2008 Toyota Highlander Review

What We Drove

The 2008 Toyota Highlander Sport starts at $32,085 including the $685 destination charge. That gets you all-wheel drive, a 3.5-liter V-6 engine, and the usual array of safety gear and power accessories. Our test car featured a $1,780 rear seat DVD entertainment system, $1,840 leather upholstery, and a $2,530 navigation and audio system. The power rear door costs $400, the manual rear air conditioning system is another $385, the sunroof is $850, towing capability costs $220, and the roof cross bars, rear cargo mat and security system cost $229, $275 and $359, respectively. All told, our test car was $40,953.

Performance

The engine in our 2008 Highlander Sport was a 3.5-liter 270-horspower V-6, connected to a five-speed automatic transmission. However, we found power was only adequate, and the 17.2 mpg fuel economy was nothing to get excited about. As if to compensate for the lack of pep, Toyota provided a throttle so responsive it borders on jumpy. But there’s no escaping the lack of low-end torque or high-revving power – or the high rev noise – although the mid-range is good and punchy. We appreciated (though rarely used) the transmission’s manual shift gate, but overall we were let down by the drivetrain.

Handling

Peg-legged sea captains used to the North Atlantic Nor’easters are the only ones likely to call the Highlander’s ride too firm. For the rest of us, it’s one of the nicest riding crossovers out there. The suspension soaks up bumps big and small, with only a too-loud “thwack” on the small stuff to tell you something was there. Around corners it’s much the same, with the Highlander exhibiting good body control, but its limits and understeer don’t engage our enthusiasm. Still, the Highlander isn’t meant to be a poor-man’s BMW X5, and the supple ride will please the vast majority of buyers.

Visibility

Like most big crossovers these days, the view out the front and sides is good, but the rear is pinched. Look over the hood and you can see the character bulges streaming up from the headlights and grille. The mirrors are tall, but narrow; slightly longer mirrors would make lane changes easier. The rear view is lousy, and if it weren’t for the backup camera, reverse would be exceptionally tricky. The second row head restraints block the rearmost side windows, and the rearmost pillars are absurdly thick. The rear window itself is small, in part because it opens independently of the hatch.

Fun to Drive

Perhaps the Toyota should usher in yet another variation of “SUV” with the Highlander: “AUV” for “Appliance Utility Vehicle.” There’s not much fun here, but it gets the job done. It’s not a vehicle you grab the keys to when you want some back-road entertainment, but it works well at hauling the kids, groceries, or just yourself from place to place. Problem is, these days there are vehicles that are just as good, if not better, and do all the same things with a measure of style or entertainment that the Highlander lacks.

Front Comfort

The 2008 Toyota Highlander sports a very comfortable driver’s seat, one that features just enough adjustments – fore/aft, up/down, seatback angle – without going overboard. The cushions are supportive, and the overall feel is very good. The leather’s on the stiff side, but we’re going to assume that the payoff is durability. There’s comfortably soft padding on the door armrests and the center console lid, but why is there hard plastic on the door panel tops? With a well-placed leather-covered steering wheel, the occasional hard plastic touch is about the only complaint we have.

Second Row Comfort

The Highlander’s second row offers comfortable seating for the two outboard occupants and a choice of uncomfortable temporary seating for a third person in the middle or extra storage. A module fits between the seats, either a console or an extra chair; whatever isn’t being used fits in a compartment under the front center console. The jump seat offers up an extra LATCH point for kiddie seats, but adults won’t want to spend much time on the hard and thinly padded stool. Outboard, things are much better, with seats that adjust fore and aft and for seatback angle, and with plenty of head and leg room.

Third Row Comfort

The third row in the previous Highlander was literally a mid-cycle afterthought, but with the 2008 model designed with three rows from the start, we expected better than we got. The seat cushion is low, there’s very little leg, head or shoulder room, and the seatback is thinly padded and bolt-upright. If you plan to use it for kids only, keep in mind there’s no LATCH anchor provided. Access is available only from the passenger’s side, where the second row seat doesn’t slide far enough out of the way; the driver’s side doesn’t slide at all. GM’s Lambda-platform crossovers (e.g., the GMC Acadia) do it all much better.

Interior Noise

Since when were Toyotas noisy inside? We noted plenty of wind noise coming from the outside mirrors, and quite a bit of road noise filters through at speed, too. The engine is loud under full throttle, with a thrash that’s unusual in V-6s. The suspension absorbs bumps well, but does nothing to prevent the transmission of every thwack and rumble that you hit. It’s not like your ears will bleed after an hour of this din, but considering the silence afforded in competitors like the Hyundai Veracruz at the same price, it’s hard to ignore.

Loading Cargo

If you plan on loading more than a jewelry box in the back, step one is to fold the third row down. The single-piece seatback consumes nearly all the available cargo space back there; large families will have to move up to a Sequoia. If you put the third row down the cargo space is excellent and cleverly executed. Toyota includes two levers for folding the second-row seats from the cargo area, and the rear hatch glass opens independently from the power liftgate. It’s perfect for quickly tossing small items in back, or for hauling long items that otherwise wouldn’t fit inside.

Build Quality

We’ve lambasted the fit and finish on the Camry, and luckily the 2008 Toyota Highlander shows little of that car’s slapdash assembly. Tolerances are close inside, with the exception of a large gap between the plastic B-pillar cover pieces. Outside, things are also good, with panel gaps that remain straight and true, although some were wider than we expected.

Materials Quality

Overall, we were disappointed by the materials used in the Highlander. Hard plastic was everywhere, and not all of it was exceptionally durable, as many pieces, like the center console, already had dings and scrapes after only 3,900 miles. Some of it had a decidedly downgrade shininess, too. The leather was stiff, and the headliner is the same fiber-sprayed-on-cardboard material you find in a $14,000 Yaris. Considering that this 2008 Toyota Highlander Sport came in at just under $41,000, it’s unacceptable, especially when nicer materials are available in the Buick Enclave or Hyundai Veracruz for the same price.

Styling

The exterior styling of the new Highlander is better than the generic lines of the previous car, but it’s a little strange. Toyota is trying to create a unified truck look based off the Tundra’s aggressive appearance, but it doesn’t fit here any better than a 12-year-old boy wearing dad’s suit. The interior design is much better, with an attractive matte-finish black dash over tan plastic, although the sheen of the latter makes things look a little downgrade. The center stack features cartoonishly oversized knobs, but the titanium trim is pleasant, and overall this is a good looking, if not very fanciful, interior space.

Storage

Toyota nailed storage in the 2008 Highlander. The front doors have big, deep pockets, there are four cupholders (two hidden under a door) on the center console, a good-sized center bin and a large glove box. Rear storage is depends on your center seat/console arrangement. With the center console in place you have two extra cupholders and an assortment of rearrangeable bins. With the seat in place you have a shallow bin and just the two slide-out cupholders in the back of the center console in front. The passenger doors sport big bins with bottle holders. Third row occupants get cupholders with removable sleeves, and that’s it.

Infotainment Controls

Toyota’s navigation system is good, but not great. The screen is big and clear, but too many controls are integrated into the system, so you must dig around to do simple things like change radio presets. In addition, the screen is nearly flush with the dash, which means that unless the sun is directly overhead, you have the potential for glare rendering the screen useless. Once you get used to the logic it works well enough, there’s an AUX input on the dash, and the system sounds pretty good.

Climate Controls

Climate controls in our 2008 Toyota Highlander test car proved perfectly capable of cooling and heating the vehicle, and the controls are the standard three-knob setup. However, we were shocked that in a $40,000 vehicle it was a do-it-yourself manual system rather than an automatic one. C’mon, Toyota. At least single-zone automatic climate control is expected at this price point, and frankly, it should be dual-zone. The rear controls were just as manual and effective as the fronts, but there’s no way to independently control the rear settings from the driver’s seat, so tough luck if what's good for mom and dad is too hot or cold for the kiddies.

Secondary Controls

Maybe it’s just the execution here, but for some reason the black buttons and switches floating in a sea of tan plastic looked a little cheap to some of us. Plus, the numerous knockouts on the dash made us wonder what we weren’t getting for our $41,000, and how much more we’d have to pay. Still, everything is placed perfectly, and the buttons and switches all work with the precision and feel we usually get in Toyota products.

Competition

The competition has grown incredibly stiff for Toyota since the first Highlander, and many offer more features, room, or both at a similar or better price. As it sits, we’d probably throw our hard-earned ducats at the roomier and fuller-featured GMC Acadia rather than the 2008 Highlander. There’s also the Honda Pilot, which is still a tough act to follow even as it drives off into the sunset; with a new one on the way in 2008, we wonder how much of the Highlander’s lunch it might eat. The Hyundai Veracruz offers a nicer interior, and the Mazda CX-9 a better driving experience.

2ND Opinion – Heywood

Highlander: There can be only one. You know you’ve thought it, so stop groaning. I just hope it’s not this one. The 2008 Toyota Highlander rides nice and is comfortable...and that’s where the praises end. The interior materials are only so-so, third row passenger room is marginal and cargo capacity will have you choosing between third row passengers or your groceries; one will have to wait by the curb until you return from unloading the other. Nothing on this crossover is bad, it’s just not $40,000 good. The GMC Acadia and the Buick Enclave are both better values in the same price range. So apparently there is more than one.   

Vernon Heywood
MyRide Associate Editor