Any Toyota Highlander Owners Here??

[ditrina]

Mrs. ditrina is looking to replace her high mileage Honda. Seems to have settled on the 2018 Toyota Highlander. ( Hauling grandkids and groceries are in the mix)I have no experience with that model.
It looks cute and is the right size but can anybody give me some real world experience reports??

Thanks

 

[DeathGrip]

Real world experience, What ever she wants.

 

[ColbyBruce]

I have a 2009 Toyota RAV4, V-6, 4WD. It now has 130,000 miles on it with routine maintenance; no big problems. Two batteries, two sets of brakes, three sets of tires. We looked at the Highlander but could not get it with 4WD in the color combo my wife required.

We were so pleased with this Toyota that we bought a Hybrid Camry in 2014.

One thing about the RAV4, the original Toyo tires that were on it were extremely loud; due to the tread design. I replaced them after a month, gave the take-offs to a neighbor’s kid who drove a older Toyota 4Runner with nearly bald tires. We were both happy.

 

[ace22]

i had an older highlander that i sold last winter. it had around 145k on it and was running great but i basically wanted something different.
toyotas have a reputation of being dependable and have one of the highest resale values in the auto industry so that's something to consider if you decide to sell it in the future.

 

[madmikeb]

First I have to say I'm a little biased, I've worked at a Toyota dealer for 30+ years.
I have a 1979 Celica I bought in 1981 that has 265k on the clock, a 2003 Tacoma with 130k on it. Full disclosure, I found a hole in the frame this spring, but Toyota is putting a new frame in at no cost. My wife drives a 2007 Solara convertible with 225k.
Toyota builds a good product, like anything mechanical they aren't perfect, and they stand behind them.

 

[cballman]

My wife and i purchased on two years ago. So far we have not had any troubles at all. We have taken a few road trips with it. keeps up and will pass most anything on the road. We have one of the better packages not the all out ones that had so much stupid stuff. We have heated and cooled seats. Now that is the bomb. Just downright freaking awesome. We also purchased Weather-tech floor mats for the front area. Then we purchased the Toyota rear because it was made to split the rear seats when folded up or down on either side. I think it was a good choice except for the color. My wife wanted blue and got it, I wanted red. She wins.

 

[5-Shot]

The Mrs has one with about 75,000 flawless miles. We’ve had a bunch of Toyota’s and they’ve all been perfect.

Ed

 

[Farmer17]

I have a 2012 Rav4 with 195K miles and the only repairs needed were when I recently replaced the front wheel bearings, and everything else still works perfectly. My friend bought a Highlander and it actually turned out to be a lemon and blew the engine at under 100K miles. Its had several other problems and noises also but I think that is really rare and I wouldn't hesitate to buy a Toyota. I was wanting an SUV about this size and did a lot of research and the Kia Sorento V6 was very highly rated with a 100K mile factory warranty and they can be found on the used market in great shape, one or two years old for about half the price of a new Highlander.

 

[Moo Moo]

They are called Toyota Klugers over here in Australia. They are a fairly popular SUV however tend to be a little thirsty on the gas compared to other SUV's in its class. The new Mazda CX-9 is meant to be the bees knees of medium class SUVs from what I've heard over here.

 

[H Richard]

I have a 2010 and love it. It's the model with the third seat that folds down. Plenty of space for luggage for travel. Gets decent mileage, around 24 highway. AWD, and goes anywhere. No maintenance issues at all. The only thing I don't like is the back up camera has only about a 2 1/2" screen (remember this is 8 years old), and is difficult to see if bright sunlight. I can't comment on the newer screens but I assume are much better.

Now this is for two adults, a friend had one and hated it, but he had three children and two dogs and it was too small.

 

[GaryS]

My wife has a 2007 Highlander with about 120K miles on it. It's been rock solid reliable and other than routine maintenance needed only brakes and tires.

They aren't cheap, but since you own a Honda you know about that.

Since 2000, between us and our kids, we've owned probably 10 Toyotas. They've all be reliable. The reason for so many is that my daughter totaled one, my son had one bought back by Toyota for a frame rot issue and totaled another. The rest were trades for upgrades.

You will be very happy with your Highlander and your wife will be even happier.

No, I don't work for Toyota.

 

[GaryS]

Newer screens are built into the radio and are very good. My son just bought a 2011 Tacoma and doesn't really like the little screen built into the mirror. Which is what I'm guessing you have too.

I have a 2010 and love it. It's the model with the third seat that folds down. Plenty of space for luggage for travel. Gets decent mileage, around 24 highway. AWD, and goes anywhere. No maintenance issues at all. The only thing I don't like is the back up camera has only about a 2 1/2" screen (remember this is 8 years old), and is difficult to see if bright sunlight. I can't comment on the newer screens but I assume are much better.

Now this is for two adults, a friend had one and hated it, but he had three children and two dogs and it was too small.

 

[Ole Joe Clark]

Bought a Toyota Sienna Van new, drove it 14 years, it still ran good when we sold it. Bought a Rav 4 used almost 2 years ago, no problems. It's too small, but I was used to the van.

My SIL will sell you one, folks from all the Eastern US buy from him. He has been the Salesman of the Years for 20+ years now.

No, I don't get a finders fee, all I get is a hard time from him.

Have a blessed day,

Leon

 

[AKtinman]

I bought a new 2012 Highlander AWD Limited and overall it was a good vehicle. We put nearly 60,000 miles on it when I traded it off. I liked the 3rd row seating which came in handy for grandkids visits. 20 mpg was pretty normal gas mileage. It was very dependable and served us well.

Things I didn’t like:

Front passenger seat did not have enough adjustments for comfort. The bottom moved fore and aft, and the backrest was adjustable. No tilt position on the bottom. The only vehicle I have had leg cramps in on a long trip.

The backup camera screen was in the middle of the dash and difficult to see in sunlight, as has been mentioned.

The same LCD screen as used by the backup camera is also used to set A/C and other parameters. That’s OK until the alert for maintenance appears. If you don’t have the vehicle serviced soon after the initial warning, the warning takes over the LCD and that is all you see there until you move one of the heater A/C controls, then you can make the adjustments you want, and the warning takes over the screen again. It won’t go away until the warning is reset or the vehicle is serviced. Extremely annoying. And, no, I don’t ignore my vehicle maintenance.

Passing power on the highway is lacking.

Winter road performance was not as good as I had expected.


In 2015 I traded the Highlander on a 2012 Volvo XC60 R-Design AWD. The XC60 has a couple of minor design nits I don’t care for, but otherwise I am very happy with it, especially the winter road performance.


The Highlander was not my first Toyota. We were at the Volvo dealer helping our Alaskan daughter on her long-distance purchase of a used 4Runner, and ended up buying the XC60 as well as a good used Rav4 for our MN daughter. No, we didn’t do all that on the same day

I purchased a new 2013 Tacoma TRD Sport to replace my 2009 TRD Off-Road, which had replaced a 2001 Pre-Runner 4 banger.

I like the backup camera in the rear-view mirror, as I use the mirrors as well as the camera when I am backing up. And the camera is not blotted out by the sun as was the Highlander camera.

The TRD front seats were more comfortable than the Highlander seats, as they gave better support.

And, on the Tacoma, a non-obtrusive yet very visible “Maint Required” alert lights up in the instrument cluster.


I would consider another Highlander in the future, but I’d sure be looking to see if the things I didn’t like were improved on the newer vehicle.

 

[JOliver]

The wife has a 2017 Toyota Highlander in Black with gray leather.
I have to admit I like it a lot, I tried to get her to get a 4Runner but after driving them we both agreed we liked the Highlander better. She doesn’t get off road ever.
We have about 25k on it so far and we haven’t done a thing to it other than regular service.
It does have some new car features that take some getting used to, it has the engine cut off,when sitting at a red light the engine cuts off to save fuel?!! Thank goodness there is a button on the dash that cuts it off!
It also has the lane alert so while driving if you don’t properly use a turn signal and drift it will center you back up automatically. I’m sure all sorts of new cars and trucks have this but it’s new to me and it is a safety thing, you can also cut it off and you can adjust the sensitivity.
The center console is nice, it slide open from the middle without having to have the passenger move their arm, simple but I really like that a lot.
The radio does so much stuff I can’t even begin to tell you about it.
The back seat has tons! Of leg room a lot more than a 4 Runner.
The only thing I could complain on is that it came with Bridgestones and at they’re almost worn out with 25k on them but Michelins will be the replacements soon.
The V6 has PLENTY of power, gas mileage is good and the transmission is very nice.
I have really been happy with it, and the wife loves it. It carries her, out 11 year old son and my sweet 16 month old little girl so the extra safety features are nice. It has some sort of built in camera system that has a ton of images and will steer away and brake automatically for you if you run up on them. My wife has avoided one collision in traffic by this feature already.
I don’t recall exactly as we traded in a Camry for this SUV but I want to say we paid around 33,500 for it. It’s an XLE model,leather, sunroof, backup camera, automatic rear hatch,3 row seat

Hope this helps