The voice navigation system has been totally non-functional ever since I purchased the vehicle in 2019. The dealership acknowledges the issue, and say they hope a "fix" comes through, but it hasn't yet.

Despite multiple attempts to get the voice navigation system to recognize my voice, it doesn't even come close. For instance, I recently asked it to "Find Pioneer" (a local store) and it gave me several choices for "Aldi's".

Consequently, I use my 8 year old Garmin device for navigation on my $45,000 vehicle - and Toyota doesn't care.

I've read complaints from other Toyota owners and Toyota seems to acknowledge the problem, but doesn't repair the issue.

Not sure I'll ever purchase another Toyota product - lack of support is inexcusable.

With less than 3500 miles on our 2019 Highlander (purchased new in September 2019) the control unit for the navigation, radio/multimedia, hands-free phone just dies. The only feature that works —thank God— is the backup camera. Toyota Service says the entire unit must be replaced, and delivery of the part will take about a month. We’re one month into the wait and the dealership can’t give us an update on expected delivery/installation. Online searches indicate that this is a known problem with Highlanders. There are no findings of satisfactory results with replacements. Our brand new car is defective, awaiting part replacement with no guaranteed fix. I’m disheartened and growing angrier every day. Please share similar experiences and outcomes.

Brand New Hybrid Highlander Limited Platinum, went for it, all the way, and BOOM! The Navigation voice prompts, no voice prompts, the "Easy Speak" speaker, none of it worked! Brought it in THE DAY AFTER I took it home, got a loaner. Then, at the end of that day, it worked, miraculously, but only until we turned it off, because when we started it again, BOOM! Nothing worked.

Brought it in again, now they have installed an amplifier from another model, and it's working, with the "understanding" that Toyota will be furnishing the dealer and, apparently us, with an updated amplifier "fix" within...wait for it.... two weeks to a few months. Oh, yes. No talking navigation is a deal-breaker, I told them. Have the RSA Lemon Law info, have all of the documentation. I asked for the documentation and recited the RSA. That's TWO STRIKES for the same problem. Third strike, Toyota, and it's on to arbitration.

Update from Apr 29, 2019: Well, I spoke too soon. The very next day, the morning after I took the Highlander home from the dealership with the misconception that everything had been fixed, the voice prompts and navigation failed. At 7:10 AM the next morning, I couldn't believe it, but I headed back to Toyota. Drove it into the Service garage, and everyone knew why I was there. I broke down and sobbed in the Service garage at Toyota, for the first time in my life. I have never sobbed like that in public. They directed me to the very same loaner that I had just returned to9 them the night before, and I drove off in the loaner again. Even worse - the loaner's warning lights all came on on the following Sunday, so I had to return that, too, now without a loaner or my Highlander. The latest word from Toyota dealership is that there will be a "fix" coming from Toyota in the next two weeks to a month or so. Yes, I've heard that before. In other words, my Highlander is at the dealership, and won't function correctly as it was sold to me. Now I'm in the process of just getting all of my money back, whatever it takes. Maybe I'll think about it again in the future, when the Highlander platinum Hybrid is fully baked. It isn't, yet, obviously.

Our second Highlander purchased, because we were very happy with our 2018, which we lost in an accident. We were not home and had to purchase out of state. We were very happy with sales person and dealer. They were both very accommodating.

We quickly discovered that the voice guidance and voice recognition features do not work on the navigation system. We discovered via blog that other 2019 Highlanders have this same issue. Blog advised that pushing start button 2x’s, then put foot on brake to start the car, will fix the problem. Which it did, but not for good as blogger stated. We have to repeat this action every time we restart the engine.

Because the dealer we bought the car from and another dealerships we encountered were unaware of this issue, we called Toyota, who did put us in touch with “technology care and solutions department”. They acknowledged that they were aware of this issue and were very sympathetic but currently have no solution to our problem. They did promise to contact us immediately when they do have a solution.

Meanwhile unless we follow instructions stated previously our navigator does not work. Very inconvenient when we are on long road trips. Which we do often.

We feel that Toyota has failed to NOT inform dealerships and service departments that this is a recurring issue. I am sure our Highlander is not alone. After days of trolling the internet we found the blog that talked about this issue. We feel we were lucky to find it because no one else had any answers.