Welcome to Car Coach Reports on Lauren Fix we are talking today about a very
competitive category the three row midsize SUV is the most popular category
it's extremely profitable segment for every manufacturer that's in this
segment and the reason for that is you can carry a lot of people and you get
all the flexibility of an SUV and the ride of a car plus the performance and
the ability to get you through anything in life today we'll give you a full
review of the twenty twenty Toyota Highlander now it was completely
different from the 2019 so if you're thinking old Highlander you probably
want to take a look at the new Highlander because literally the design
on the outside the inside the drive line everything has been improved and changed
and they listen to your feedback and we're going to go through it all give
you a car coach reports reading and at the end we'll give you a total so you
have a good feel for if this is the right vehicle for you remember we've
driven all the competition you can check that out by making sure that you
subscribe to our Channel now let's take us for right we'll look under the hood
look inside I'll sit in the third row for you and we'll see if it fits
comfortably or not under the hood of every 2020 Highlander is a 3.5 liter v6
engine with 295 horsepower and 263 pound-feet of torque
backed up by an 8-speed automatic transmission in comes front-wheel drive
or all-wheel drive an important part of SUV is performance
but doesn't have to be a race car the seven point one second zero to sixty in
regular mode this is pretty good now there is also a sport mode of course
there are different drive modes and there are different off-road modes so
you have to remember this is an all wheel drive vehicle also comes front
wheel drive and it's a pretty heavy vehicle close to 5,000 pounds so for
performance I gave it a 9 for an SUV this is a nice tight turning radius you
should be able to turn around in a parking lot in a nice tight radius and
that's a really important part of this vehicle when it comes to handling of a
three row SUV I think one of the biggest things people forget is it's not just
about going around corners it's about the ride it's the comfort of the ride
and I purposely took this on a pretty rough road see how it absorb some of the
potholes and the road transitions now living in New York State our roads are
kind of crappy to be honest with you and so I wanted to see how it absorbs right
suppose you forget little kids in the car or older people or just anyone who
doesn't like a rough ride it was pretty composed I was impressed
with the new design the new handling and its off-road capability which we're not
going to show you here but I will tell you it does have it is this an off-road
vehicle yeah there's a lot of great off-road vehicles and Toyota makes a lot
of great off-road vehicles this I would not take off-road but if you're just
going to go camping or do a little bit of offering light off-roading I would
call it there's all the drive modes for that from mud and sand you're going to
the beach and also rock so I guess if you're gonna take it wherever you want
this vehicle will do it and for handling they did a great job
it burned enough obviously when you're hauling a lot of people and an SUV
especially a three row there's gonna be safety as a concern and is a huge
concern for everybody I get that so one of the things you want
or is something that comes standard so you don't have to buy up higher trim
levels to get all those safety features and Toyota has delivered for sure some
of the safety features that are really great on this vehicle start with a
head-up display it's right in front of you it's adjustable it's got the speed
limit information it's got navigation you can adjust it however it works for
you in addition the back of camera is excellent there's blind spot detection
forward collision warning a lot of things that are not on every single
three role SUV without buying up like I said I trim levels Toyota definitely
impresses when it comes to safety not just the vehicle itself in the crash
test ratings but in addition everything that comes with this vehicle that you're
going to look for they really didn't miss much but for safety I give it a 9
visibility is an important part of any vehicle especially large SUVs and
parking spots so they happy around new camper just great they have big mirrors
that are on the side which make it easier for people of all sizes big piece
of glass in the front Lowe sills which are great they're not as low as it could
be but it's enough that you still feel safe but yet you can still see out the
windows in all rows that's great but looking out the back with the third row
up only you get those two headrests blocking the way out of that third
headrest is up you're gonna be forced to use the camera however check the rear
view mirror it's a cool review it's got a real camera so when I flip the switch
now you've got your home link still here your settings but this is a separate
camera not your backup camera and that was really impressive because you only
see this on a few other brands but now I can see what's really going on behind me
I can't leave it on all the time maybe you can it kind of gives me a headache
but the truth is this is fabulous for visibility when you can't see out the
back so for visibility I gave it a 9 and that's an important feature no matter
which vehicle you choose on the end I always say one of the most important
features the one thing you can't change where you
live in this car is in the driver's seat if the seat is not comfortable that's
gonna be a problem down the road you're not going to be a happy camper
you're talking about a vehicle in the $50,000 range for the top trim level
$35,000 on the lower trim level but still qu a lumbar disappointing this
past year she doesn't have anything at all is it completely uncomfortable no
but it should be more comfortable I do love the heated and cooled surfaces
that's really important especially in the front row but we'll talk about the
seating in the second row then I'll give you waiting in the second row there is a
lot of me head and shoulder room and that's great if you're just having two
more people in the back or you have the optional bench seat which would give you
a third person in the middle which makes it even harder to get in the back by the
way getting to the back from the second row there's a tray here that has two
cupholders it's a little bit more of a last-minute thought but I'm worried
about little kids crawling back there or animals you can easily get caught up in
here or not going for a drink yes the seat goes forward it is kind of a tight
fit to the third row we'll talk about that in a minute behind the center
console you've got two heated seats no a/c and even in the Platinum Edition and
this price point in the 50 some thousand dollar range I know that's retail still
have something else back here you've got adjustable climate control which is
excellent too 2.1 outlets and 100 watt outlet for we're gonna plug in you've
got two pockets for storage here you get these nice screens great when you got
little kids or people that don't want to get blinded by the Sun like the low door
cells really great for visibility for the second row and tons of storage here
in the doors I think they did a really great job I'm not really a big fan of
these little skinny armrests I know you need them but they're just almost just a
touch too thin and remember these do recline so that's really good when you
got child safety seats and they adjust forward and aft so that in case the kids
are kicking the back of your seat you can adjust but if you move it back
you're gonna limit your third row space heading into the third row can be
challenging or flip up the middle if you're smaller so what you're they want
you to do is move the seat forward there's tons of room you put your foot
in here and if you adjust the seats further forward you might be able to sit
I'm five eight I don't even if I can get my legs back here this
should be challenging area oh boy it's really tight I'm mostly legs at 5/8 and
I would say this is better for shorter smaller people animals whatever if
you're going to get a third row SUV make sure you sit in the third row have your
family whoever's gonna sit in the third row see if this works for them so
proceeding I gave it a six part of the improvements in the technology of the
2020 Highlander is this huge twelve point three inch home screen and one of
the things I've always complained about with the Toyota lineup is there wasn't
apple carplay Android auto it's standard on all trim levels Thank You Toyota now
you look at the home screen you can split this up in a really nice way this
has got your phone it's got your audio system navigation in your climate you
can then adjust it there's a menus you can pick what you want whether you want
your apps this is great your destinations pick what you want hit that
little button on the side you can bring in the climate control it's got all the
subheadings here almost like a bar almost very Apple esque I feel like if
you're an Apple user for the audio system it's here which is great again
you can split it up any way you want I don't want the audio there I want the
map here so you can adjust it or I want the map here so it's nice that you can
pick what you want you can pull it back and mix it up any way you want this is
fantastic so they've done an amazing improvement over what they had the
navigation itself it's you know it not necessarily 20/20 but I have to say it's
so much better than what they haven't even have a bread crumb option if you
want to pluck press this button you can pick all the updates you want to write
route trace if your person that gets lost great little details that are
really really important going further down as far as technology this is all
standard that'll be part of features as far as technology and this multimedia
interface really easy to use extremely intuitive thank you for having buttons
and tuning because you're driving this is easy plus you've got all this on your
steering wheel so you've got your board collision warning you can adjust your
lane departure you've got your cruise control and your audio system really
easy to use very intuitive and I really appreciate this improvement I
think it's gonna cause more buyers to come back to buying the Highlander if
they had purchased it before but now there's so much competition this is
definitely something you need to look at in addition to some of the technology of
your head up display and everything between the two gauges
I really am impressed with what Toyota is offering so I gave it a 10 for
technology there are a ton of features on this car that really impressed not
just what's on the steering wheel but also what's in front of you you've got
all the gauges that are actual analog gauges I do appreciate that and then
there's all kinds of easy buttons of things that you're going to use every
single day whether it be these heated steering wheel the froster opening up
the deck lid all that is great I'm a big fan of this multimedia display and what
it offers but in addition to that you've got heated and cooled seats which i
think is really important on the first row heated seats in the second row like
we said earlier you've got your air vents further down here you've got a ton
of storage which i think is great but your sunglasses whatever it is they're
one of the nice options that this vehicle has is the two 2.1 amp
connections for USB that's really great when you want to charge your phone of
course you get your regular outlet and another USB outlet so this is great when
you want to store things I think this is important this is what we use every day
and we want to keep our items charged you've got the cupholders your standard
PRNDL Park reverse Drive neutral is usually low this is interesting on the
drive modes you've got your sport your normal and your eco and then you can
push if you're gonna do this offroad the mud the sand of the rock and the dirt
okay I mean is this an off-road vehicle like I said before I'm not really sure I
wouldn't necessarily use this as an off-road vehicle winners Toyota makes
other great trucks that are very capable you also got all of your buttons here
for hold and park you can take off your traction control I have no idea why but
has a snow mode a hill descent and my favorite to shut off the auto off so
you're sitting in a traffic light it shuts down the engine honestly you can't
even tell on this vehicle they did a great job in the centre Council push
this back there is a wireless charger this is really great an important
feature I think that many manufacturers are forgetting about underneath the
wireless charging pad which means your phone would probably fall off you
a very deep well and in this deep well you've got a tray that comes in and out
and another charging port that's great however when you're looking at the whole
group of features all the goodies that are in this vehicle it's missing a few
things and maybe a little bit clumsy on something so for features I gave it a 9
there are a lot of design changes for the 2020 highlighter and they were so
needed the new muscular sporty design really carries from front to back you'll
notice the new slimmer headlights they're really cool they're LED and
they're adaptive especially on the Platinum level because the lower levels
don't have all the same features obviously but what's nice about this is
when you turn your steering wheel the lighting goes with it that's great the
grill is but so reminds me of a Subaru I don't know what do you think on that I
think it's really nice and clean I like the shiny black it's much better than
the previous generation and I love that you on the hood it just gives it that
sporty more muscular look down below they went with a flat black and I think
that's good cuz you pick up a lot of bugs and just junk from the roadway so I
think that really helps and the flat silver as well the frame this vehicle
looks so much better than the previous generation let's take a look at the side
going along the side of the vehicle I love the matte black wheel arches it
gives it that more truck type sporty-er look and then this line this body line
is really cool very sporty it fits in nicely and then they want with the black
in the middle sort of gives it that smaller look so it doesn't look so
hominis cuz it is a pretty big truck everything here is nice I like this
little chrome strip here just a little bit of detail is your room your way back
the big 20 inch alloy wheels really nicely fit into the wheel houses which
is so important because a lot of manufacturers missed that point in the
back you've got LED tail lights brand-new rear end and the sporty wing
because you have to stand out in the crowd and this thing does it I like the
matte silver they put down here just gives it that more cooler sporty-er look
if you're gonna drive this every day and you got all people to haul stuff this
so important to have it look really good so when it comes to design huge
improvement I gave it a 9 while it is important both inside and outside and
this vehicle definitely impresses it's made here in the USA the high-end
materials that are part of the interior were really well designed put together
and a lot of soft touch materials because this is where you live on the
outside of the vehicle really impressive and I have to say for quality its Toyota
it earns a 10 with the third row folded down you have 48 point 4 cubic feet of
storage that's pretty good putting up the third row is pretty simple
you just pull this tether and pull this one put the headrests up and now you've
got sixteen point three feet of cubic storage is a real nice carpet here and
underneath there's more storage and all the tools to change a spare there's also
a cover that hides underneath here in case you want to put that cargo cover on
top really good when you have valuables back here the nice thing about the third
row is if you lift up this lever it reclines and it's great if you've got
child safety seats the second roller climbs as well and that's a really good
value overall value of the vehicle based on the price remember this vehicle is
loaded I give it a nine for value because I tell you what they're gonna
sell a heck of a lot of these Highlanders we're really impressed with
the 2020 Toyota Highlander I knew it was going to be improved we've seen them on
the road and we're also going to review the hybrid at a later date so there are
nine different trim lows and two of those are hybrid trim levels plus all
the high ratings on the Highlander it's pretty impressive
I gave it a total score of 89 now remember there's a lot of competition in
this very tight category nothing who has a total score on the Highlander here's a
tip make sure to check with your insurance agent before you make a
decision because there's like 20 vehicles in this category and it's easy
to find the one that has the best price but how does that impact your budget as
a whole here are some other ways to save money by checking out some of our other
videos also make sure to check out all the reviews on all the cars you're
considering before you take it for a test drive which is critical we
appreciate your comments whether you bought one or not we want to know what
you think and start the conversation if I didn't answer you
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