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School me on the new Toyota Highlander. Cost, Maintenance and Reliability.

bigdumo

New Member
2015 Toyota Highlander Reliability Questions.jpg

I'm looking at buying a 2015 Toyota Highlander - Help is appreciated!

Ok all of you Toyota Fans out there. I'm planning to buy a new 2015 Highlander as my second vehicle. This means that I'm doing my homework and trying to learn as much as I can. Thanks in advance for the help!

For the AWD LE model, I got a quota about $31037.0 from local dealers. It is not the best one compared with some shared prices by others in autopriceshare. However, Since it is lower than invoice price, I think it is fair. What does everyone think?

My current car is 2002 CRV and it is really reliable! That's going to be the benchmark for what I consider to be reliable and trustworthy for me and my family and I would like to find something just as reliable as this has been for me.

When it comes to the new Highlander, I am not familiar with it at all other than a test drive and looking at all of the promotional materials, which tells me a lot about the features, but I want to know more about how well it's built, common problems that people have and overall general positive/negative thoughts about it.

People in this forum must know highlander well, so in your opinion, should I consider the 2015 model of Highlander (specially the Highlander AWD LE trim level) to be a long-term reliable vehicle? Should I expect to have to spend $250 / $500 / $750 per year on average for maintenance and upkeep?

Some of my questions about the Toyota Highlander
  • Are there any common problems with this generation of Highlander?
  • How much should I expect to pay for a new one from the dealer?
  • What MPG should I expect to get for typical city and highway driving?
  • What are the typical costs for scheduled maintenance?
  • How does the AWD compare to a 4WD vehicle?
  • Some of the maintenance is covered by Toyota, right? How does that work?
Thanks, friends! Looking forward to reading your replied!
 

Smileyone

Member
TTC Chicks
Mom digs hers, no problems so far. Might be on the airbag list, I don't know tho as I don't have vin to check...She hasn't had hers very long also, so it may be too soon to tell about any probs. I'd test drive the dickens out of one.
 

toyotafan

Toyota Truck Club Founder
Staff member
1000 Posts
The Toyota Highlander is very super ultra reliable. Almost to a fault. :)

Just for some background information that goes beyond what you'll find in a brochure, you might be interested to know a little bit about the background of this vehicle.

Toyota Highlander Background Information
So, the Highlander came to North America back in the year 2000, so it's not a new vehicle by any stretch of the imagination. They sell quite a few of these vehicle, but it's not talked around as much as the Sienna minivan or the Tacoma pickup truck so a lot of people don't know that much about it.

Basically, Toyota used the platform for the Camry and just turned it into a mid-sized crossover SUV. The first generation ran 2000 to 2007, the second generation from 2007 to 2013 and we're on the third generation right now since 2013.

Just like most every single "SUV" vehicle like this on the planet, the move has been away from the ladder frame chassis and towards the unibody construction, which helps to lower weight, improve drive quality and comfort, but it does lower the towing capacity and other "work" functionality a lot.

In terms of the number of these on the road right now ... looks like Toyota sold nearly 147,000 Highlanders in the US alone last year plus another 3,600+ hybrid versions. Looks like hybrid numbers have come down a lot as the manufacturers have gotten so much better at producing high MPG vehicles that the extra cost of the Hybrid batteries is not worth it anymore.

I just typed this using Toyota's sales data. Wow! Looks like Toyota has sold (through the end of 2014) over 1,750,000 Highlanders in the course of the vehicle's history.

US Toyota Highlander Sales History

Year / Highlander / Hybrid (Sales)

2001 / 86,700
2002 / 113,134
2003 / 120,174
2004 / 133,077
2005 / 137,409 / 17,989
2006 / 129,794 / 31,485
2007 / 127,878 / 22,052
2008 / 104,661 / 19,441
2009 / 83,118 / 11,086
2010 / 92,121 / 7,456
2011 / 101,252 / 4,549
2012 / 121,055 / 5,921
2013 / 127,572 / 5,070
2014 / 146,127 / 3,621

MODEL SALES IN US
Highlander: 1,624,072
Highlander Hybrid: 128,670
Total Highlanders Sold:1,752,742
 

rickc5

Our back yard
Staff member
100 Posts
Community Leader
In addition to our 4Runner, we also have a 2015 Highlander Limited Platinum that we have had for about 9 months. Our HL has been completely trouble-free, and has yet to go back to the dealer for anything. I changed the oil & oil filter myself at about 3000 miles, since I'm not a believer in running oil for 10K miles, especially what I consider "break-in" oil.
 

toyotafan

Toyota Truck Club Founder
Staff member
1000 Posts
In addition to our 4Runner, we also have a 2015 Highlander Limited Platinum that we have had for about 9 months. Our HL has been completely trouble-free, and has yet to go back to the dealer for anything. I changed the oil & oil filter myself at about 3000 miles, since I'm not a believer in running oil for 10K miles, especially what I consider "break-in" oil.
Really nice. How many miles now?
 

awonderingdawn

Member
TTC Chicks
I've read rave things about this vehicle as well. I actually don't know anyone personally who owns one, but they've been notoriously reliable vehicles. Toyota in general always seems to have great quality cars. On all major car review sites online it's been rated 4 to 4.5 stars- and that's pretty good for any vehicle.
 

toyotafan

Toyota Truck Club Founder
Staff member
1000 Posts
Like I said before, I was surprised to see just how many Highlanders that Toyota has made since it came out in 2001. It's just a good reliable piece of Toyota engineering.
 

MuddyTacoma

Mechanic
1000 Posts
Wow, never did I think they were pushing nearly 2 million units sold since they first rolled off the assembly line. That's staggering.
 

MuddyTacoma

Mechanic
1000 Posts
I might have to look at a Highlander for a second vehicle for the family. Do they have a 4WD system or an AWD system?
 

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