Sunday Drive: 2014 Toyota Highlander Limited
This past week we had the opportunity to drive the top of the line, newly redesigned Toyota Highlander Limited. After a week were completely taken with the new vehicle and how family friendly and convenient the new design is. It came with all the bells and whistles that Toyota has to offer in this new SUV, and we took advantage of them throughout the week.
Craig had the opportunity to spend a couple of days last January in Santa Barbara, California when Toyota introduced the new Highlander, and was really impressed with the new design and all the features that had been added or enhanced in the 2014 model. They set out this year not to just come up with the normal ‘mommy’ look and feel that has given minivan like SUV’s a bad reputation over the past few years.
The new interior sports all kinds of new materials and features that will make the new Highlander one of the most family friendly vehicles in the market today. The folks at Toyota really put it best saying “The all-new Highlander is a no-compromise, mid-size, three-row SUV that brings together the best in style, technology, comfort, capability, and safety. Its exterior design conveys both refinement and strength, which complements a totally redesigned interior that will raise the bar in its segment.”
As far as raising the bar in the segment, one of the unique features that immediately caught our attention was a new feature called ‘Driver Easy Speak.’ Immediately the question came to our mind, what exactly could driver Easy Speak possibly be? It sounded like some kind of far out way to control the car, or perhaps navigate the features included with the phone or infotainment device. Turns out that none of our first ideas were right, in fact it was something completely different. We will get back to that in a minute, first some background information before the revelation.
At the time when we first started writing this column we of course had to come up with a name for our column. It had to be one that we could both agree on and would tie it back to the vehicles that we have the opportunity to review each week. So after much deliberation we came up with the title of ‘Sunday Drive.’ There were various factors that went into this decision but one of the big ones form experiences that Craig had many years ago, when he was a child and their family would go on a Sunday Drives, for him it seemed like every single Sunday afternoon during the summer was spent in the back of the family Suburban.
At first this sounds like it might be really fun and as an adults we now have to agree, but at 12 years old, maybe not so much, and add to the fact that they usually went with their cousins the Huish’s who had 4 children of their own. It all added up to packing up to 9 bodies into the family Suburban for what would definitely be a long, and for the kids, an interminable Sunday Drive!
There were the many stops to take photos of all the great places that were visited, and of course the kids were always making way to much noise in the back for the adults to endure. Of course from time to time they would be spoken to by the adults about their exuberant behavior. In fact our Aunt Lynn would from time to time would take to ‘silencing’ her children for indefinite amounts of time, all this was accomplished most of the time by using an ‘outdoor’ voice to vocalize these commandments!
We had to imagine that some Toyota engineer must have had the same excruciating experiences growing up with his own family, and figured out a way to get the kids attention I the back. Welcome, ‘Driver Easy Speak’ that allows the diver to press a button on the screen and have his voice transmitted throughout the Highlander by means of the Bluetooth microphone and the speaker system, so all the kiddies completely understand what is wanted! Craig had to admit this would have been the most frequently used button on our old Suburban during those Sunday Drives!
The folks at Toyota did not stop there in making the Highlander an integral part of their customers family lives, there is a new center console that sports what could only be described as a cavernous center cavity capable of holding a large purse along with a laptop and various other articles, in fact Toyota even claimed to have put 70 juice boxes in the compartment. Maybe next year they will have to add a refrigeration option to the console so you can keep the juice chilled.
They have also included a shelf that runs from the center console to the passenger side door that becomes a great location for setting phones, glasses and other small objects; they have also included dividers to stop objects from sliding around and a pass through hole to run a phone charger wire up to a phone or iPod. Once again thinking of a very active family and what would work best for them.
Some other great changes that will make mom the happiest with a new Highlander would be that now both rear captain seats will slide forward allowing access to the 3rd row of seats, so you don’t always have to enter from curbside to climb into the back.
This year they have also increased the cargo space behind the 3rd row of seats by 34% making it much easier to store grocery bags behind the seat, as this was not the case in the 2nd generation of the Highlander. On getting access to the rear they have also listened to the active mom and made the rear window a hatch that will open without opening the entire lift gate, great for when you only have a couple small items to put into the rear.
The lift gate in the Limited comes standard with an automatic opening option. The 3rd row of seats is also now a 60-40 split allowing many more options of seating arrangements after a trip to the local hardware or greenhouse where more flat space is needed to get that cargo home!
Just in case you might have thought that Toyota has forgotten the male part of the equation- that’s just not the case… all versions of the new Highlander Limited comes with Bluetooth capabilities and included as standard equipment the upgraded JBL sound system with 13 green edge speakers, and a 8 inch high definition touch screen with navigation.
There have also been many alterations to the outside that were made to appeal to the male ego as the Highlander has taken on a more “macho” look. If now goes from looking more on the minivan side, to a true SUV contender with an overall more chiseled body. The front end looks way more rugged than before following along the lines of the new redesigned Tundra and 4Runner. So guys no more worries, you are going to look good driving the new Highlander! On top of that it comes with an available towing package the Highlander will pull up to 5000 pounds.
On the safety side there are all the basic airbags and such, included with the Limited along with rear cross path detection, blind spot monitoring, radar controlled cruise control, and lane departure warning. A backup camera comes standard on all models of the new Highlander, but the limited gets upgraded dynamic grid lines curving to show exactly where the vehicle is headed.
The Limited sports a 3.5 liter V6 motor coupled with a 6 speed automatic transmission, EPA estimates put it at 18 mpg city and 24 highway, we came in at just over 22 mpg average for the week.
The new Highlander is the quintessential family vehicle, in fact if you were to close your eyes while driving it, and we don’t recommend doing this, you really might think that you had somehow driven off the lot with a new Lexus instead of a Toyota, they really have made it that nice and luxurious. This has to be on your ‘check it out list’ if in the market for something that the whole family is going to take advantage of, see them today at Brent Brown Toyota at 1400 South Sandhill Road Orem, (801) 224-1320.
Base Price: $43,590
Price as Driven: $44,675
