Toyota Recalls, Stops Selling Grand Highlander, Not Highlander

Last week, Toyota announced a recall and stop-sale affecting its Grand Highlander SUV and its more luxurious twin, the Lexus TX. This led many readers to question whether they should worry about the safety of their Toyota Highlander SUVs.

The company now says they shouldn’t.

Toyota has clarified that the safety condition that caused the Grand Highlander recall is absent in the smaller Highlander.

In recall documents filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Toyota explains that the Grand Highlander and TX ” are equipped with curtain shield airbags that are designed to deploy from the side roof rails during certain crashes.” If the driver’s side window is open, they may not function properly.

Toyota positions the Grand Highlander as essentially a longer version of the Highlander. They look alike, and the name is a savvy sales move – the Highlander is one of America’s best-selling SUVs.

But their designs are not always as alike as they seem. Toyota tells NHTSA the Highlander uses “a driver’s side curtain shield airbag of a different design and with different surrounding structures,” and does not have the same safety problem.

So, Highlander owners can relax.

Grand Highlander owners, however, face a wait. The company says it is still developing a remedy for the problem. Dealers have been instructed not to sell the cars until they’re fixed – and the company doesn’t know how to fix them yet.

When they do come up with a solution, they won’t charge for it. By law, recall repairs are always free.

Automakers recall many cars to fix safety defects, sometimes more than once. While automakers try to reach every owner to ask them to bring the vehicle in for repair, they rarely get them all. Millions of vehicles on American roads need free recall repairs. To find out if your car is one of them, check the easy VIN tool at our recall center.