28mfg from the 4 cyl in a vehicle 3" longer than a jeep grandcherokee.Beat that!Quite ride still,no problems so far.

The only weakness,brakes need to be beefier.Do not make quick stops or you'll blow right through.Toyota please upgrade braking system.

I wrote a review back in November and would like to say that i am pleased with this vehicle.I can not understand some of the replys to make this vehicle look bad such as the radio and windows in back rolled down.I'm picky , but damn!I replaced the factory radio with a nakamichi and polk audio speakers because all stock radios cannot compete with aftermarket products and people won't spend the $ for good stuff.I can say that this vehicle beats american made, hands down...

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Nissan xterra,poor gas mileage and ride...

the smooth ride is incredible for an suv. hope the epic stories of toyota quality are true with this model.

window noise, front back and roof, is a serious problem for me. The sound system, not jbl, is just barely OK; really it's pretty weak. brakes seem mushy. no trip mileage indicator. cup holders are just designed for 12 oz cans not coffee cups with a handle. That's irritating. seats are not great.

really nice, smooth, powerful ride w/the 6. Great handling. looks good and is roomy. The ride is the thing with this machine. Simply awesome.

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previous car was a 1990 Honda Accord ex. I like it better than the highlander but it was time to move on. The Honda Accoerd was by far the best car I ever owned. But I needed a bigger vehicle andthe H

Fairly loud clicking noise from engine heard at idle and drowned at driving speeds. Dealer unable to locate source. Very irritating.

Purchased this vehicle new. Intially was doing well. Now some problems.

The V6 engine is peppy, smooth and quite. The interior is all well laid out. Seats are comfortable. Interior is roomy and spacious.

The base model interior could use more storage room...cd storage....and less use of hard plastic for the price range of the car.

Went to look at a variety of other cars including Ford Escape, Mazada Tribute, and Honda CRV and found that for the price it was the best in value with all the comforts needed. The overall look of the car is handsome but but head turning. I brought V6 AWD and love it. It rides quietly and the steering if firm. The V6 engine is amazing quite and smooth compared to the Mazada/Ford.

Toyota reliability and safety. - 24mpg in city a plus in an SUV.

- Helicopter, ear-popping window phenomenon. - The stereo system is one of the worst I have ever heard. Sound quality is incredibly irritating. Thought about upgrading, but I understand the JBL is not much better. Very dissapointing!! - Seats are uncomfortable, both front and back.

Heard nothing but good things about this vehicle. Test drive was positive so I bought it for my wife. Overall, it's got a smooth ride, plenty of power for a 4 cylinder and looks good (for a chick car). However, weaknesses are not overcome by positives. If I had to do over again, would have gone for something else.

Climate control is amazing. Smart enough to know when to blow air for heating, stable, no big temperature swings. It leaves you comfortable all the time. Dual climate control would be the only improvement. Cruise control is extremely smooth and impressive. Mileage for heavy stop/go, slow/fast driving 75 mi per day averages near 22mpg.

For me - the seats are worst. They must be made for very short legged people (I'm 5'5"). No thigh support, several inches too short, no lift at the front. Driver's side not adjustable enough. Uncomfortable for a 5'10" man also. The non adjustable passenger seat feels like I'll slide right out of the seat under the seatbelt because it seems to tilt toward the floor. My knees also feel close to my chin as the seat is fairly close to the floor. They get great leg room by making the seats short. The worst is the power steering assist pump. This is what most people think is air or transmission noise. It is, in computer terms, an "undocumented feature" of the Highlander. It is a low level whistle whenever the accelerator is pressed, more apparent at low speed because high speed road noise mostly covers it. A radio does not. It's driving me crazy and I'm told, cannot be fixed. It is designed this way. The upgraded stereo is also nothing to write home about. I have to change the volume manually at least 10 times on my way to work to be hear what's being said and yet not be too loud. Also, steering is much less positive than my Subaru or Jeep, the car seems to float/wander.

Overall the vehicle seems to be well made. It's a V6 limited with skid control. I just made the mistake of thinking that I would get used to the differences between my Subaru and the Highlander. I had not seen any complaints on what I find highly irritating. What I did buy the car for seems good so far. I wanted the full time allwheel drive, decent gas mileage, mid-sized and no first year models. The size is very appropriate, the braking and driving safety controls, etc. seems to be good so far. It's a very pleasant drive once you get used to the soft steering and except for my seat complaints below. That one is enough of an issue that I would not buy the same car again. I also think the price through the local dealer I used was higher than it should have been but we wanted to support and work with a local business and the vehicle is in high demand. The price includes the add-ons that most avoid but we wanted due to our location.

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'87 Jeep, '94 Subaru

Excellant workmanship. Excellant gas economy, A+ ride and handling. Very good interior room with very good front seating. The more I drive it and spend more time in it the more I like it. compared to the pre 2002 Explorers that I owned as well as the Blazer you can spend considerable time behind the wheel and not feel like you have been beat on.

Arm rests are too make shift but will do a fair job. There are many drives like myself that are short wasted and having the ability to raise the seat would be great. Steel wheels look too cheap and detract from the appearance of a very good looking vehicle.

Our Highlander follows a long list which included a Camary, Chevy Blazer, Explorer 8cyl, Explorer 6 cyl and most recently a 6cyl Sabal. I am sure that if I want to become critical I can find things to complain about but in general aside from the Camary, this is best of the lot. Prior to purchasing this vehicle we spent considerable time with a Limited 6cyl with AWD plus all the toys. I really question the objectivity of those who have written other reports and their experience in other vehicles. I can't recall any the vehicle that I owned prior to the Highlanader that did not have excessive wind noise with one rear window opened at highway speed. I have driven both the 6cyl with AWD and the 4 cyl with 2 wd through snow 6 - 8 inches deep as well as over very slick compacted icy snow. Overall I liked the 4cyl 2wd better. It may not have quite the traction moving out as the 6 with AWD but it is much easier to stop in the compacted icy conditions. This is a great vehicle with more than sufficient performance to meet the task of good solid transportation

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92 Camary, 95 Blazer, 97 V8 Explorer, 97 V6 Explorer, 2001 V6 Sabal

The engine and tranny are very smooth. Good visibility all around. For the money, this SUV is a bargain. The V6 borrows alot of the same drivetrain as the Lexus RX, and is built at the same factory in Japan.

Maybe a dedicated CD storage area.

We bought the Highlander and drove it home in about an hour. I researched the MSRP and invoice numbers on the net and found the exact color and options we wanted for a few hundred over invoice, (3K off of sticker). This is more of a car than SUV which is fine because ours will never get close to off road. This Toyota is smooth (v6), solid and comfortable. The V6 is the way to go.

Pretty quiet/comfortable ride, decent entry level stereo, great acceleration and handling. Decent legroom for front and rear passengers of average height (6'0 or less, haven't had any taller passenger so far). Good cargo space w/seats that fold almost completely flat (give or take 2-3 inches). Slighlty better gas mileage than most SUV's in this class. Felt center console/drink holders were fairly easy to use and provided good amount of general storage.

very loud helicopter wind noise when only rear windows are down (easily corrected by cracking the front windows). Wished center console had CD storage, not big deal though. No other complaints to date other than a few cosmetic things that some people might even list as a plus.

My wife and I purchased our higlander almost three weeks ago. We have since taken it on a 1400 mile round trip from michigan to new york. We experienced some pretty nasty snow on the way and our highlander performed flawlessley. The all wheel drive had lots of bite in the snow and the ABS worked great too. We found the ride to be pretty comfortable (have cloth seats) and the engine/road noise to be very acceptable for an suv in this class. We have the basic stereo (cd/tape w/6 speakers) and were pleased with it's performance. I've seen some complaints on this board about it but was not disappointed (then again I'm not used to sound systems found in high end vehicles-traded in my 94 olds cutlas for the highlander). I found gas mileage to run between 18-20 mpg on the hghwy (drove 75 mph most of way, two passengers and maybe 100 lbs. of luggage in stow, fair amount of crosswind in spots also). One of the posters on this board claims their highlander averages "25 mpg city/hwgy," I find that a little hard to believe. I would think 22 mpg at most if I drove 55 mph on hgwy with light load and little wind. The v6 engine has very ample acceleration and four wheel disc brakes provided good stoppin power. At one point we motored right through eight inches of snow covered inclined driveway fom a near deadstop wihtout. The front wheel drive van in front of us was spinning its wheels like crazy and almost didn't make it. We found the cargo room very adequate for our 100lb. dog. No interior rattles or sqeaks along the way and found heater to work very quickly in the cold, rear vents are nice too. I thought the handling was very agile and crisp, vehicle didn't seem top heavy and suspensions soaked up the bumps pretty well. This is the first SUV I've owned but I have driven a 96' Chevy Blazer a few times (leather seats) and found my higlander (cloth seats) to have a much better ride (less choppy mainly). So far we love our Higlander and would recommend it highly. Looking forward to having for 8-10 years. I was persuaded to buy toyota due to their reputation for lengevity/safety features and I'm expecting big things. I gave a 5 star rating so far but the true test is it's reliablility, which like I said I'm expecting big things.

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94 olds cutlass (was reliable and traded in at 104,000 miles). Test drove Saturn VUE (not enough room and too much engine road noise and not enough comfort)

Ride, quiet cab, handling, gas mileage. Rear seats leg and head room. Eight way powered seat, lots of storage behind the rear seat.

Radio speakers are nothing to write home about, didn't spring for the JBL sound system. Factory Goodyear tires did not rate good in the rain, will replace when worn out. Rear window down road noise while on the highway bothered my wife, don't plan on rolling down the back windows while cruising anytime soon.

Best of the bunch SUV. Only Audi and BMW rate above this one in Consumer Reports. Must agree, after test driving an RX-300 it felt too cramped for too much money. This Highlander is much bigger for a good price. Being an old Camry driver for ten years it is easy to get behind this wheel and go. Fun to operate, got the V-6 for some punch, still gets much better gas mileage then the Tundra I traded in. Plan on keeping this one ten years.

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Tried RX-300, too expensive and felt more cramped in the drivers seat.