat at the top of the mountain, we had to get from the far left lane to the far right to stop. While trying to get over, the car jerked, revved, and we almost got into accidents because I just couldnt get the car to go without delayed reactions and then jerked to a fast motion. VERY UNSAFE! At the same time, check engine light, ABD, and sensor lights flashed on. I got on the side to turn the car off and on again and tried to go a little at a snail pace speed and still the same thing happened. We had to get towed over 100 miles away to our home with young kids.

When we got it looked at, the transmission company let me know we had to replace it and we had a unsalvageable transmission.

The sensor lights were a completely separate problem and that costs us an additional 1,000+. That was the sensor switch had to be replaced. Not sure why these two happened at the same exact time?

This car has less than 70k miles and should not have to have a transmission replacement!

Driving the vehicle, it started to make a whining noise when driving 0-40mph. It was faint enough that you needed the radio off, but, was definitely noticeable. It sounded like a jet engine whine. Not too much longer after first hearing that (1 week at most) the vehicle shuddered when slowing to a stop, and stalled. Restarted and drove on.

We had the vehicle in for "Toyota Care" routine maintenance and brought up the issue. They looked at it and said there was nothing logged in the diagnostics, and it drove fine. They added notes to our profile so we had it on record. 2 days later when slowing to a stop, the vehicle acted like the emergency brake was on and it slowed down severely, and struggled to move forward when the gas was pushed. It felt like an emergency brake was engaged, or a transmission brake was on. Both in Drive and Reverse it acted like this.

We called the dealership, who then had us call "Toyota care roadside assistance" and had to get it towed to the dealership. After a few hours, they called back and said they had seen this before on 4-5 different Highlanders of this year. There is a plastic clip in the transmission that backs out and becomes dislodged, causing these problems. They said they will be ordering a NEW transmission instead of repairing. Toyota recognizes this as a known issue. We are waiting for the tranny replacement and should have the vehicle back within the next couple of days.

Little sore that we reported the symptoms, they noted it, and did not address it then. Luckily, my wife and child were not too far from home, and were not on the highway. This happened right at the approach of a busy intersection, not in the intersection.

Overall we've been very happy with the Highlander up till this point.