Ok... so I took my car to the dealer this morning to have the OEM hitch installed. They quoted me $725.
I just had a call from the dealer saying that someone should have called me yesterday to tell me they did not get the hitch kit in. In fact, they are saying Toyota has put a "stop sale" on the '11 Highlander OEM hitch kit and they have no information as to the reason or when they could order it again.
Has anyone heard anything about this? I've been dealing with this dealer for the past 10+ years and they are top-notch so I have no reason not to believe them.
So, I'm off to pick my car back up from the dealer and I won't be towing my utility trailer this weekend.
Yes, they are telling you the truth. I am an authorized Toyota Dealer and supporting vendor here on the forum. I have sold about 15 of those hitches to members and went to reorder them and Toyota suddenly put a "STOP SALE" on them for no appearnent reason. I am in the same position as your local dealer, I can't get them.
I can tell you it could be a number of reasons, one, just a plain shortage of them, two, and this is by all means not the real reason, there is just something not quite right with it, but I am suspecting that it is a manufacture supply issue. I believe there has been an very high demand for these hitches and supply has just dried up. That is what I'd like to believe. It can also have something to do with the FED Govt, in all, we just really don't know at this time.
Thank you for confirming the situation. I bought my car in mid March and regretted not getting the hitch put on then. That was the dealers advice, keep checking back.
Could it have anything to do with Toyota realizing you need more than a 4-wire plug if you're going to be towing 5000 lbs? Liability issue of some sort?
Yeah I painted it and it looks pretty good, plus the scrapes weren't too bad and were in a spot you'd never see unless you got under it. Now I've got a spare if I ever exceed the tongue weight with a cargo tray...
Of course if they did announce a defect/recall the value will plummet;-)
I just took ownership of a new Limited 2wd and it has the factory hitch installed on it but it came from the factory that way. Luck me I guess...unless there is something wrong with it!
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2009 Blizzard Pearl Sienna Limited
I just took ownership of a new Limited 2wd and it has the factory hitch installed on it but it came from the factory that way. Luck me I guess...unless there is something wrong with it!
I'm assuming that even Limiteds built today (or yesterday) still have the hitch. It's probably just a parts shortage issue although it's strange that none of the dealers have been told what the problem is.
My '01 was a Limited and while I would have preferred to get a '11 Limited, the decision was either spend $2000+ to swap out the silly 19" wheels or get the SE and spend $700 to add the hitch. I went the SE route.
I'm sure Toyota will get it straightened out. If not, there are lots of third party hitches out there. Not my first choice but they get the job done.
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