Toyota Highlander Reviews 2013

Highlander shares its basic design with the more-expensive RX SUV from Toyota's premium Lexus division, and like the RX, offers gas and gas/electric hybrid models. Highlander seats up to seven and comes with front-wheel drive or with all-wheel drive that lacks low-range gearing.

The 2008 Toyota Highlander is redesigned with larger dimensions, more standard safety features, and a new engine. For 2008, this midsize SUV grows nearly four inches in length and three inches in width, resulting in more passenger and cargo room.

The 2011 Toyota Highlander gets freshened styling and a revised gas/electric Hybrid model. This midsize-crossover SUV seats 7 with a folding 3rd-row seat and 2nd-row bucket seats.

By far the most popular of Toyota's three midsize SUVs (the others being the truck-based 4Runner and funky FJ), the Highlander can seat up to 7 on three rows and offers a Hybrid model - the only one available in the class. Highlander is built in Japan. Little has changed on the Highlander for 2012, as it received a freshening last year.

The 2008 Toyota Highlander Limited is a well-equipped crossover with some advanced cabin technology and a smooth power train. Aside from some questionable cabin materials, the Highlander is a worthy contender in a competitive segment.

Like a reliable friend, the 2011 Toyota Highlander goes where you want to go, joining in without complaint or hassle. Its tech may not be cutting-edge, but its many useful features come in handy when exploring new ground or grinding out long road-trip miles.

Reviewers agree that overall, the 2012 Toyota Highlander is a strong contender among three-row crossover SUVs, but shoppers who want a fun-to-drive family vehicle should look elsewhere.

The Highlander delivers one of the best combinations of reliable family transportation and safety in its class. The 2007 Toyota Highlander continues to earn overall praise based on its outstanding safety features and strong reliability.

Redesigned last year, the Highlander is a functional, family-friendly crossover. Riding on a new platform shared with the Toyota Camry and Avalon, the second-generation Highlander boasts a restyled exterior and larger dimensions than its predecessor.

The Toyota Highlander is a functional, family-friendly crossover. Riding on a platform shared with theToyota Camry and Avalon, the second-generation Highlander boasts decent fuel economy, three available rows of seats and a smooth, car-like ride.

For 2011, Toyota has freshened the Highlander slightly, updating the styling and changing some of the trims. Those changes haven’t taken the Highlander away from its core mission of delivering a comfortable, affordable and reliably crossover SUV for families.

Apart from the base Highlander Hybrid, all 2008 models get 7-passenger seating accommodations. Space for the occupants and cargo space has substantially improved.

Toyota's new-for-2008 Highlander SUV carries the family Toyota truck look while modernizing the popular model at the same time. In a market full of crossover look-alikes, it's nice to see something that stands out.

Each individual item of the Highlander isn’t any better than in many other cars, but the combination and placement of seats, switches, instruments and finish all work together. Everything seems in a logical place regardless of what car you come from.

The Highlander can hold a lot of stuff and a lot of people, so if you’re planning to load it up a lot, the four could be a bit stretched. Your fuel mileage would suffer too, and get closer to V6 territory, if it was called upon to work really hard most of the time.

There are some vehicles on the market that might be lacking in refinement, practicality and eco-friendliness, but their alluring shape and extroverted character make them hard to resist. On the other hand, it’s exactly the opposite for certain other vehicles. Case in point: the Toyota Highlander.

Traditionally plentiful Toyota standard safety features abound in the Highlander, whose fuel economy has improved over the years but is not yet an industry example.

The Toyota Highlander now looks less boxy than prior models, looking much more like a crossover than an SUV. A clean character line strip creases the flat sides, and the Toyota offers 19-inch alloy wheels to give the SUV a more muscular look.

If a well-regarded mid-size crossover with standard third row tops your wish list, you should take a good look at this one. It's feature-laden, neither too big nor too small and should prove reliable for many years.

Toyota's 2012 Highlander crossover SUV continues to impress with its abilities, features and resale value. The vehicle that basically invented the segment, the Highlander established its beachhead and never let go.

The Highlander base and Limited editions are too softly sprung to be interesting on a twisty road, plus the electric steering offers zero feedback, and the springs and dampers feel mushy.

Its styling grows even more rounded but less distinctive, and while the interior feels like a quality piece, it's not a style standout either.

While the interior is well built and offers all the amenities buyers expect, it's not particularly stylish-which seems to be just fine with hundreds of thousands of Highlander buyers.

It's rounded and curvy, but not voluptuous--although the new Venza-inspired front end is a smart step in a more stylish direction. The cabin feels better than it looks: it's not particularly stylish, either, but it works.

The 2012 Highlander looks big from the outside, and it delivers on that impression inside. Even bigger adults will fit in the second row—and that seat has a clever middle seat that stows inside the front console when not needed, leaving a walk-through to the third-row seat.