The contact owns a 2000 Toyota Sienna. While driving approximately 25 mph, the hood abruptly opened and shattered the windshield. The contact stated that the hood was pulled down and the vehicle was driven to his place of residence. The vehicle was not taken to the dealer for inspection or repairs. The manufacturer was contacted and a complaint was filed. The contact was awaiting a call back form the manufacturer. The vehicle was not repaired. The approximate failure mileage was 155,000.

- North Brunswick, NJ, USA

The contact owns a 2000 Toyota Sienna. The contact stated that while driving approximately 30 mph, the hood opened and hit the windshield. The failure occurred twice, shattering the windshield. The vehicle was taken to a repair shop where the contact was informed that the failure was caused by the hood latch. The vehicle was repaired. The contact called the manufacturer who offered no assistance. The current mileage was approximately 200,000. The failure mileage was approximately 190,000.

- Kalamazoo, MI, USA

While driving our 2000 Toyota Sienna the safety hood latch failed while driving on the freeway and the hood flew open, smashing the windshield, damaging the hood and the roof of the vehicle. The cause of the incident was that he hood latch no longer engages when the hood is shut. The vehicle was serviced at a Toyota dealership 2 weeks before without any mention of an issue with the latch. Toyota basically stated that there is nothing they can do. I believe there is a design flaw to the location of he hood latch causing it to no longer function from weather related exposure. There most likely are other Sienna vehicles with the same issue with drivers unaware of the problem.

- Sagamore Hills, OH, USA

: the contact stated a jumpstart was given to a neighboring vehicle. The next day the hood was released to jumpstart the neighboring vehicle again. The jumpstart was not needed. The hood was not locked down but was not fully unlatched, while the vehicle was driving 45 mph, on a smooth blacktop paved road, when the hood blew back into the wind shield and damaged the hood, windshield, wipers and the roof of the vehicle. The service dealer and manufacturer were not notified, but the vehicle was repaired at an auto-body shop.

- Milford, MI, USA

My wife and 4 children were driving in our 2000 Toyota Sienna. While accelerating onto a highway, the hood abruptly released and slammed against the front windshield, causing the windshield to shatter and damaging the roof. My wife pulled over onto the side of the road almost completely blind to what was in front of her. The car was nearly hit by a semi-tractor trailer. Luckily, no one was physically hurt from the incident. Upon inspection of the locking mechanism, it was obvious that both the primary and secondary latches were both not working properly. It appears that the springs that are used within these mechanisms had lost their spring effectiveness. This was compounded by the "stickiness" caused by some rusting on the latch. The car was recently at a Toyota dealer maintenance center. I feel that the maintenance facility should have an obligation to check this critical component. In reviewing the NHTSA database, it is clear that this is a common issue across automobiles. I would expect their to be some recurring maintenance on the latching mechanism (at 30,000 or 60,000 miles) to prevent such an incident from occurring...I do not have access to the shop maintenance manuals so I don't know if such an inspection is in the manuals. If there is no such inspection in Toyota's maintenance manual, I believe that Toyota is negligent on this very hazardous failure mechanism. If there is such an inspection, I believe the Toyota maintenance facility should be held responsible.

- Newburyport, MA, USA

2000 Sienna hood opened while driving striking the windshield.

- Milan, OH, USA