Toyota Highlander (2021 – 2023) Review

Toyota Highlander is a relatively new name in the UK, but it’s well established in other markets – particularly the USA. The Highlander first appeared in 2000 and Toyota decided to launch the latest, fourth-generation version in the UK in 2021. It slots into Toyota’s SUV lineup between the smaller Toyota RAV4 and larger Toyota Land Cruiser. In America, it’s classed as a mid-size SUV, but at five metres long, it’s definitely a large one in the UK. So what exactly is the Highlander?

It’s not too wide of the mark to think of the Toyota Highlander as a seven-seat Toyota RAV4. They share a similar look, similar hybrid powertrains, similarly excellent build quality and an equal focus on comfort. 

There’s currently a single model available in the UK: the Toyota Highlander Excel Premium. It’s a top-grade version that comes with many bells and whistles. Highlights from a very long list of standard equipment include sat-nav, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity, adaptive cruise control, leather seats, an opening panoramic sunroof, a JBL audio system, front seats with electric lumbar support and heating/ventilation, a heated steering wheel and heated rear seats.   

The Toyota Highlander has a hybrid powertrain with a 2.5-litre petrol engine and two electric motors, plus four-wheel-drive and a CVT automatic gearbox. There’s enough power to provide reasonably rapid acceleration and the engine is very quiet (unless you floor the throttle).

Fuel economy of around 40mpg is pretty good for this type of car, while CO2 emissions are also relatively low. Annual VED charges and company car BIK tax rates are pretty reasonable, servicing is unlikely to cost much and the Highlander should prove to be very reliable. Reassuringly, Toyota can provide up to 10 years of warranty cover.

Comfort is the Toyota Highlander’s priority on the road. Its ride is generally very smooth (really big potholes can cause a shudder), the seats are soft and comfy, and the interior is nice and quiet. The steering is light and responsive, while the body doesn’t lean over much in corners.

The car’s size can take some getting used to, especially when parking, but there’s a battery of sensors and cameras to help you out with that. The Toyota Highlander doesn’t feel even slightly sporty on a winding country road and, quite frankly, the driving and passenger experience is all the better for it. It’s still competent enough to make pretty rapid progress, though. On motorways, it feels solid as a rock.

That’s all very well but, if you’re considering a Toyota Highlander, you’re probably more interested in its family car credentials, which are extremely strong.

There’s enough passenger space for seven adults to travel fairly comfortably together. There’s a vast amount of room in the front, and the second-row seats slide back and forth, so you can vary the space from child-sized to limousine-like according to your needs. Although adults can fit in the third row, it’s more comfortable for teenagers.

It’s worth noting, too, that the seats are at a convenient height for lifting kids into the car. You don’t have to strain your back by bending down or stretching upwards.

The Toyota Highlander’s boot is enormous. There is plenty of space for school and supermarket runs with all the seats in place, or for family holiday clobber with row three folded down (and a small wardrobe with row two folded down). If that’s still not enough, you can take advantage of the Toyota Highlander’s two-tonne towing capacity, which is notably high for a hybrid.

Equally importantly for a family car, the Toyota Highlander’s interior is so well made, there is no danger of the kids disassembling it.

The price for all this is just under £58,000 at the time of writing. That’s at the upper end of the range for this type of car, but we reckon the Toyota Highlander’s capability and extensive standard features make it pretty good value. Be aware that supply to the UK is limited, so you may have to wait a while before you can order one.

The Toyota Highlander is still quite a rare car in the UK. That’s partly because of its relatively steep price, but mostly because it faces strong competition from a lot of well-established rivals. However, the Highlander makes a very compelling case for itself. 

The Toyota Highlander driving experience is geared towards comfort more than anything else. Indeed, it’s quite refreshing to drive an SUV that makes absolutely no pretence to being sporty.

The Toyota Highlander provides a very smooth ride, and only the biggest potholes send a thud and shudder through the car. The body stays upright in corners, helping stave off car sickness. The huge door mirrors create a bit of wind noise, but otherwise the interior is very quiet.

From the driver’s seat, the Toyota Highlander feels quite light, the steering is accurate and you have a great view out. There’s no getting away from the car’s sheer size when driving in town, but its rectangular shape and array of sensors and cameras make parking relatively easy.

On high-speed country roads and motorways, the Highlander feels perfectly safe and stable. Despatch a few hundred miles in one hit and you’ll feel none the worse for it.

If you need to go off-road in the Toyota Highlander, select the Trail driving mode. It’s useful for traversing muddy fields and rough farm tracks, but the Toyota Highlander is ultimately nothing like as capable as Land Rover Discovery, or indeed Toyota’s own Land Cruiser.

The hybrid-powered Toyota Highlander has a 2.5-litre four-cylinder petrol engine (also found in the RAV4 and assorted Lexus models), plus two electric motors – one each for the front and back wheels. That makes the car four-wheel-drive. The gearbox is a CVT automatic.

The powertrain generates 248PS and 239Nm of torque. That latter figure is actually a bit low for this type of car, but the power of the electric motors means the Toyota Highlander can accelerate swiftly without you having to floor the throttle. Getting from 0-62mph takes a reasonably swift 8.3 seconds, while top speed is limited to 111mph.

It’s possible to lock the Toyota Highlander in electric mode for a few miles of silent driving. Otherwise, the car’s computers work out which combination of engine and battery power is best at any given moment.

The engine is nice and quiet, although it can get quite loud during hard acceleration – a common trait among cars with CVT gearboxes.

The safety experts at Euro NCAP have yet to assess the Toyota Highlander, so it doesn’t currently have one of their star ratings. However, the equivalent institution in the USA, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, rated the Highlander as a Top Safety Pick+. This is the highest rating they give, so you can be confident the Highlander is a very safe car.

It comes with many safety features, too. They include seven airbags, automatic emergency braking, lane-keeping assist, blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert and trailer sway control, to name just a few.

The Toyota Highlander can tow up to 2000kg, which is a lot for a hybrid car. For comparison, the Kia Sorento hybrid can only pull 1650kg. So, the Highlander is the hybrid SUV of choice if you have a two-axle caravan or a horsebox to haul. 

Being a five-metre-long SUV with a boxy shape and seven seats, it goes without saying that the Toyota Highlander is immensely practical. But it’s still worth assessing exactly what you get.

In the front, there’s an extremely generous amount of headroom, legroom and shoulder width, enough that pretty much anyone should be able to get comfortable. Shorter people will have to climb up a bit into the car, while taller folk can just step straight in.

The second-row seats slide forwards and backwards by up to 180mm. This allows you to vary the ratio of space between the second and third rows, or the second row and the boot, according to your needs. Slid all the way backwards, the back seats have enough room for someone well over six feet tall to stretch out. Adults will be perfectly comfortable with it set in the middle. The back seat is also wide enough for three adults to sit side-by-side for a longish journey.

The rear doors open wide, which is helpful when installing a child seat onto the Isofix mounts or lifting kids into the car. The height of the back seats means you don’t have to bend down to manoeuvre kids inside, either.

The third-row seats have just about enough space for an adult, although some might find the seating position a bit awkward. You need to be quite limber to climb past the second-row seats, but teenagers should have few complaints back there.

Overall, the Toyota Highlander offers similar passenger space to a Volvo XC90, splitting the difference between the less spacious Peugeot 5008 and the roomier Land Rover Discovery.

What about boot space? Well, there’s masses of that. Even with all seven seats in place, there’s a similar capacity to an average supermini, at 332 litres – enough for most families’ weekly food shopping.

Fold the third row of seats into the boot floor and there is 658 litres of space, which should do for a camping holiday. Fold row two down as well and the 1909-litre cavern will easily swallow a fridge-freezer.

The dashboard in the Toyota Highlander isn’t especially interesting to look at, but it’s very user-friendly. You can get familiar with the various buttons and their functions within a few minutes of first getting in the car. And the same goes for those on the steering wheel.

Most of the controls are big and chunky, making them much easier to operate than the touchpads so many cars have these days.

The whole of the Toyota Highlander’s interior feels extremely solid and precisely put together. You’ll certainly have no concerns about it standing up to hard use. The plastics and leathers aren’t quite as tactile as those in an equivalent Audi or Volvo, but it looks quite plush and the leather seats add a nice touch of luxury. The standard-fit panoramic glass roof makes the interior a lot lighter and brighter than the mostly grey colour scheme would on its own.  

The Toyota Highlander’s infotainment system lives in an eight-inch touchscreen perched on top of the dashboard. Among the features included are sat-nav, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto phone connectivity, DAB radio and Bluetooth.

In all honesty, the system is rather outdated. Most of the Toyota Highlander’s rivals have considerably bigger screens with better-looking icons and simpler navigation. Once you’ve called up the features, though, they work perfectly well. But you may find it preferable to connect your phone and use Apple CarPlay or Android Auto to circumvent the ‘native’ tech.

There’s also a wireless phone charging pad on the centre console and a JBL stereo with 11 speakers that sounds great. The driver has a seven-inch digital display screen between the speedo and rev counter that shows all sorts of information, including sat-nav instructions.

The single model of Toyota Highlander available at the time of writing has a list price of £57,980. That’s right at the top of the price range for a big, seven-seat SUV made by a ‘non-premium’ brand, but we reckon the Highlander has the breadth of ability and array of standard features to justify its price.

We’ve not been able to find any discounts available on the Toyota Highlander, possibly because supplies of the car to the UK are quite limited. But it may still be possible to get a good deal on one.

The official figures show the Toyota Highlander can return average fuel economy of 39mpg, although over 40mpg is reportedly achievable. For comparison, a diesel Hyundai Santa Fe can average around 44mpg and plug-in hybrid Kia Sorento is rated at 180mpg.

However, the Kia’s economy is highly dependent on your ability to drive on electric power as often as possible, and the Hyundai would be much less efficient in town. The Toyota Highlander’s fuel economy should be more consistent.

CO2 emissions of 163g/km translate to annual vehicle excise duty (VED, or road tax) of £180. However, the Highlander also incurs the extra £390 annual charge levied on cars that cost more than £40,000 from their second through sixth birthdays. Company car benefit-in-kind (BiK) tax rates are pretty reasonable.

Servicing costs should also be affordable. The car is initially covered by a three-year warranty, but this can be extended up to 10 years if you have it maintained by a Toyota service centre.

There is just one model of Toyota Highlander: the Excel Premium. That’s the name Toyota gives its top-grade spec, so it’s clear the Highlander comes absolutely loaded with standard features.

In terms of tech, you will find an eight-inch touchscreen infotainment system with sat-nav, DAB radio, Bluetooth, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity, voice command control, a JBL stereo with 11 speakers, five USB ports and a wireless phone charging pad.

Then there is the leather upholstery, three-zone climate control, opening panoramic glass roof, electrically-adjustable heated and ventilated front seats with lumbar support, driving position memory, heated steering wheel, heated rear seats, hands-free boot opening, sliding/reclining second-row seats and reclining third-row seats.

Lastly, there are the driver assistance features, including a seven-inch digital instrument display, head-up display, digital rear-view mirror, adaptive cruise control, front and rear parking sensors, 360-degree camera system, automatic emergency braking, blind-spot monitoring and rear cross-traffic alert.