What is it like to own a 2012 Toyota Highlander in NYC?
1,302 are registered in the five boroughs. Here is what they cost to fuel, what owners report to NHTSA, and which recalls are open.
There are 1,302 2012 Toyota Highlanders actively registered in New York City, most of them in Queens at 499. EPA rates it at 19 to 28 MPG combined. NHTSA lists 2 safety recall campaigns covering this vehicle and holds 239 complaints submitted by owners and drivers.
- Registered in NYC
- 1,302
- Combined MPG
- 19 to 28
- Recall campaigns
- 2
- Complaints to NHTSA
- 239
Data: NYS DMV August 17, 2026 snapshot, NHTSA and EPA as of August 17, 2026
Will I see myself coming and going?
1,302 2012 Toyota Highlanders are actively registered in New York City, across 5 of the five boroughs. Queens has the most at 499, and Manhattan the fewest at 114.
| Borough | Registered | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Queens | 499 | 38.3% |
| Brooklyn | 348 | 26.7% |
| The Bronx | 205 | 15.7% |
| Staten Island | 136 | 10.4% |
| Manhattan | 114 | 8.8% |
| All five boroughs | 1,302 | 100% |
What will fuel cost me?
EPA rates the 2012 Toyota Highlander at 19 to 28 MPG combined across its 4 EPA configurations, 17 to 28 in the city and 22 to 28 on the highway. City driving is the lower end of that in practice, and New York is city driving.
| Configuration | City | Highway | Combined | Annual fuel cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.5L, 6-cyl, Automatic (variable gear ratios), All-Wheel Drive | 28 | 28 | 28 | $2,200 |
| 2.7L, 4-cyl, Automatic (S6), Front-Wheel Drive | 20 | 25 | 22 | $2,800 |
| 3.5L, 6-cyl, Automatic (S5), Front-Wheel Drive | 18 | 24 | 20 | $3,100 |
| 3.5L, 6-cyl, Automatic (S5), All-Wheel Drive | 17 | 22 | 19 | $3,250 |
What goes wrong with it?
Owners and drivers have submitted 239 complaints about the 2012 Toyota Highlander to NHTSA, across 34 component categories. The most reported is steering, with 46. These are reports, not confirmed defects and not a failure rate: a car that sold well collects more of them than a rare one for no reason other than that more people own it.
| Component | Complaints submitted | Latest report |
|---|---|---|
| Steering | 46 | June 9, 2021 |
| Electrical system | 29 | July 5, 2025 |
| Unknown or other | 23 | July 5, 2025 |
| Structure | 20 | July 1, 2025 |
| Engine | 17 | July 5, 2025 |
| Vehicle speed control | 14 | December 29, 2021 |
| Visibility/wiper | 14 | January 16, 2017 |
| Air bags | 11 | April 23, 2022 |
A complaint is somebody telling the federal government that something happened to their car. It has not been investigated, confirmed or agreed to by the manufacturer, and the count says as much about how many of these were sold as about the car itself. If you want to know what a symptom means rather than how often it is reported, the symptoms guide is the page for that.
Is mine affected by a recall?
NHTSA lists 2 safety recall campaigns covering the 2012 Toyota Highlander. A campaign covers a range of vehicles, not every one built, so the only way to know whether yours is included is to check your own VIN against NHTSA's lookup.
| Campaign | Component | Reported |
|---|---|---|
| 13V123000 | Equipment:other:labels | April 9, 2013 |
| 13V014000 | Air bags:frontal:sensor/control module-inactive | January 16, 2013 |
Who works on Highlanders in Brooklyn?
We do. Nacmias Service Center is at 619 Coney Island Avenue in Brooklyn, family owned since 1977: diagnostics, brakes, suspension, engine and transmission work on the Highlander. If it will not start where it sits, the flatbed that brings it in is ours too.
Registration counts: New York State DMV registration file, five New York City counties, August 17, 2026 snapshot. A registration is a record in a state database, not a car on the road, and the borough is where the registrant receives mail rather than where the car is driven. How we counted.
Fuel economy: EPA and DOE ratings published at FuelEconomy.gov, unaveraged, so each configuration is its own row. Recalls and complaints: NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation, the agency's own wording, as ingested August 17, 2026. Complaints are reports members of the public filed, not confirmed defects. The NYC registration study is the analysis these counts sit on top of.
234 vehicles in this directory, covering 520,848 registered cars. Data as of August 17, 2026.