The continuously variable transmission is not particularly refined.
This is the 2021 Toyota Highlander hybrid, one of the few three-row SUVs you can buy with a hybrid powertrain.
I'm not quite sure exactly when the three-row SUV became the American family car, but we're firmly in that era now. The country has always liked its vehicles to be big, and the extra height of an SUV makes it extra-bigger. Which is why it's disappointing that there are so few hybrid three-rows to choose from, particularly if you don't want a luxury badge on the front. There are really only two options in 2021. You could go for the Kia Sorento Hybrid, which we tested in January. But for a little more—starting at $38,510 for a front-wheel-drive version—you could get an even bigger one: the new Toyota Highlander hybrid.
The country seems obsessed with imposing, bluff-fronted SUVs and trucks these days, and the Highlander conforms to this trend, albeit with less implicit menace than others have achieved. Toyota knows how to style attractive SUVs, but it's a challenge for any automaker to make something this big look elegant as opposed to slab-sided. And you do get a heck of a lot of vehicle when you get a Highlander. It's 195 inches (4,950 mm) long, 76 inches (1,930 mm) wide, and 68 inches (1.730 mm) tall, and it has a 112-inch (2,850 mm) wheelbase, all of which puts it in the "midsize" segment (something that still baffles an immigrant like me who considers it ginormous).
The result is an interior that goes beyond spacious. From the driver's seat, you have plenty of room between you and the passenger seat, and the door is far enough away that I started complaining there was nowhere convenient to rest my elbow. As is usually the case with press fleet vehicles, our test Highlander hybrid was fully loaded, in this case a $50,315 Platinum AWD model, so the interior is generously trimmed with leather. There are plenty of cubbies and shelves for storage, and I rather like the way the 12.3-inch infotainment system is framed by a bar that stretches out to the passenger-side A pillar. (As an infotainment system it's fine; it's the same one you'll find in the Venza hybrid crossover, with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay.)
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