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Midyear addition of a Sport model highlights 2006 for this car-type SUV. Toyota 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. Toyota Highlander seats up to seven and comes with front-wheel drive or with all-wheel drive that lacks low-range gearing. Conventional-powertrain Toyota Highlanders come in base, Limited, and new Sport models. Base models are available with a 155-hp 4-cyl engine or a 215-hp V6. Sport and Limited use the V6. The Hybrid also comes in base and Limited trim, but both team a gas V6 with an electric motor for 268 hp. Like Toyota's other Hybrids, it runs on one or both of its power sources, depending on driving demands, and requires no plug-in charging. Hybrids have a continuously variable automatic transmission (CVT). Other Toyota Highlanders have conventional automatic transmissions.
Standard on Hybrids and optional for other Toyota Highlanders are front side airbags and curtain side airbags. The curtain airbags include rollover deployment but cover just the first two seating rows. All Toyota Highlanders have ABS and traction/antiskid control. Options include a sunroof and DVD entertainment. An optional navigation system is exclusive to Limited and Limited Hybrid. The Sport has a sport suspension.
A clean-sheet Toyota Highlander is reportedly on tap for 2008. The model's first redesign employs a basic platform shared with the redesigned 2007 Camry sedan, which in turn is based on Toyota's full-size Avalon. Word is that the SUV's wheelbase and perhaps body will be extended a bit to improve 3rd-row access and passenger room. Look for styling to be butched up some, but not so macho as to steal thunder from Toyota's truck-based midsize 4Runner.
Any Toyota Highlander is a family focused SUV offering great practicality, solid quality, and Toyota's deserved reputation for reliability and high resale value. Versions with the conventional V6 engine best represent Toyota Highlander's Best Buy status. The 4-cyl models are too slow and noisy. Hybrids are the costliest versions, and their price premium may take years to offset in fuel savings. But they also are the quickest Toyota Highlanders, and their value calculation also takes into account emissions benefits.
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