2021 Toyota Highlander

MARK TAKAHASHI: The mid-sized three row SUV has become the go-to choice for growing families. There can be only one top pick, though, and for the last two years that's been the Kia Telluride. There's a new challenger, though, and it's this, the all new 2020 Toyota Highlander. The last time the Highlander was redesigned was 2014, and back then it shot to the top of its class only to be replaced just a few years later by newer competitors. This time around, though, the Highlander adopts some new style that's been brought over by some of the pickup trucks. We've seen it played out with a RAV4, and personally, I'm a fan. I like the angular trapezoidal grille. It gives a little more aggression and a little more chunkiness that I think is missing from a lot of other SUVs in its class. Unfortunately, around the side I do have some complaints. In terms of the Highlander silhouette, it's really not too much different here from any other three row midsize SUV. One thing I don't like, though, is this weird character line that starts here, continues up, and swoops over the back wheels. It's kind of this weird unnecessary styling flourish that they've also used on the Supra. Me it almost seems like they had a bin full of these, they just didn't know what to do with them. It adds some visual weight that I think, quite frankly, is unnecessary. But styling is subjective. You may be OK with it. And it might also look better in darker colors. Under the hood of the Highlander is a 295 horsepower 3.5 liter V6 that's made into an 8 speed automatic transmission that drives the front wheels. All wheel drive is available as an option. There's also a four-cylinder hybrid version that has 243 horsepower and returns an impressive 35 miles per gallon. This V6 all wheel drive platinum, however, turns in a respectable 23 miles per gallon. Prices start right around $36,000 and climb to almost $48,000 for this, the top of the line platinum trim. That's a few thousand dollars more than our top ranked Kia Telluride, so let's find out what we get for the money. And it starts gathering speed really well. Doesn't even sound like you're stressing out the engine. And right there, 60. Boom. That's pretty impressive. I think Toyota did well to go with the V6, and the traditional automatic transmission actually has really good pickup. There's almost no delay between the time you stomp on the pedal and you start moving. I don't know how it's going to fare when we track test this because right now in the middle of COVID-19 we've shut down our testing, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's pretty close to the Telluride or even slightly faster. If it's not faster, it certainly feels like that because it has a quicker response to throttle input. The brakes are also just plain easy, and there's really not a lot to say about that. And that's a good thing. Coming to a stop right now. Nice and easy. Easy to just roll up. Come to a really beautiful limo stop. And that's great if you have a bunch of kids sleeping in the back. You don't want to wake them up. Despite its focus on being family friendly, this Highlander is surprisingly good on a curvy road. I'm on one of the curvaceous robes here in Southern California right now, and it takes it with confidence. Way more confidence than I expected. Body roll is really well-managed. There's no kind of shuddering back and forth, and no jostling. It takes the turn, it sets it with no wobbling after. Yes, you can, indeed, have fun driving a Highlander now. And the best part is it didn't sacrifice ride quality in exchange for that. Usually when an SUV can take curves like this, it's going to have a stiffer ride quality, and you're going to sacrifice comfort as a result. That's not the case with the Highlander. It's still really smooth and comfortable over the bumps, and the mid-corner bumps it just glides right over. And some of those bumps will actually upset other vehicles. Well done, Toyota. One thing I'm struck with right now, actually, is forward visibility. This front roof pillar right in front of me is as narrow as I've seen out of any vehicle in a long time. A lot of newer vehicles have really thick roof pillars, and that's for crash standards for rollover protection. In this one, they engineered it to be thinner or at least appear thinner to the driver. That means I don't really have to bob my head back and forth around it to see through sharp left turns. Rear visibility, it's about the same as any other midsize three row SUV. It's not great, but you have a decent enough view. What Toyota did, though, is they added one of these virtual mirrors so that if you have passengers or gear piled up to the roof, you can still see what's behind you. The problem I have with some of these virtual mirrors is there's no depth perception. Knowing that, it's fine if you're on a road trip and you just need to see what's coming up behind you. But if you're trying to maneuver it back into a tight spot, you're better off relying on the camera system, which is actually really good. It's sharp, and it gives a really good distortion-free view all around. And in this top platinum trim, you get the surround view monitor. Also helping with visibility is this has a head up display. So I'm getting speed and navigation prompts right in front of me. I don't have to take my eyes off the road. I'm a big fan of head up displays. As expected of any vehicle today, the Highlander comes off a long list of standard advanced safety features and available driver assistance. On my three-hour evaluation drive of this I rely pretty heavily on adaptive cruise control, and it functions very well. It maintains a really good gap between you and the car in front. And when traffic slows down, it eases into the brakes. It doesn't just hop onto them aggressively at the last second. Likewise when traffic starts flowing again, it eases into the throttle. It doesn't floor it and kind of pin you to the seat. In essence, it drives pretty much like any good driver should. One problem I had with some of these systems, though, is pretty minor, and it's the lane departure warning. It was a little too sensitive. It would send up a few false signals every now and then, and that was more because there's just some faint lines in the roadway that it thought were the painted lines. But it's a problem that a lot of other systems in other vehicles don't have a problem with. The good news is you can just disable it with one button on the steering wheel. You don't have to go searching through menus. And there's also a sensitivity setting for this. And when I took it down to its lower setting of two settings, it stopped giving me a lot of those false alarms. Another thing I'm noticing as I'm driving along is as much as I like the placement and size of this massive touchscreen, it's prone to a lot of reflections, and it's obscuring some of the information on the screen. A lot of the reflections are actually coming from the passenger's seat here, which means that the screen is a little too perpendicular. Other screens are tilted down a little bit just so you don't get a lot of those ancillary reflections. The redesign also significantly improved the Highlander's interior. These front seats are built for comfort. On our three-hour evaluation drive, I really didn't feel any fatigue. In this top Platinum trim, you also get ventilated seats. Most of your elbow touch points and knee touch points are well padded, but there are a few hard plastics that I wasn't really expecting. The dash overall has a pleasing, attractive design. I'm particularly fond of this giant touch screen right in front of me. It's within easy reach and right in my sight line so it reduces distraction while I'm using it. Apple Carplay and Android Auto are standard. This new infotainment system and screen are also pretty sharp. You have the option of doing a split screen layout. So you have your climate control on one side, and you have your audio and navigation on the other. There's also redundant controls for the climate control, which is something I really like. Having to dig through menus just to change the temperature it's kind of a pain. Underneath that big screen is a nice pocket here for your cell phone, and has a built in cord keeper. It's just perfect. Underneath that, another spot for a cell phone. Two large cup holders here, but there is an option for a wireless charging pad. The problem is they put it here underneath the center armrest, and it's blocking access to everything underneath. You have to flip it up and then kind of rummage through because it's not very easy to see inside, either. To me, seems like an afterthought. There's another bin right here just above the glove box. Which is great for the passenger, especially in a long road trip. We tend to run out of personal storage. Right here at your fingertips are a lot of low-level, off road terrain systems. You have things for mud, sand, rock, dirt, and also snow. Hill descent control is also here, along with some sport, normal, and eco drive mode selectors. I do have a few nit picks with the Highlander's interior, and that's related to the abundance of textures and colors. On the top of the dash here we have this cocoa brown kind of faux-leather texture with some kind of light brown stitching, and we have this metallic-looking carbon fiber embossed trim piece here with a chrome strip underneath that. Some light tan leather-looking upholstery underneath that with a kind of grittier texture here for the bin. On the doors we have some harder plastics, and also this kind of weird dark gray wood grain pattern which I'm really not a fan of in any car. But when you put them all together, it's just a little disjointed. It's almost like how you're not supposed to wear polka dots with stripes. It's just too much going on there. Feel like they could have been a little more refined and a little classier with fewer colors or just going with basic black. Here in the second row I have plenty of space, and this driver's seat is set for me. I'm 5 foot 10 and my hair's just barely brushing the head liner. You have some nice vents here for climate control with your separate controls right here in front of you. You also have heated seats with this top trim, and underneath two USB ports and a household power outlet. Materials quality is about the same as it is up front. Your elbows are nicely padded, but there are some hard plastics here or there. You do have some manual sun shades here to keep the sun off your young ones or for just a little more privacy. With these two captain's chairs, there's a decent enough pass-through here for smaller passengers to squeeze through. Here in the third row of seats, it's understandably a lot less accommodating. Wow, I'm really packed in here. But this second row seat is slid all the way back, and that's default position. With the second row seat slid just a little bit forward, I have much more space for my feet and for my knees. There is absolutely no thigh support, though, because this seat cushion's mounted so low to the floor. So my knees are pretty much up in the air with nothing underneath. It's obviously meant for very small passengers and children, or occasional use at that. Which is kind of par for the course for three row mid-sized SUVs. The Telluride does offer much more space back here, though. Another nit pick I have, too, is there's cup holders here, but it's really hard plastic and it's right where your elbow wants to sit. So if I was stuck back here, I'd probably have to roll up a jacket and put it underneath my elbow. There are also no USB charging ports back here. So on a long road trip packed with people they might get bored back here or run out of juice for their devices. When it comes to cargo space, it's a bit of a mixed bag when it comes to the Highlander. Behind the third row of seats you have 16 cubic feet of cargo capacity. As you can see, that's not a whole lot, and it's also a little bit narrow. That's 5 cubic feet less than the Kia Telluride, too. And to put that in perspective, 5 cubic feet is about two of these big plastic bins. It's a little more significant than you might think. Once you fold down these rear seats, though, it opens up to about 48.4 cubic feet, giving the Highlander a slight advantage of about two cubic feet over the Telluride. Once you fold down the second row of seats, though, at its maximum capacity, the Telluride regains its advantage by about three cubic feet. In the end, if you're planning to haul a lot of people and a lot of gear, you might want to pay closer attention to the Highlander's cargo capacity. There's no doubt that the 2020 redesign has done wonders for the Toyota Highlander. It's got a good amount of power, it drives great, it's comfortable over long distances, there's a ton of space in the first and second rows, and you get all of the available advanced safety features and driver assistance we've come to expect. It does lose some ground against our top rated Kia Telluride, though. It doesn't have the interior quality and materials that make that Telluride so special. Also, the third row seats are far more cramped, and there's less cargo space behind them. The Highlander definitely deserves a spot in the top three among midsize three row crossovers, though. Which means it's a great competitor against the Honda Pilot. For more information on the Highlander, the Telluride, and the Pilot, head on over to edmunds.com. To see more videos like this, hit Subscribe.