![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com\/docsz\/AD_4nXfB40Ph3oh_hPeStaojxJfUmVKeYb6j_LC5e-__UNAtaK8zbNffq_swXPf07EhLc7netbnvq4BNfBT9CmZv3as59HjVMsi6x07hm2GiSJHukrRqCQp5NPw-j4hunzJmC4JZRTCfK-5J1VL1SZb4xFAnrMeZ?key=FcoU2elW9exRo6PJk2X_Kg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n2010 Toyota Highlander SE (owned by Cora Bertsch)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n You\u2019ve been in this car. Someone you\u2019ve known, at some point in your life, has owned this car, and you rode in it. Maybe it was your mom\u2019s friend from down the street, picking you up from second grade on a day when mom had to work late. Maybe it was your great-aunt, taking you out for a Frosty and fries at the Wendy\u2019s by the outlet mall when she came to town one distant July in the early teens. Do you remember it? Maybe you do, maybe not, but regardless, there\u2019s home in this car. Home in a used Highlander\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n The second generation Toyota Highlander ran from 2008 to 2013, with Cora\u2019s specific example being a mid-range 2010 SE model. With around 168,000 miles, it\u2019s a basic midsize family SUV that\u2019s been used as just that: a car owned by the same family its whole life. Cora inherited it from her grandfather, who bought the car from her great aunt when the time came to move on, and she foresees it going to her younger brother when he enters his college years. It\u2019s a fair move, in my eyes. This is simply the kind of car you want your kids driving when the time for greater independence arises, for all the right reasons. The drive is superbly smooth. After taking it around Danville for half an hour, I got the impression that while the 3.5 liter, 270 horsepower V6 could get up to speed with criminal ease, it simply wasn\u2019t trying to teach me anything; a beautiful quality for something in this market segment. The brakes were just responsive enough to make me very comfortable, but not too touchy as to make any stop a jolting experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As for features, well, it\u2019s a standard late-2000s Toyota. As someone who occasionally dailies my family\u2019s \u201805 Camry back home, I got exactly what I was expecting. The hard cloth seats weren\u2019t plush by any means, but they sat the driver well. The climate and volume controls were easy to understand and very functional, and the control panel even had a \u201cmute\u201d button which could disable the sound system for even a single word of a song, something I\u2019d never seen before. The 2nd-gen Highlander has a pop-up third row as standard; something Cora tells me is actually fairly comfortable (although I\u2019d have my doubts for long-term trips), but which we didn\u2019t test upon reviewing it. As for the rear, it did appear that the middle seat was sort of an afterthought, as the unit itself could be taken out to create an entire backless table between the two occupants, and the headrest was impossible to adjust. All in all though, it provided a perfect blend of functionality, innovation, comfort, and accessibility: what more could one possibly want, especially with these models now comfortably in the $7-9,000 range?<\/p>\n\n\n\n I truly struggled to find much to dislike aside from nitpicky things about the 2010 Highlander: the hood support rod at times struggled to support its heavy weight, there was no sunroof, etc. Yet in the long run, these pale in comparison to the truth that most Highlanders are simply fantastic vehicles. My grandmother bought a 2014 model new, and drives it to this day, a car I always jump on the opportunity to drive when possible. I truly wondered, following all this, if there could ever be a Highlander I could come to hate. Was such a concept even real? <\/p>\n\n\n\n 2002 Toyota Highlander V6 Limited (owned by Nate Hall)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n And so I looked. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Oh boy. The only thing \u201cLimited\u201d here is my ability to put up with the sheer noise of this thing. With 246,000 and counting on the odometer, I\u2019ve never found a daily-driven car which better embodies the term \u201cbeater\u201d. Nate inherited this first generation 2002 model from his girlfriend\u2019s mom, who apparently used it as a runner car for a catering business. Why she ended up putting it out to pasture became evident fairly quickly: this thing is just\u2026wow. The steering moans at anything greater than a 5 degree turn in either direction, rust plagues the hood-prop rod, the undercarriage, and somehow the roof (?), and that sound. Oh, that sound. Nate\u2019s Highlander lacks the semi-critical feature of a muffler, which means that at any given moment it sounds like a pissed-off hornet\u2019s nest on wheels. You can hear it from a mile away, and it\u2019d take it a while to get that far. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This thing mocks your mere existence as a driver. Attempting to go flat-out is a laughable experience- I turned right onto the bypass, put my foot all the way to the floor, and experienced a forward progression slower than it takes for your dorm to switch from heat to air when you need it most. I don\u2019t even have an adjective for how bad the acceleration is. I\u2019ve driven lots <\/em>of cars, and this thing wins slowest 0-60 by a country mile. I stopped counting at 23 seconds. It redlines constantly in high second gear and then just\u2026sits there. Hills cause it to nearly peter out entirely unless you take your foot off the gas, reapply, and politely bribe it with a twenty to maybe <\/em>go into third. <\/p>\n\n\n\n AND YET, despite all this\u2026 I simply cannot hate this thing. There\u2019s actually lots of functional positives, sure: the aftermarket JBL speakers are super nice, the backseat is surprisingly spacious with clean black trim, the climate & sound controls work great, and there\u2019s even a snow-specific traction button, a new feature to me. Even when the drive felt like something neglected from the early 90s, the interior gave off vibes of something which in a former state was luxurious and advanced. But it\u2019s not just this. With every rattle of the transmission and fartlike roar of the muffler-less \u201cacceleration\u201d, you can tell it knows that it\u2019s just a rough example of a beautiful thing. As much as it whines and complains up every incline, when driving it I still felt I was getting that reliable, solid, even comfortable Toyota experience. It drove slowly, but smoothly; the brakes worked well, and it actually handled corners much better than I expected. At the end of the day, as rough as Nate\u2019s example is, I was never ignorant of the fact that I was still driving a Highlander: a loud, slow, rusty one, but a Highlander at that. Most importantly, it reminded me of something I\u2019d forgotten along the way and was glad to remember. Beaters, for all the trouble they may cause us, are fun in their faults, and Nate\u2019s Highlander maintains its sense of Toyota dignity with a toyish pride. I\u2019ve driven plenty in my time, and this is certainly one of the most memorable and enjoyable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So there you have it: the Toyota Highlander, at its best and very<\/em> worst. If you\u2019re looking for a new or used midsize SUV, any generation of these is a fantastic place to start. You\u2019ll have all the modern amenities you could possibly need with a side of comfort and near-impossibility to kill. I would recommend any one of these things to anyone; they get the job done, and they\u2019re good, reliable, trustworthy machines. I could go on about their place in the market and why they\u2019ve attained such popularity, but it suffices to say that the Highlander marks high in my rankings to come. Not all my reviews will be this extensive, but I thought this comparison a good place to start. I hope you\u2019ll continue to join me as the automotive journey continues!<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com\/docsz\/AD_4nXdag4aATYPTmHydV155u_g3RwzEJriOWzRd8mPbE_1ElPErNVsQClNw8ZooIQN_19a6f1VzwQO0jOaETGHlatQryyNhehgls8KCFzAhqIllv7N0ekACwNRrYB0SO6LcMFuRC8uviso_0hwgZAU34uqpKz7d?key=FcoU2elW9exRo6PJk2X_Kg\")