This shattering of the tinted back window directly under the rear spoiler occured late morning on an 80 degree, partly cloudy day with the rear area facing east. There was no shift of cargo or any kind of impact from anything inside the car against this window. The rear hatch was opened to show something to someone and when the hatch was closed normally (not banged down) a popping noise occured and there were literally hundreds of small pieces of this tempered glass both inside the car, on the rear bumper and on the ground directly below. It wasn't an explosive type event where pieces of this window were any great distance from my vehicle.

At the dealership, where I purchased this as a new car, both the service writer, his manager and others felt this was not a Toyota defect and, as a result, were unwilling to provide me a written opinion saying anything about this. Other service writers working in the receiving area all indicated they had never seen this before.

I took a series of photos on my so-called smart phone to document this situation and show that my vehicle had not experienced any impact damage (which, of course, would have made this an insurance matter due to perhaps a rear end collision)

I am very interested to learn if any other Toyota owners have had a similar experience and, if so, how it was resolved.