Ed's Driveway: Toyota Highlander

By Ed Curran

The 2020 Toyota Highlander is a familiar SUV. The three-row SUV has been around since 2001, but the 2020 is an all new design. It is now a little longer, and that gives you more cargo room behind the third row. The interior is a high quality upscale design.

The Toyota Highlander has a 295 horsepower V6 engine smoothy controlled by an eight speed automatic transmission. The ride of the Highlander is hard to beat. The handling is very nice, but I wouldn't call it exceptional.

There were some outstanding features on the platinum version of the Highlander we drove, like an incredible touch screen infotainment system that measure just over a foot across and the standard rearview mirror has a selectable video mode -- no more adjusting your mirror, no more line spots. Your mirror can be a video image driven by a special camera next to your backup camera.

The Highlander starts around $35,000.

There is some tough competition when it comes to midsized SUVs. If you are looking at a vehicle like the Kia Telluride, Ford Edge or the Subaru Outback, the Toyota Highlander is a test drive you have to take.