The car lost power, then stalled during normal commute to work. Engine lights check hybrid system, check ABS brakes, check VCS, etc. Car was towed to Toyota dealership.

Dealership indicated that the Hybrid Inverter failed and the cost to fix was $9,000. The KBB value for trade in was $11,000 at the time, private sale KBB value about $13,000. After repeated calls to Toyota Customer Care they refused to replace the Inverter at less than that outrageous cost even though there is a clear history of the inverter failing on the 2006 models.

The diagnostic code printout that they gave to us does not even indicate an inverter failure and yet that is what both dealership and corporate keep insisting is the problem. We had the car towed home and put it under roof until we can try to find a solution. In the end, this car, with it's excellent interior and exterior condition, brand new timing belt and tires.. may in the end ...end up in the junkyard.

The 2006 Toyota Highlander Hybrid appears to be the only hybrid vehicle exempt from the state of California required 150,000 mile warranty on hybrid vehicles. I've not checked far enough to find out why this is the case. When our car was nearing 100,000 miles and our extended warranty was going to be gone we went to the dealer to find out if we could purchase an additional warranty and were told that we didn't need to because our concerns were about the hybrid portion of the vehicle and that was mandated by the state to 150,000. Wrong. When the inverter goes, as it will, the cost is extreme and the car simply stops wherever you happen to be at the time.

The fact that Toyota is looking for additional bad publicity is astonishing to me. They were aware of this problem and have been replacing some of the inverters apparently. They will not stand behind this year specifically ( the first year the car was made). There is currently a class action lawsuit pending which we will be joining. Thanks for the space.