2021 TOYOTA HIGHLANDER HYBRID — Complaint #2144099
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about STRUCTURE:BODY:HATCHBACK/LIFTGATE:SUPPORT DEVICE/STRUT filed October 29, 2025
NHTSA complaint #2144099 (ODI reference 11696325) concerns a 2021 TOYOTA HIGHLANDER HYBRID and was filed on October 29, 2025. The owner reports the failure occurred on April 29, 2024. The vehicle had 50,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Washington based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as structure:body:hatchback/liftgate:support device/strut, one of NHTSA's standardized taxonomy codes used to group defect patterns across make, model, and year.
The filer flagged the following severity indicators: crash: no, fire: no, injuries: 0, fatalities: 0. No crash, fire, or fatality was associated with this report, which places it in the early-warning stream rather than the priority-review stream. Because a VIN was supplied, this complaint is tied to a specific vehicle and not just a model-year cohort.
Individual complaints are consumer-submitted and unverified by NHTSA engineers — the agency's role at this stage is to collect, index, and make them searchable. What matters for federal action is the pattern: when many owners of the same TOYOTA HIGHLANDER HYBRID cohort independently describe similar structure:body:hatchback/liftgate:support device/strut failures, defect investigators have grounds to open a PE and request manufacturer data. Related filings for the same vehicle and component appear below, and the detail page for the full 2021 TOYOTA HIGHLANDER HYBRID shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The contact owns a 2021 Toyota Highlander Hybrid. The contact stated that the hatchback failed to open completely. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, and the dealer recommended that the hatchback motor be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and informed the contact that the VIN was not included in a related recall. The failure mileage was approximately 50,000.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 2144099 |
| ODI Number | 11696325 |
| Date Filed | October 29, 2025 |
| Failure Date | April 29, 2024 |
| VIN | 5TDEBRCH9MS |
Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.
Read our methodology — how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.