Toyota Highlander 2004 Limited - The Sun roof has a serious design flaw: When you open it, any amount, an air pocket forms in the car at 6 miles per hour and only gets worse as you increase speed.

Toyota Highlander 2004 Limited - The Sun roof has a serious design flaw: When you open it, any amount, an air pocket forms in the car at 6 miles per hour and only gets worse as you increase speed.

August 18, 2004 Toyota Highlander. 2004 Limited To Whom it may concern, We purchased the Highlander 10 months ago. Unfortunately we went more on reputation then actual observation. This body styling and model have been out for years so we assumed all the bugs would be out of the design.

Figure 1 Pop up not enough The Sun roof has a serious design flaw: When you open it, any amount, an air pocket forms in the car at 6 miles per hour and only gets worse as you increase speed. It improves marginally when you open 75% of the windows. I have been driving since 1977. I have had sunroofs in every car I have owned. I am well aware of their usual operating characteristics. This design is unacceptable. The pop up flap that should help send the air flow up or redirects the flow to elevate this potential common problem does not pop up far enough. It only raises inline with the metal roof thus being ineffective. To use the roof at all we had the dealership install a tinted plexy glass wind shield (at their expense) to help diminish the problem. It still has a issues at 10 to 16 miles per hour but is now acceptable for the majority of driving situations. The Mode button is placed in a very dangerous position on the steering wheel. I listen to music rather loud when driving. When I park (need to reverse) or get into congested situations the music is then shut off so I can hear horns, people, or other potential hazards. When you use the steering wheel (a necessity) to maneuver, the mode button is placed with the rim of the button in the hand location on the rim of the inside wheel. (picture) Thus by accident pressing it. Then I am unintentionally greeted by a LOUD radio. When you repeat press it to turn it off it switches to CD or Tape. It does not SHUT OFF from that location. You have to stop what your doing IE Parking; Look on the dash and turn the radio off by the usual method. The button layout looks slick on the wheel and this comment is not intended to get rid of it just place it so it is not so easily activated by accident. Our only cure was to have it deactivated

The car accelerates awkwardly. The automatic transmission can not seem to find a comfortable position. It lurches from start. It downshifts too much when accelerating on open rode. The engine is large enough 3.3-liter double overhead cam 230 hp @ 5800 rpm 5-speed electronically controlled automatic overdrive transmission with intelligence (ECT-i) and Snow Mode. Maybe this is where the problem is. The automatic electronic controls are anything but intelligent; illogical and clumsy are more like it. This is an ongoing problem.

The dealership states it is factory spec. They did have a service bulletin on it based on customer complaints. However the fix did not fix it. Another characteristic is often when driving one may need to accelerate quickly to avoid hazardous situation. The car hesitates for a second or two then finds itself. That second or two is enough time to negate the avoidance maneuver one is trying to make. Hence, placing oneself in the middle of the situation they were trying to avoid. Braking should not be the only method available for accident avoidance.

Problem 1 and 2 are basically resolved, however 3 remains an ongoing issue. What to do? Andrew L

Andrew L Click this link to e-mail the above consumer: //