Excellent Vehicle - Highly Recommend It

Author's Rating:

Pros: Smooth Ride, Good Fuel Economy, Roomy Interior, Reasonable Price

Cons: Short supply leads to no bargains

Handling And Control:

The Bottom Line: 
Strongly recommend it. Drives like a car. The 4 cylinder has plenty of power.

Author's Review
We have an infant and needed a car or SUV that had enough room for 2 adults and a baby seat. Since I learned many years ago about quality and reliability as an engineer I narrowed my choices to only Toyotas or Hondas. I also wanted a new car. Our 1st choice would have been a station wagon, like the Volvo, but Toyota and Honda do not currently make one. We next checked out the Toyota Matrix, I liked it a lot but my wife convinced me it would not have enough room with the baby seat in the back seat. She was right. We ruled out Minivans because we didn't want to fall into the trap of having the "family" car syndrome.

We next looked at the Honda CRV and we were about to buy it until I found out that the Toyota Highlander is very similar but has about an extra inch or two of leg room for the front seats. Since I am also 6' 3", this was a big factor. I felt that with the CRV I was just a little cramped in the front with the seat all the way back. Not too cramped but enough that I would get uncomfortable on a long journey.

So we test drove two Highlanders. They both were excellent. A six cylinder and a four cylinder. I really wanted a four cylinder because it gets better gas mileage. So I researched the heck out the 4 cylinder before driving it. The 4 cylinder engine was designed specifically for the highlander and it has 155 horsepower and is 2.4 Liters. All the reviews were very positive and indicated that it had sufficient power. Some people made blanket statements that they recommended the 6 cylinder but stated no valid reasons why or indicated that they test drove the 4 cylinder to back up their statements. I read one review from a guy in Atlanta that stated he had no problem going onto highways with the 4 cylinder Highlander. The only valid reason against a 4 cylinder is if you plan on going up and down steep hills with a lot of weight in the car.

Well when I test drove the 4 cylinder 2 wheel drive I could not believe the power. I drove onto highways, back roads, & main roads and the acceleration and breaking were excellent. I even had to pull off and open the hood to make sure it was a 4 cylinder. I tested the acceleration by going onto roads with on-coming cars approaching at 50+ mph and I had no problems at all.

Well we ended up buying the 4 cylinder Highlander 2 wheel drive and we love it. It has plenty of room. When I'm driving and have my seat all the way back, my wife (sitting behind me) and baby in car seat are quite comfortable. Same with me in the back and the wife driving.

The SUV drives very smoothly, just like a car. It is built on the Camry frame.

We opted not to get the options with the power seat, seemed like an unnecessary expense.

The only caveat is that you really do not have a choice with many of the "options". For example all Highlanders come shipped to the U.S. with $500 Alloy Wheel option. If you don't want that option you would have to custom order a Highlander from the Toyota, this I was told would take 6 months because the SUV would have to come from Japan. There were many other nuances like this that pretty much forces you to get pre-selected options.

I highly recommend the car we are extremely happy with it.