Cars are rated one (forget it) to four ('bout as good as it gets) James Deans

Last year, I spent a pleasant week in a Toyota Highlander.

So pleasant, in fact, that I wrote that the Toyota Highlander was all the vehicle most buyers of sport utilities would need.

Since the vehicle was so good, I saw no need to expend thousands of words describing its attributes. It was four-star, and thus a Bob's Notes item was posted. Here's what I said, in its short entirety:

2001 Toyota Highlander 4X4: $34,183. Bottom line. This is one of the very best sport utilities available. Indeed, it is so competent and comfortable that there is little reason to spend more. But that bottom line price seems substantial. It doesn't have to be. Toyota seems to have lifted a Chrysler trick and created a laundry list of extra-cost options, many of which you can skip. The base price of the 4X4 is $26,495. You'll want side air bags at $250. And in order to get air conditioning, you'll have to shell out for an entire luxury package at $3,495. But many buyers can stop right there. They may not want expensive leather seats or towing packages or a moonroof, all of which our tester had to send its as-tested price high up a Sequoia. The leather, for instance, added $1,015. And the towing options were another $450. Whatever you pay, this is as good as it gets. Toyota has created a mini-Land Cruiser that corrects flaws in the RAV4 at what is now a mid-point price. With the Highlander, Toyota has a really complete sport utility lineup: RAV4, Highlander, 4Runner, Sequoia and Land Cruiser. Overkill, for sure. But each is very good and has Toyota's outstanding reputation for reliability as a major "buy" point. In a week, I could find no fault with the Highlander's handling, performance, comfort or safety. Indeed, it would be a fine choice for long vacations, but is equally at home in city traffic or commute situations. A nice, unique touch is the way the gear selector console is slanted for easy access. The ergonomics are excellent, worthy of copying by other manufacturers. First-rate and my favorite Toyota sport utility.

Time passed.

Then, one day an email popped up that had one short sentence::

"Try driving the Toyota Highlander 2002 with the rear windows down and see if you still think it's wonderful."

I clicked the "reply" button and told the writer that I'd do as he suggests the next time a Highlander came around for testing, but vehicles often come only every few years, not every year, so I had no idea when a new Highlander might be sent. (Delivery and testing is expensive for automakers, so we don't request vehicles. They deliver what they deem suitable for the press fleet.)

Curious -- and with an idea of what he was getting at -- I wrote again to the emailer.

"Does it BOOM badly?", I asked.

The reply was quick:

"YES!!!

"There is an extreme pulsating noise and tailgate vibration when either or both rear windows are open.

"We sent letters to the National Center for Dispute Settlement and we were turned down. We appealed and requested a hearing with the three-member Arbitration Board. They stated we were not eligible for review because the complaint exists with similar vehicles, therefore there is no evidence of a manufacturing defect.

"Toyota is aware of the problem. They admitted as such to the Ohio Attorney Generals Office. They should have to make the consumer aware of the problem and let the consumer decide if they still want to purchase the vehicle.

"We would have decided to not purchase the vehicle; it is a major problem for us. Our dog is afraid to ride in the car now. She used to love it. I have had Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited Editions in the past and never experienced anything like this."

The email was signed "Casey Clark".

Casey, you are right.

Many vehicles indeed "boom" when rear windows are lowered. But none I've tested has boomed as ear-shatteringly as the Toyota Highlander.

I, too, have a Big Dog, a dead ringer for the corporate symbol of Big Dog clothing, and he thoroughly enjoys riding in test vehicles. Like most big dogs, he wants to stick his head out of a rear window and sniff the passing air.

Not in a Highlander. The booming is so loud that it would be unthinkable to torture an animal with that sound -- and no human will take it for long.

For those who always drive their vehicle with windows up, climate control on, this may never be a problem. Cracking a front window to exhaust cigarette smoke does not create a problem inside the Highlander. Rain entering the vehicle is not a serious problem. But if a rear window needs to be lowered, singly or in combination with a front window, there will most definitely be a problem.

The noise begins to become objectionable at about 40 miles an hour, becomes painful at highway speed, and intolerable at interstate speeds.

This noise is at the Extremely Low Frequency (ELF), or infrasound, end of the spectrum, a sound heard by human ears as a throb/boom and even more painful and annoying to animals with hearing ranges greater than ours (fish, horses and other animals often hear infrasonic earthquake tremors before we become aware of them).

NOTE: The line defining infrasound is not agreed upon by the science community and some definitions say infrasound is not heard by humans. But for the remainder of this discussion, it's easier to call this low frequency "infrasound".

Infrasound creates medical problems, by the way. "Sick building syndrome" has been traced in some instances to exposure to infrasound created by rooftop air conditioners loose on their mounts. The vibrations throughout the building make those inside nauseous and headachey. Even very low frequency sounds, bass frequencies higher in pitch than infrasound, can cause disorientation and mental disturbances, perhaps explaining the behavior of those who blast thumpa-thumpa boombox audio from their cars.

Sound exists as waves, and infrasound has the capability of shattering glass, as it did hundreds of miles from Krakatoa's volcanic explosion. It was sound, not wind, from Krakatoa's eruption that caused glass to vibrate and explode into pieces (some at a distance roughly equal to New York City to Tampa, Fla.).

In the case of the Highlander, the sound appears to be created by generation of low pressure. As the Highlander moves through the air, air has to move around and over parts of the vehicle (true of all vehicles). But something about the shape of the Highlander makes the resulting pressure creation more pronounced than with other vehicles. And there is vibration; the entire vehicle shakes, a fact clearly visible by looking at the rear view mirror.

Understand that creation of low pressure is the reason airplanes lift and helicopters stay aloft. Low pressure generation seems omnipresent with moving vehicles -- watch cigarette smoke head for a cracked window opening. That is movement from high pressure in the car to low pressure being created just outside the window.

In the case of the airplane, wind flowing past the wing is forced by the shape of the wing to move in a way that increases speed or decreases speed above and below the wing. This differential in speed creates areas of high and low pressure. Low pressure being created above the wing sucks air downward and this action lifts the plane.

In the natural world, air moves into low pressure systems; air moves out from high pressure systems. Think tornado: That's extreme low pressure. Air is sucked toward the area of lowest pressure. The sound? Oh yes -- like a train, witnesses say. A low, rumbling sound like a train passing over your head.

With the Highlander, low and high pressure fluctuations seem to occur as wind moves over the side of the vehicle, with its multiple pillars. Think of the Highlander's side as being like the blades on a helicopter. Those blades, each chopping through the air, produce the "thump, thump, thump" sound we know means a helicopter is approaching. Each blade is alternating low and high pressure. Each protrusion on the Highlander seems to create first low, then high, then low, etc., pressures. Open a window and you create a resonance chamber.

Now you can understand what you're about to hear. But microphones and audio tapes have a limited frequency range, and do not handle infrasound or ultrasound. Even if they recorded it, we couldn't hear it! So those frequencies are measured with barometric instruments that I don't own. That said, keep in mind that what you will hear is low frequency sounds present near my right ear while driving a Highlander. A recording such as this cannot relate the pain associated with the pulsating low frequencies, but, trust me, the pain was there.

I exposed myself to the noise -- it sounds as if a helicopter were flying along beside me -- for only about a quarter-mile at 55 miles an hour, but my ears hurt for the next 45 minutes. It felt as if I had hurt them gaining altitude on a flight without properly equalizing pressure. Or coming up too fast after a scuba dive and not "clearing" ears along the way.

Listen, now, to what I recorded in the Highlander:

• Windows wav file
  

Toyota can alleviate this problem with a redesign created in a wind tunnel or it can seek a noise-cancelling solution. Whatever, something needs to done for those with pets who enjoy sticking a head out an open window.

Because ... it all other ways, the Highlander remains as good as it gets.

'nuff heard.

Appendix

MORE THAN YOU EVER WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT INFRASOUND

Quotes from reliable Internet sites:

• "Unfortunately, physiological reaction to infrasound remains continuous, long after their irritating presence has ceased. The extreme irritability of infrasound victims has been noted."
  
  
• "It is an established fact that sustained low intensity infrasound alters human behavior and health. Higher accident rates are correlated ..."
  
  
• "Certain animals employ infrasound as weaponry. It has been known that certain whales are able to stun their prey with powerful blasts of inaudible sounds. Whales focus these powerful blasts at large squid and other fish to paralyze and catch them. In some instances, they have been known to burst their prey apart by tonal projection alone. Human experience with these inaudible blasts have been reported. The distress calls emitted by little beached whales was sufficient to push a veterinarian back several feet in the water."
  
  
• "Some theorists claim that wind enters caverns, producing an immense artificial whistle of infrasonic resonant pitch."
  
  
• "Nazi propaganda engineers methodically used infrasound to stir up the hostilities of crowds who were gathered to hear their madman."
  
  
• "Under the action of wind excitation, the passenger compartment (of moving vehicles) behaves sometimes like a cavity called a Helmholtz resonator."
  
  
• "Not much amplitude is required for infrasound to produce physiological malady. Several researchers accidentally did themselves great harm when, by deliberate intent or accident, they succeeded in generating infrasonic vibrations. Tesla used vibrating platforms as an aid to vitality. He delighted in "toning the body" with vibrational platforms of his own design. Mounted on heavy rubber pads, these platforms were vibrated by simple motorized "eccentric" wheels.

  "Their mild use, for a minute, could be pleasantly stimulating. The effects invigorating the whole body for hours thereafter. Excessive use would produce grave illness however, excessive aggravations of the heart being the most dangerous aspect of the stimulation. The entire body "rang" for hours with an elevated heart rate and greatly stimulated blood pressure. The effects could be deadly.

  "In one historic instance, Samuel Clemens, Tesla’s close friend, refused to descend from the vibrating platform. Tesla was sorry he had allowed him to mount it. After repeated warnings, Tesla’s concern was drowned out by both the vibrating machine and Clemens’ jubilant exaltations and praises. Several more seconds and Clemens nearly soiled his white suit, the effects of infrasound being "duly recorded".

  "Tesla often went to great lengths in describing the effects of infrasounds to newspaper reporters who, behind his back, scoffed at the notion that a "little sound" could effect such devastations. Yet, it was precisely with such a "little sound" that Tesla nearly brought down his laboratory on Houston Street. His compact infrasonic impulsers were terribly efficient. Tesla later designed and tested infrasonic impulse weapons capable of wrecking buildings and whole cities on command.

  "Walt Disney and his artists were once made seriously ill when a sound effect, intended for a short cartoon scene, was slowed down several times on a tape machine and amplified through a theater sound system. The original sound source was a soldering iron, whose buzzing 60 cycle tone was lowered five times to 12 cycles. This tone produced a lingering nausea in the crew which lasted for days."
  
  

• From a newsgroup posting:

  "I'm trying to locate research on the biophysical effects of infrasound. A few years ago I collected a series of citations -- about 25? from JASA, primarily from the late 50's and early 60's. Princeton cataloged several of these but they were all missing. It turned out that these papers were reclassified during 80's, and my efforts to get them through the DoD met with no success.

  "Can anyone tell me what is so interesting about biophysical effects of infrasound that merits classification?"
  
  

• Now think of Homeland Security and terrorists and visit this website.
  

Home, James