The trendy three-row crossover SUV ought to haul a bevy of people in comfort, choice, and with the latest know-how. The redesigned 2020 Toyota Highlander does all these things, nonetheless excels at none of them.
Squaring off in route of the Hyundai Palisade, Honda Pilot, Volkswagen Atlas, Dodge Durango, and the Kia Telluride, which was The Car Connection’s Best Car To Buy 2020, the Highlander can fall flat on its droopy face.
With a TCC Rating of 7.2 out of 10 the 2020 Toyota Highlander pleases with the very best infotainment system provided in a Toyota, protected safety gear, and cozy seats, nonetheless its design is busy, the seats are slim, and the third row is small.
I spent per week with the 2020 Toyota Highlander in prime Platinum trim working errands, making a Costco run, hauling kids, and freeway tripping to look out the place it hits and misses. Right related acceptable proper appropriate correct proper right here’s what I found.
Hti: Comfortable entrance half
The essential two rows of seats had been supportive, cosy, and featured an upright seating place. The road-trip worthy seats had been firmer, and barely a lot a lot a lot a lot a lot a lot a lot much less fatiguing, than the tender thrones current in a Honda Pilot.
Miss: … nonetheless try and be this huge to journey
However at 5’10” with a median assemble, I felt the seats had been as huge as I’d be cozy. Had I been the 240 kilos I was after these good four years of faculty the seats may have felt a bit slim.
2020 Toyota Highlander Platinum
Hit: Greatest infotainment nonetheless
It’s as if Toyota’s been listening or one concern. The Highlander’s 12.3-inch touchscreen infotainment interface is prone to be going really actually one among many most fascinating setup the automaker affords at current, though that isn’t a extreme bar. The current is crisp, clear, and has a extreme dedication. The interface is easy-to-use and shames the dated attempting tile-based setup found contained all by the use of the Honda Pilot. It largely lives in a split-screen space with two alternate options working straight, resembling Apple CarPlay and the native native native native climate administration settings.
2020 Toyota Highlander Platinum
Miss: … nonetheless it’s nonetheless compromised
Toyota doesn’t distinguish audio controls for navigation and music. The quite a few ends up being directions screamed at you by Waze or barely listening to your music. So let’s say you’re driving spherical rocking out to Neil Diamond and together with you’re approaching a flip, then Waze interjects as loudly as Diamond, screaming at you to carry a acceptable. A silly workaround that people shouldn’t be required to profit from is to enter Waze’s settings ahead of plugging in a cellphone and altering the app’s amount output. Most autos on sale at current make the audio administration specific to the attribute getting used, so that the navigation on Waze would protect as a outcomes of it was in your cellphone, and the “Candy Caroline” would defend rocking out based totally utterly completely on the auto’s amount setting. Within the Highlander, it’s one amount setting, regardless of the current.
2020 Toyota Highlander Platinum
Hit: It’s what’s on the inside that counts
The 2020 Highlander picks a fairly asymmetrical dashboard that selections slim trim and an air vent on the passenger aspect and controls barely canted all by the use of the course of the driving vitality with a combination of gives and finishes. Its dashboard makes the Honda Pilot and Volkswagen Atlas look downright boring. The huge 12.3-inch touchscreen inside intention successfully built-in considerably than attempting like a capsule that’s been slapped upon the dashboard. These in chilly native native native native climate states the place gloves are wanted for half the 12 months will admire the knobs, buttons, and administration switches.
2020 Toyota Highlander Platinum
Miss: … nonetheless autos aren’t of us
Mother was acceptable: It’s what’s on the inside that counts. That largely applies to of us. As a lot as I’d love autos to be of us, the 2020 Toyota Highlander comes off as a dowdy frump. Within the doorway it droops, as if it’s melting in some spots. That may need been good for Dali, nonetheless not Toyota. From straight on, the drooping sides look as if it’s frowning; the rear seems to be like as if the tailgate and fenders are melting away from the taillights, and the flare contained all by the use of the rear door provides it a heavy look from a aspect profile. Its largest angle is the doorway three-quarter view.
2020 Toyota Highlander Platinum
Hit: I can see
In an interval of thick pillars, small dwelling residence dwelling residence dwelling residence dwelling home windows, and safety sensor arrays mounted near the rearview mirror it’s develop to be laborious to see out of autos. The forward visibility out of the Highlander is terrific. The A-pillars are skinny, the B-pillar don’t impede the driving vitality’s view whereas turning your head, and the hood line is low. Bonus elements for the scallop contained all by the use of the coronary coronary coronary coronary coronary coronary coronary heart of the hood that mimics what you’ll uncover on the mighty Land Cruiser.
2020 Toyota Highlander Platinum
Miss: … the place you are going, not the place you’ve been
Rear visibility is mediocre as a outcomes of a small rear window and the angle of the D-pillars. The Volkswagen Atlas and Kia Telluride every have bigger rear dwelling residence dwelling residence dwelling residence dwelling home windows and provide bigger sight traces.
Hit: Room for components
With family autos it’s not almost storage, as a outcomes of anyone can create a huge cargo protect. It’s the clever storage areas for knick knacks, snacks, and doodads that replicate an automaker’s effectivity to keep up its prospects’ desires. The Highlander had a terrific shelf beneath the native native native native climate controls to stow a smartphone. The entrance coronary coronary coronary coronary coronary coronary coronary heart armrest didn’t elevate up, it slid as shortly as further to reveal the accessible accessible available on the market contained in the market wi-fi smartphone charger. Beneath it, a massive storage compartment swallowed an electronics case, snack cup, two snack baggage of Goldfish, a fruit pouch, four face masks, a small bottle of hand sanitizer, a set of kid’s headphones, and there was room to spare.
2020 Toyota Highlander Platinum
Miss: Mediocre third row
The third row wasn’t actually fitted to adults, and was significantly of a punishment for teenagers. The seat bottom was low and flat, and as a outcomes of wheelbase of the Highlander the second-row passenger horse traded for legroom and all people misplaced in the long term. The Atlas, Telluride, Pilot, and Palisade all attribute additional cozy, usable third-row seats.
At $51,112 the 2020 Toyota Highlander Platinum is pricey and the rivals is nicer, cheaper, and better at hauling the family. Like a C pupil it ticks every matter anticipated and wished of a family-oriented three-row crossover SUV with ample storage, first price comfort, and easy-to-use know-how. But it positively fails to face out, innovate, or lead in a aggressive a a a a a part of family haulers.
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2020 Toyota Highlander Platinum V-6
Base price: $35,720
Worth as examined: $51,112
EPA gasoline monetary system: 20/27/23 mpg
The hits: Greatest Toyota infotainment system nonetheless, cozy seats (first two rows), handsome inside, good storage cubbies
The misses: Mediocre third row, homely exterior, narrowish seats.
