Toyota's More Refined Highlander

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Up Front

Lately, Toyota (TM) has been plus-sizing many of its vehicles, making them bigger and more powerful. Examples are the Rav4 sport-utility vehicle, the Tundra full-size pickup truck, and the boxy Scion xB. Now, the 2008 Toyota Highlander is getting the same treatment.



The new Highlander is several inches longer, wider, and taller than the model it's replacing, as well as being about 300 pounds heavier. That makes it roomier inside, with more legroom and cargo space. Overall, I like the new Highlander much better than the old one. It's a more refined vehicle, with a smoother ride, and a nicer, more sedan-style interior.



The engine is peppier, too. The '08 Highlander is only available with a powerful, 3.5-liter, 270-horsepower V6 -- 55 more horses than the 3.3-liter V6 in the old Highlander. A 155-horsepower, four-cylinder engine that was available on the old model has been dropped.



Happily, the bigger engine hasn't turned the Highlander into a gas hog. It's actually slightly more fuel-efficient than the old model was [when it was equipped with a six-cylinder engine]. Under the government's new system for calculating fuel economy, the '08 Highlander is rated to get 18 mpg in the city and 24 on the highway with front-wheel drive and 17 city/23 highway with four-wheel drive. In 302 miles of mixed driving, I got 20.9 mpg in a four-wheel-drive Highlander Sport.



It seems a shame that Toyota has dropped the smaller engine, but the Highlander didn't have much zip with a four-banger under the hood, and wasn't much more fuel-efficient either. If you convert the mileage rating to the new system, the old Highlander with a four-cylinder engine would have been rated to get 19/25 mpg with two-wheel drive and 18/23 with four-wheel drive. The '08 Highlander, with 115 more horses under the hood and a lot more space inside, does almost as well.



The '08 model comes in three trim levels. The base model starts at $27,985 with front-wheel drive and $29,435 with four-wheel drive. Comparable starting prices for the Sport model, which has a sport-tuned suspension and 19-in. alloy wheels, are $30,635 and $32,035. Top of the line is the Highlander Limited, which starts at $33,385 with front-wheel drive and $34,835 with four-wheel drive.



Those prices are only moderately higher than for the previous Highlander: about 2% more for the base model, a bit over 3% more for the Sport, and about 6% more for the Limited. A hybrid-powered version of the '08 Highlander starts at $34,385 for the base model, rising to $40,635 for the hybrid Limited.



Like most Toyotas, the new Highlander comes loaded with standard equipment. Even the base model has 17-in. alloy wheels, a rear spoiler, a six-speaker CD sound system with MP3/WMA capability, cruise control, power doors and windows, and a tilting and telescoping steering wheel. By the time you get up to the Limited, standard features include extra chrome, power adjustable front seats, leather seat and steering-wheel trim, a backup camera, heated outside mirrors, and an auto-dimming rearview mirror.



All versions of the new Highlander come with a full-size spare tire, too. The Highlander Limited comes standard with three rows of seats, but you can get the Base and Sport models with only two rows of seats if you prefer.



Standard safety gear on all models includes seven air bags, among them a knee bag for the driver and cabin-length/roll-sensing side curtain bags that protect all three rows of seats in side collisions. Like other Toyota SUVs, the new Highlander also comes standard with traction and stability control, antilock brakes with brake force distribution, and braking assist.



Crash-test results aren't in yet on the '08, but the '07 Highlander had a top five-star rating in front and side collisions, and a four-star rollover rating.



Another plus: The new Highlander comes in a number of striking metallic colors. Go with the bright metallic blue my test vehicle came in and you won't be losing your car in the supermarket parking lot very often. My test vehicle really stood out in the sea of look-alikes.



Highlander sales are holding up well, considering that this is a transition year for the model and SUV sales generally are weak. Through the end of July, Toyota sold 73,607 Highlanders in the U.S. market, about the same number as in 2006. But it's too early to tell whether the '08 will sell better than the old model.



As for the new Highlander's buyer profile, the average age is 49, about the same as for '08 crossover vehicles in general, according to the Power Information Network [PIN]. Some 43.3% of buyers are female, six percentage points more than for crossover vehicles on average this year. Most buyers pay cash or finance their purchase; only 8.8% lease, PIN says. [Power Information Network, like BusinessWeek.com, is a unit of The McGraw-Hill Companies (MHP).]



Behind the Wheel

For a car-based SUV, the previous Highlander drove a lot like a truck. This one doesn't. Based on the same platform as the Camry and Avalon sedans, it drives much more like a family sedan than an SUV. Among other things, the '08 Highlander comes with an electronic steering system that reduces the effort you have to put into turning. That makes parking much easier.



I found out the hard way how smooth-riding and quiet the Highlander is on the highway. Cruising into Manhattan on the interstate from Pennsylvania I got nabbed for doing 83 mph in a 65-mph zone, one of the few speeding tickets I've gotten in my life. I was blithely unaware I was going so fast. It felt like I was doing 60. Among the reasons the new Highlander is quieter than the old one, Toyota says, are that it has more sound-deadening material behind the dashboard, more weather stripping around the windows, and improved engine mounts that reduce noise and vibration.



The Highlander is plenty quick for a family SUV. In accelerating from 0 to 60 mph, I timed it at just under eight seconds. The five-speed automatic transmission has a manual shifting function that's quite quick for an SUV transmission, and I found the Highlander's acceleration noticeably quicker in the manual mode. There's also more than adequate oomph when you pull out into the passing lane on the highway and punch the gas.



Toyota has done much to make the Highlander's interior more practical and comfortable. Legroom in the driver's seat may be tight if you're tall. I'm only 5 feet, 10 inches tall and I had it set all the way back most of the time. However, with the front seat all the way back, I had plenty of knee space in the second-row seat, which can also be adjusted back and forth.



With both the front- and second-row seats set comfortably for someone of my height, I had plenty of legroom in the third row of seats. The third-row seats also are relatively accessible, even for an adult. The second-row seats slide forward, creating a space you can climb [or crawl, if you're tall or heavyset] into.



One seating innovation in the new Highlander is a concept Toyota calls "Center Stow," which allows you to set up the second-row seats in several configurations. In one, there's a center console with two cupholders in it between two captain-style seats. In another, you remove the center console, which folds up so it can be stowed under the console between the front seats, and replace it with an insert that transforms the captain-style seats into a bench-style seat. Or you can leave the area between the second-row captain's seats empty so passengers have more space in which to move around.



One of the few negatives about the Highlander's new interior is that storage space behind the third-row seats is only 10.3 cubic feet. Available space expands to 42.5 cu. ft. with the third-row seats folded down, and 95.4 cu. ft. with both rows of rear seats down. But if you're going to pack six or seven people into the Highlander and take off on a vacation, you may need to consider a roof rack to handle your luggage.



Buy It Or Bag It?

The '08 Highlander, has an average selling price of $33,120, according to PIN, putting it in about the middle of the pack. Among comparable car-based crossover vehicles, the $33,015 Mazda CX-9 costs about the same and the $29,222 Ford (F) Edge and $31,281 Nissan (NSANY) Murano are cheaper.



The new GMC Acadia from General Motors (GM), a less fancy sister model to the Buick Enclave, costs a bit more at $35,878.



If you're on a tight budget, the $23,484 Hyundai Santa Fe is a very nice crossover at a much lower price than the Highlander.



View our slide show of the 2008 Toyota Highlander.