2025 Toyota Grand Highlander Hybrid Road Trip Review: Space Isn't Everything

• I put 1,300 miles on our Toyota Grand Highlander Hybrid.
• This SUV has many strengths, including a cavernous interior and its hybrid powertrain.
• But there are still a few things our Grand Highlander gets wrong.

Great space, great power, solid fuel economy

Not long into my trip, I was thrown a curveball. After covering the 375-mile drive to SFO, my friends asked if we could cram a fourth person and their luggage in the Grand Highlander. This meant we had to flip up one of the third-row seats, cutting into cargo space, but the Grand Highlander happily swallowed four huge duffel bags, four suitcases and several everyday-sized backpacks. We eventually added a week's worth of groceries for six people and, somehow, some dry cleaning. The Toyota was absolutely packed to the gills, but we made it work, and with less fuss than I initially expected. 

One of the Grand Highlander's biggest strengths is there's room for pretty much everything. Obviously, one carries around a lot of snacks and disposable coffee cups on a long road trip, and I'm no different. But a large center console, generous door pockets and even a shelf above the glovebox (with its own charging port) all proved to be supremely useful. 

Another bright spot of our particular Grand Highlander is its Hybrid Max powertrain. The setup marries a turbocharged four-cylinder engine with an electric hybrid system to make 362 horsepower and 400 lb-ft of torque. On the road, even loaded up with five people and all that gear, I was never wanting for power. Passing and merging weren't an issue. And despite going hard on the throttle and carrying a lot of people and gear, I saw 23 mpg over the course of the whole trip.

But while the big Toyota showed a lot of poise on my 1,000-mile endeavor, there's still room for improvement. 

The ride quality and driver aids need work

On rutted roads at low speed, the suspension is barely able to keep up with the demands of high-frequency bumps. The result is a deluge of impacts that constantly make their way into the cabin. These impacts are both loud and harsh, and because many of the interior body panels feel hollow, they rattle and resonate. A softer ride would be nice. I can't imagine what it would be like if our Grand Highlander had the larger wheel option.

The driver aids also need work. When I first hopped in the Toyota, I had to turn all of the passive systems back on because everyone who drove this car before me had turned them off. And I totally get why. The lane keeping assistance fires off warnings way too frequently, and the forward collision warning was very often fooled by trash cans or roadwork signs. 

The seat belt warning in the third row was occasionally fooled into thinking someone was occupying a seat that was actually empty. Because it's so tight back there, it's easy to slightly scooch yourself into the chair next to you. The end result is the "oh my god, shut up" kind of irritation that makes driving too much of a chore. Toyota has had overly sensitive safety systems for a while, and it needs to stop. 

The big thing Toyota owners are still waiting for 

If I had taken our Ford Expedition or the Tesla Model Y for this journey (the former too big for my trip and the latter too small), BlueCruise and Supervised Full Self-Driving would have taken the burden off me at more than a few points. When you're covering 500 miles in a single day, you eventually wish you had a little help. 

Toyota, for its part, has adaptive cruise control and lane keeping. Yippee. So does everything else. You'd think the largest automaker in the world would have an eyes-on, hands-free solution by now, but alas Toyota customers are left wanting when they hit the open road. Toyota likes to take its time when it comes to next-gen tech, but it's starting to get overtaken by much of its direct competition in this area. 

The Grand Highlander has its strengths as a road tripper, but you are also forced to suffer from its deficiencies. Hopefully, a midcycle refresh in a year or two will make the Grand Highlander a more well-rounded machine on the road. For now, if you can go for the Hybrid Max and live with a lot of road noise and a flinty ride, then sure. Go for it. But for me? There are plenty of rivals in this class I'd sooner consider.