Home Forums Gear Hunting Trucks and Four-Wheel Drives What about a Highlander?

I thought he was pretty clear.

"Not bad if you plan to be rolling them over, keeping a late model, always ready to rock and roll..." There are others reasons why folks lease as well...

I have a paid for Z-71 2011 4x4 that has 94K miles, runs like a top.

I'll keep it until I get tired of it, which will probably be quite a while.

We like to keep one late model and lease works OK for us.

It's not for everyone and not for those who drive mega miles.a year. If that was me, I'd get a year old vehicle with warranty remaining. Drive it until near the end of the warranty and do the same again. I know guys who do that and it works for them. If you gonna turn them often, driving them off the showroom floor taking a BIG hit not too smart, IMO. Year old already has taken that hit. It doesn't drop in value that fast for the next year.

DF

We bought a new Highlander last May. Took it on a road trip a couple months later and got 28 mpg on two different fill ups. So far, we like it better than the Acadia it replaced.

Bet it rides better, too.

DF

Wife told me this morning that she might like the Highlander okay, but not 40K better and giving up 8.5 cubic feet of cargo space in the Acadia to get a couple more mpg just doesn't compute. The 2020's are supposed to be larger, but the early reviews are saying like 2.3 inches bigger and guaranteed they will not be offering a 2K Toyota cash incentive on them when the new models come out. She thought that she wanted a blue one and I wanted a trailer hitch. Auto Trader showed me that there were four of them on new car lots within 200 miles. A few calls and I was in a bidding war on a vehicle that was seldom if ever discounted. 14-15% off MSRP was pretty typical with the 2K Toyota incentive. Naturally I wanted to buy the thing locally if I could and even though my local dealer didn't have what the wife wanted, they could order it. I have a buddy Dave who just bought a Highlander and thought that he got a good deal and that I should be talking with the same sales guy. I did an he gave me their best "Dave deal" price that my friend got. Two grand higher than the prices that I'd already gotten over the phone and written from two other dealers for the same equipped car. I was thinking bull $hit, but smiled and started talking about my other offers. He didn't believe me so I called the wife and had her bring over a written quote from another dealer. What do you know, their "best" price just came down the $2,000. when the wife showed up with the written proof.

Bottom line, do your homework before you get to the place where you want to make your final deal. That car salesman isn't your friend just because he smiles at you. What you want to do is get him to the point where he doesn't smile anymore. My buddy Dave didn't get the deal that he thought he did.

My wife and I have a 2015 Highlander XLE and are very happy with it. I don't get to drive it much, but we have 25,000 miles on it and she wouldn't trade it for any other vehicle. Even a new Highlander. The gas mileage according to the vehicle averages 22 mpg.. She drives the 80 mph. speed limit so I figure that is pretty good. My oldest son has a 4 Runner and it is a good vehicle
especially since he lives about 15 miles from pavement. It isn't quite as smooth as the Highlander, and the mileage is about the same, but I think it is better suited for the roads he lives on.
I am sure if we ever replace our Highlander it will be with another Highlander.

We bought our car from Hertz, and had almost every Suv on the market for sale and she drove them all and still chose the Highlander.
We are going to SE Iowa the end of June to a family reunion, and I will be the co-pilot for sure.

I'm rather taken with the SE model myself with the black trim and wheels. I've talked with a lot of people with Highlanders and more often than with any other car I've heard "We love ours". Not just we like it or it's a good car, but we love it. Consumer Reports writes the same thing about the 4Runner being tighter sprung and better off road. I crawled under a 4Runner and see a frame under that one and unibody on the Highlander. Every 4Runner in the local lot has a trailer hitch and only two out of dozens of the Highlanders have them. I don't buy vehicles very often, because I take good care of what I have, but if they needed replacing, I'd be shopping at the Toyota place. I've heard too many good things about them not to. Headed to Canada to play with their fish for a week in a Tundra next week, so I'll get an idea about those too.

2019 version...I haven't been able to find the specs I want on the web. When the 2d and 3d rows are laid down, is the floor long enough for 2 to sleep? I'm 6'.

What’s the best value in the Trim level in the Highlander?

The dealer said they sell more XLE trim levels and a lot of AWD in this area. While I personally like the SE which is between the XLE and Limited, there is not a whole lot of difference price wise to get the Limited and resale of a Limited I'd think would be better. Why they need two sun roofs in the Limited Platinum is beyond me, but then I don't think I'd even need one as I've never used the one in my truck. There are a lot of them for sale right now and if you do your homework, with the 2K Toyota cash back they are offering right now I was able to get the pricing down around 14% off MSRP on a Limited. The wife didn't want to lose the 8.5 cu. ft. of cargo space and spend 40k to get less room so we didn't do the deal. I used Autotrader.com to get competitive pricing around the area, before I went to my local dealer.

why do I read this forum? You guys talk too much and coerced us into buying a Highlander today. It's an '18 Limited Platinum. It's a lease return with 7k miles. They priced it slightly under a new '19 XLE so it's depreciated out a bit. With only 7k, it's virtually new. We'd driven an XLE a couple times and were very impressed. The Limited has a few things that I can easily live without. I could have done nicely with an XLE but my wife loved it and keeping the wife happy is a must. It's hard to negotiate when the wife is kicking you under the table and whispering 'buy it before it's gone'.
I normally never buy extended warranties but with a late model car, we did anyway, bumper to bumper for 10 years. It doesn't take much of an electrical malfunction to eat up the cost of it and then some. Labor will kill you. Since it's used, the new car warranty is half gone anyway although it still has a lot of drive train warranty left.

Dealers always have a gimmick. Before we went in to deal, we checked several places for financing (we financed about 1/3 of it). The best rate we found was 3.5%. The dealer threw out 5.5. I said forget that. I'll go get it done somewhere Monday. Of course he didn't want us going out the door without signing so he fumbled around in his papers for 10 seconds and 'found' a rate at 3.2. Gee, imagine that.
Speaking of dealing, they won't on these. We'd looked at a couple dealers and they won't budge. These cars are too much demand right now.

Before we did this, we also drove a Honda Pilot, Nissan Pathfinder, and a Subaru Ascent. The Ascent was probably the best driving of the bunch but to get a lot of features stock on the lower grade Highlanders, you had to go to the Touring version which was about $47k. The middle packages didn't even have a GPS. You even had to get the Touring to get an interior color choice other than black or white. Who needs white seats to get dirty? Only the Touring had leather, too.
The Pilot was pretty rough riding. My wife didn't like it a bit. The Pathfinder was like the Subaru, very limited accessories for the price.

Speaking of financing - BEFORE you buy, check with your insurance company. Some of them do auto loans. We checked with State Farm and they have as low as a 3.54 rate, depending on the size and term of the loan. It was the best rate we found until the dealer kicked loose. I know both Geico and Progressive do financing and others do, too.

I can't think that you would be sorry with that purchase RC. My daughter is in the market for a new SUV and drove the same models that you did. Actually the Subaru Accent got an even higher overall rating from Consumer Reports than the Highlander did (96 vs. 85-87) which was kind of a surprise. The turbo 4 cylinder in the Subaru puts me off some compared to a V-6 in the Toyota. There are lots of Highlanders on the lots around here in the Midwest and I was surprised that they would dicker on the prices when they never have in the past. Walking in with those discounted Autotrader offers sure helps. The Highlander is getting a redesign for 2020, but not enough to interest me so far. 2.4" longer sure doesn't add much cargo space. Finding any Highlander around here with the trailer hitch option was a rarity and a must have for me. Towing is only 3,500 pounds, but that is enough for my utility trailers.

Our Highlander is rated for 5000 towing. I think the only difference is a heavier alternator and maybe a transmission oil cooler. I can get a hitch from several places online for under $150 and an hour to install it. The price on a Toyota brand hitch is ridiculous. I'd never pay that. A Curt class III hitch is $135 from Amazon or Etrailer.com. Youtube has several videos showing how to install it. It's very easy if you can turn a wrench, only 6 bolts to install after you take the plastic covers off. They're just mud catchers anyway. You just need a way to hold the hitch up there until you get the 1st 2 bolts in. The light hookup kits are under $40 and are plug and play. That's with a flat 4 connector. You'll have to swap it if you use something else.

We've looked at the Highlander many times over the years and have tried to like it, but just can't. We've owned 5 Toyotas and have tried to add a 6th, but 3 things I just can't get over. First is the fixed 3rd row that can not be removed. We need the space more than the dedicated small rear seat. Second is the poor gas mileage. 3rd is the price.

If it was $10K cheaper or got 6 mpg better I might put up with that 3rd row seat, but as it is it just doesn't make sense as a new buy.

A very trusted mechanic I know says the highlander is without a doubt the best used car on the market today. He said not walk but run from used GM and I've ever owned 3 cars that weren't GM. Don't give a [bleep] about the buyout GM has put food on my table since I was a kid. I've NEVER bought a foreign car an I mean EVER. The Highlander is on my list of next used for the wife.

Really, the concept of a foreign car is at best an illusion. It's a global market and there are plenty of cars from Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Hyundai, Kia, etc. made right here in the US by US workers. Plenty of "American" brands made elsewhere. Heck, one could say Ford sold out to the global market during WWII when they moved their German plants to France to keep making trucks for the German forces, or when they sued the US government after the war for destroying their German plants. GM didn't have clean hands about the issue either.

Highlanders are manufactured in Indiana I believe.
Kodiakisland, some interesting comments. Doesn't that third row seat fold down into a flat floor? Our GMC has that third seat too, but we have only used it once and otherwise it is folded flat. I can agree on the high price of those things, but I'd sure not have an issue with the 280 hp V-6 mid 20's gas mileage that I read about and the hybrid beats that. I did watch a guy at the hardware store yesterday trying to put a bunch of stuff into a Highlander and he was running out of room. Stuff has always been one of my favorite things and 40 cu. ft. might not make it.

Buying or leasing?

If the Acadia is running well, you're doing the regular maintenance, and your wife doesn't feel that the car she is driving says anything about her, I'd keep the Acadia for another 80K and then sell it on Craigslist.

I have a friend whose wife won't drive a car that is over 3 years old, she's all about her image and feels that the car that she drives has to reflect her beauty and success. She had an accident a couple of years ago and I offered to let her use one of our extra cars while her's was in the shop, but she declined the offer and paid for a rental because my Lincoln Aviator or Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited were just too old for her to drive. She doesn't drive a lot of miles, so leasing works for them.

I currently have 6 older vehicles, 2003 thru 2008, with high miles, between 90K and 190K. Between them, they probably get driven 40K miles per year. I have a 17 year old son, so insurance is expensive and even though he has a car assigned to him, he has "access" to the other cars, so USAA bills us as though he was driving all of them.

Leasing our second Highlander. Because their resale is so strong, lease payments are less. With the lease, you’re buying the depreciation. Looked at the Buick Enclave but it’s residual value is less, lease is therefore more. Looked at Honda Pilot. Nice vehicle, just not as nice as a Highlander. Honda resale is also pretty good, lease not that bad.

Repeat customer is a strong vote of confidence in a vehicle.

DF