The 2024 Toyota Grand Highlander Shows That Bigger Isn't Always Better

The economics of car-making (or perhaps Americans' taste) dictate a crossover in every possible size. Especially big ones. No footprint between "large, please" and "Super Size Me!" should go unexplored by mainstream automakers.

It's something American automakers have long recognized. The Chevy Traverse is about 10 inches longer than the Highlander, and the early three-rows from other Japanese, Korean, and German brands were similarly undersized compared to options from Chevy and Dodge. It was Volkswagen that realized there was room for foreign brands to go bigger. The Germans rolled out their massive three-row concept about a decade ago and had a Volkswagen Atlas on American roads just four years later, in 2017. The Atlas's recipe was simple: Provide an acre of sheetmetal at Dollar-Store prices. Quality and driving experience were sacrificed on an altar built of those priorities.

It was a brilliant play, truth be told. Problem is, that formula doesn't hold in 2023. The pandemic and its economic fallout shifted the average transaction price for a vehicle so steeply, that even an Atlas is knocking on the door of near-luxury heavy hitters; In 2018, the cheapest Atlas set you back about $32,000; That base price has risen to $39,075, putting the Atlas in the thick of some very persuasive competition.

This has me thinking about the all-new, 2024 Toyota Grand Highlander, which I drove at the vehicle's launch in Hawaii a couple weeks back. The Grand Highlander follows the formula that VW pioneered, offering a larger, more capacious version of Toyota's Highlander crossover for those who want the extra space and a third-row capable of ferrying adults; With this extra-large offering, Toyota asks, "What if we built an Atlas for Toyota People?"

How do you go about doing that?

Firstly, the Grand Highlander borrows a bit from Toyota SUV design, namely a few styling cues from the now-departed Land Cruiser. Squared-off edges at each end of the car provide maximum interior volume and a corresponding sense of gravitas. There's even a bit of the old Lexus LX mixed in there somewhere. But mostly a Grand Highlander is exactly as the name intones: a larger, boxier, more handsome version of the Highlander CUV.

Those exterior features, including a generous hexagonal grille, hint at the sort of ultra-macho, individualist ethos that sells so many 4Runners, Sequoias. It's a smart play from Toyota.

But inside the Grand Highlander, it's clear that the family is the focal point, not the individual. During their presentation to the media, one Toyota exec mentioned the "chaos" of raising a family. There's beauty in that disorder, she insisted, and the Grand Highlander is the type of vehicle with an interior that's flexible, spacious, and functional enough to navigate that chaos.

The driver's seat, second-row captains' chairs, and even the third row mostly confirm that ambition. That'll be a selling point for many families. I found the first two rows generous on space compared to competitors in the segment (roughly $40k-and-up family mobiles). The third row can't quite fit my 6'2" adult frame without my head hitting the ceiling (in direct conflict with some marketing material we were shown by Toyota), but all the kids in your life—and most adults under 6' tall—will find just enough headroom and ample leg room back there. Those adults will even feel comfortable for a couple hours back there.

A key to that third-row space is a seatback that reclines to allow extra headroom. With the 60/40 split seatback reclined in full, most of the Grand Highlander's 21 cubic feet of cargo space is still available. That's plenty for a family haul to the airport.

Perhaps more important than the available room is how easy it is to access the room within the Grand Highlander. The little foot sill beside either of the second-row captains chairs is handy for ingress and for vaulting into the third row, or to pick a knee up and reach into the cab and pull your kid out of a car seat. That extra space for leverage makes all the difference. Its clear that getting the troops in and out of this vehicle was a priority.

That focus on maximizing space and convenience makes the Grand Highlander feel like a Sienna minivan for people who don’t see themselves as minivan owners, but who still value a minivan's convenience. From a functional perspective, the Grand Highlander beats out most competitors in the Big Crossover Game.

But from a design perspective, the Grand Highlander's interior lags behind the smart offerings from three-row Kias and Mazda. The materials quality, design, and layout all seem geared toward functionality here, which is why this feels more like an Atlas competitor—a vehicle with an MSRP dragged up to luxury-adjacent territory by its footprint, rather than an overt play at luxury from the off.

The Grand Highlander's heated and cooled second-row seats are a bonus in a segment that can often cut corners for passengers who don't sit in the front row. Same goes for the myriad cup holder and charging and cubby options. Like the Atlas before it, the Grand Highlander is truly a car for Americans, those who drink from vessels the size of a bucket and who carry enough crap in their pockets to sink a dinghy.