G.I.G.
New member
My wife owns an '03 Toyota Highlander AWD V6 with 120k miles on it. Earlier this week, it started hesitating, clunking between gears, and stalling when you put it in gear. We took it to our shop (been going there for years and they're very reputable) and they told us the tranny is shot. It's going to cost $4,500 for a re-manufactured Toyota tranny including labor. We will get a 12-month, 12,000 mile warranty on the new tranny. We're going to have it fixed because regardless of what we end up doing (trade it or keep it for another 80k-100k miles), it will need to be drivable.
So my question for those of you who have experience with the 1st gen Highlanders and RX300's is this: should we expect to get 200k miles out of this car without any additional, major issues or should we start looking at a new car for my wife? We bought it with just under 30k miles on it and have performed all of the scheduled maintenance on it. Other than this transmission issue, it has been a very reliable vehicle for my wife. We traded her old Pathfinder for the Highlander because of the "Toyota quality", but only getting 120k miles out of a transmission that has received all of its scheduled maintenance is disappointing to say the least. We're on the fence of keeping it and hoping that the worst is behind us and keeping it for another 3-4 years, or cutting bait and starting with a new vehicle. I'd hate to put all of this money into her Highlander only to sell it, but if it's going to start costing us more money and more trips to the shop, it might be time to part with it.
Thoughts?
So my question for those of you who have experience with the 1st gen Highlanders and RX300's is this: should we expect to get 200k miles out of this car without any additional, major issues or should we start looking at a new car for my wife? We bought it with just under 30k miles on it and have performed all of the scheduled maintenance on it. Other than this transmission issue, it has been a very reliable vehicle for my wife. We traded her old Pathfinder for the Highlander because of the "Toyota quality", but only getting 120k miles out of a transmission that has received all of its scheduled maintenance is disappointing to say the least. We're on the fence of keeping it and hoping that the worst is behind us and keeping it for another 3-4 years, or cutting bait and starting with a new vehicle. I'd hate to put all of this money into her Highlander only to sell it, but if it's going to start costing us more money and more trips to the shop, it might be time to part with it.
Thoughts?
