Love the vehicle, but since day one I thought it hesitated when it shifted gears. Had that documented before 36k miles. About 6 months ago, I started to notice a whining noise at around 50-60mph. The noise quits when you stop accelerating. The vehicle now has around 85k miles on it. I took it to 1 dealer last week and they noticed the harsh shifting, that they couldn't seem to 'recreate' when it was still under warrenty. I went with them for the test drive and they verified they could hear the whining. They said It is a transmission problem and that it would cost around $4000. I did some poking around online and this sounds like the same issue Toyota had with the ECM/transmission on the RAV4 2001-2003 which they ended up paying to replace. They also extended the warranty on the defect to 10 years/100k. I don't think a vehicle should need this much work at 85k, and if it is the same issue, I am done with Toyota. I am going to go to another dealer and see what they say and persue this to the top just so that they know the same thing is STILL happening. Had planned on driving this many more years, but I will NOT buy another Toyota if they can't resolve this.

Update from Sep 20, 2017: My hometown dealer got Toyota to replace the transmission, I had to pay the labor. And I do appreciate that. It took care of the shifting problem, but it still whines. I meantioned engine mounts and such but guess they didn't do any research and decided to just do the transmission. The whining is very annoying and I am disappointed.