In an endless quest to replace the mini-van with anything BUT a new minivan, I have looked at every single option in automobiles, except for the Toyota Highlander.
Oh, I’ve admired Toyota longingly from a distance. I have a special place in my heart for Toyota as I cut my driving teeth on a metallic blue 1983 Corolla Wagon. I’ve coveted The Highlander for a long, long time but when it came down to buying a car to cart my brood around, I made the mistake of writing off that entire class of SUV because I assumed, despite my Muppet friends telling me otherwise, that The Highlander would be too small.
Man was I wrong. Not only can the entire cast of the Muppet Show fit in the new 2014 Toyota Highlander, but so can my own cast of crazies. We had the pleasure of tooling around, in and out of town last week in a 2014 Highlander Limited and not only was it posh inside and an absolute dream to drive, but it was big enough to handle our family of five with an additional two adult beach goers for the weekend.
The Toyota’s second row captains chairs make it easy for people to access the third row which housed my three small people with no problem at all and could even seat two adults, for a short trip anyway.
The Highlander is gorgeous from the outside and despite its size (which is big enough for a comfortable and roomy interior), it still drives like a luxury sedan. The Limited is full of perks like heated (and cooled!) leather seats and a touch screen monitor for navigation, back up camera and more radio stations than even I could program!
Three Across the Back with Plenty of Room for Smiling!
Honestly, there is nothing bad to say about this car except maybe the small amount of cargo space behind the 3rd row, but that is pretty standard for this size SUV. Toyota makes up for that by making all the seats super easy to collapse and fold flat so even our 85 pound pooch could ride along. We fit everyone, rode like a cloud and was decidedly NOT a minivan.
My only complaint about the Toyota Highlander is that I only got it for a week and now it’s made my car search that much more difficult by adding in another class of vehicles.
Disclosure: I was given a Toyota Highlander Limited to drive for one week for the purposes of this review. All opinions are my own (and those of the three tiny salespeople who rode around with me all week disguised as my kids!).
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