SPEAKER 02 : 0:00

Okay, we are back at that time of the week where we do car reviews, new car reviews, I should say, Richard. We’ve got somebody to talk about NASCAR once we’re done with this review as well. But let’s go ahead and get this review done. And you drove a car recently. What was it, and what was your impression?

SPEAKER 03 : 0:16

Yeah, Dad, so it was actually one of my more favorite cars, and this platform has – honestly only gotten better over the years. And that is the 2026 Toyota Highlander, or Grand Highlander, I should say. This is the Hybrid Max Platinum Edition, which is a mouthful to say, folks, this is Toyota’s Grand Highlander that they kind of introduced a few years ago, Dad. And it’s obviously a play on the Highlander. It’s just a little bit bigger. That third row is a little bit bigger. You’ve got a little bit more room behind the third row. So it’s kind of getting into that full-size, you know, I guess SUV type feel. as far as that goes, and then obviously you put the hybrid powertrain on it, and it works phenomenally well. I will just say this is one of my most favorite cars because, folks, for the money in this vehicle, as we priced it, Dad, it was about $61,000, I believe. All-wheel drive, the hybrid technology on it, it gives you the ability to go pretty much anywhere, and you don’t necessarily have to plug in, but you get the benefits of the fuel economy and all of that. It’s got everything on it. It’s got soft-touch materials, heated and ventilated front seats, dual-zone climate control, heated and ventilated captain’s chairs in the second row. You’ve got the third row that you can pop up. You’ve got enough room behind the third where you can put – equipment or vehicles or ball or not vehicles but you know bicycles and balls and all the sorts of different things that you want to do that way and then you combine that with i guess that kind of the the all-wheel drive and then the hybrid technology that toyota is known for and we’ve talked about many times and you sort of have a perfect storm dad especially if you are a larger well i’ll say yeah larger family right you need potentially six feet because that’s kind of a figuration vehicle and it’s a really hard vehicle to pass up because you get the Toyota reliability and all the everything else that comes with it to go along with it and in this case obviously the looks of it are fantastic it doesn’t look overly large one thing about this vehicle dad and I think it’s a good thing it looks larger than it feels and some people say we’re sure what do you mean by that and I mean it’s like when you this vehicle looks big and but it looks big in the way that makes you feel safe, right? Like you can go down the road, dad, you don’t feel like you’re going to get run over by a truck or someone that you can’t be seen by. And in other cases, it’s small though. So you can get it into your garage. It’s not very difficult that way. You can park it in some tighter spaces, especially with the kind of the hybrid or with the max or the platinum package on here, dad, it gives you the ability to have the surround view cameras. So you can pull in and out of cases. Again, You’ve been a fan of the Highlander forever, and it’s one of your favorites.

SPEAKER 02 : 3:08

When they first came out years ago, went to the Toyota launch on the car itself and did a lot of design work. They did all sorts of studies to determine what size should the car be, how big should the console be even. things along those lines they did a really good job of designing all of that to really be you know family focused if you would and it’s a great family vehicle so those of you that are in the market for uh a new vehicle by the way new are used because there’s there’s plenty of used ones still running around as well but you want a brand new uh vehicle that really does a good job and i think richard is is priced accordingly yeah look no further than this particular vehicle

SPEAKER 03 : 3:45

Well, exactly, Dad. And like you say, I mentioned the hybrid max, and that gives you, I want to make sure I get it right, a 2.4 liter turbo four-cylinder engine, 362 horsepower, six-speed transmission. I mentioned standard all-wheel drive, which is great, Dad. Again, large, three-horse SUV, 26 and 27 for highway, 27 combined. So again, Dad, you’re not getting, you know, 30, you know, these or anything like that. But again, you also don’t have to plug this vehicle in, right? You can just do whatever you need to do and just drive it as you normally would, right, without any issues. Outside of that, Dad, I will say this because some people do ask us this. It is quiet on the inside. Is it the quietest? Is it quieter than some of its cousins? Because we’ve done reviews on its cousins. It’s more luxurious cousins, I guess you could say. Not as quiet, Dad, but also for the price tag, I think it’s very suitable for what it is, if that makes sense, right? You’re not paying $10,000 or $15,000 more for this. So it’s got a great infotainment system, really easy to use. We’ve talked about that with Toyota and how they’ve done it. The biggest, I guess, actually, I don’t even have any negatives on this car. It really is phenomenal, and we don’t say that about every vehicle that we use. It’s just, in the case of this one, I don’t have anything bad to say. So if you’re a family… And like you said, Dad, the used market is potentially maybe not for this model year right now, but in future years, I would strongly consider this car if you do, again, if you’ve got three kids or even two kids and you want room to haul friends and family and stuff around, I would absolutely give that ability. Last thing I’ll say, Dad. on the, I guess, the room regard of it. Again, I’ve got some not older kids, but I guess kind of getting there. He is taller, almost five foot. He was able to fit in the third row pretty well. I don’t know if I would necessarily take a long trip that way. He kind of started to get a little bit cramped, but he was still able to make it easy to get booster seats in and out of it, easy to get car seats in and out of it. All sorts of, I guess, kind of easy functionality that you come to love and expect as a parent. So with that being said, Dad, if folks want to learn more about this, Head to your local Toyota dealership. I know that these are on the lots right now. Drive it. Test it. See if you like the hybrid. See if you like the hybrid max. See if you like just the traditional gasoline model. And when you do that, let them know that John and Richard Rush from Drive Radio and Rush to Reason sent you.

SPEAKER 02 : 6:05

This is John Rush from Rush to Reason and Drive Radio. Thank you so much for listening. Check out more of our podcasts at RushToReason.com or Drive-Radio.com.