The contact owns a 2020 Toyota Highlander. The contact stated that upon the depression of the brake pedal, the vehicle would intermittently surge forward without warning. The contact stated that he would shift the vehicle into neutral to stop the vehicle from surging. The contact also stated that the blind spot monitor's unavailable warning message would intermittently appear on the instrument panel. The contact had taken the vehicle to Bayside Toyota and Waldorf Toyota and each dealer was unable to duplicate or diagnose the cause of the failure. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 21,000.

- Pomfret, MD, USA

I have a 2020 Highlander hybrid. When I brake my stopping pauses a half second to a second then brakes normally. I am afraid that I can get into an accident due to this happening at the wrong time or if I loan my car to another driver that is not aware of the problem. I took it to the dealer and couldn't reproduce the fault with their computer connected. Though this has been happening about every other day or so. there were no warnings prior, it just happens randomly! Please go to the attached Toyotanation.com link to see other people having the same issues with their Highlander Hybrids. https://www.toyotanation.com/threads/2021-highlander-hybrid-platinum-not-braking-properly.1694783/

- Phenix City , AL, USA

My Toyota Highlander is a hybrid and there is an ongoing problem with the brakes under certain conditions. When you are slowing the vehicle down, with your foot on the the brakes, there is a point under 10 miles an hour, where the brakes appear to let go and you must quickly exert dramatically more pressure on the brakes to stop the car. Fortunately it has not resulted in an accident because my wife and I are aware of the potential danger. The danger is, this occurs when you are stopping at a stop sign or crosswalk, pulling into a parking space, or around pedestrians, even pulling into our garage. I have own previous Toyota Hybrids and this vehicle behaves very differently. In my opinion the route of the problem may be the regenerative braking. As you step on the brakes the regenerative braking supplies most of the braking power and then at a slower speed the regenerative braking abruptly dis engages. It seem there should be a way to smooth the erratic behavior of the brakes. I have filed my concerns with the Toyota customer experience center in November of 2020 under my name and file number #2011280027. The car is available anytime to demonstrate the problem, there are no open recalls for this VIN#, and I have been told there are no service bulletins for this problem. The problem has occurred the whole time I have owned the vehicle.

- Raleigh, NC, USA

I was at a stop sign in my 2020 Highlander waiting to turn left onto a busy road. Upon turning left onto pa state highway 999, the Highlander engine turned off and the steering wheel was "locked" into a left position. This caused the car to continue turning into the opposing left lane resulting in a head-on collision with an on-coming car. With the engine turned off there was no power steering, no brakes, and no way to unlock the steering wheel. The collision caused my car to bounce back and slowly free roll back to the stop sign as though I never entered the roadway.

- Lititz, PA, USA

We recently purchased our Highlander and it has a little over 4,000 miles. Today while driving down the road at about 45 mph, the car just lost power and the check engine light came on. 1. check engine - reduced engine power 2. secondary collision brake system malfunction we had to park and wait for the Toyota dealership to come and tow it to the service center. At this point I don't know what was wrong or why it just cut out while driving. I am very concerned and can only hope Toyota can address this or replace the car.

- Sparks, NV, USA

I have been having intermittent issues with the brakes when turning on my car and going in reverse. On one occasion, after turning on the vehicle and putting it in reverse, the vehicle did not move despite being on level ground. I had to apply pressure on the accelerator and heard the car strain a little before I heard a sound come from the brakes and the car suddenly jerked backwards. I did not have my foot on the brakes and I did not have the emergency brake on. After this the bakes appears to function as usual. Another time, I turned on the car and went in reverse but the car did not move. I applied the accelerator and heard the car strain a bit then it jerked back. I applied the brakes but the brakes were in responsive unless I pushed on them with significant force. I came to a stop and them took my foot off the brake to resume backward motion to exit my parking spot. Again I did not move forward and had to apply pressure to the accelerator which cause the car to initially strain then suddenly jet backwards. I again applied pressure on the brakes which again were initially unresponsive until I put significant pressure. This cycle happened a total of 4-5 consecutive times prior to the brakes resuming normal function. Brakes functioned normally between this incident and the one mentioned earlier in this complaint.

- Bloomington, MN, USA