Yahoo Autos 2024 Toyota Grand Highlander vs. CX-90, Pathfinder, Pilot: How They Compare
Over the past year, a number of family-friendly three-row SUVs have picked up major revisions, reinvigorating a hotly contested segment and offering more versatility and creature comfort than ever before. The Honda Pilot, Mazda CX-90, Nissan Pathfinder, and Toyota Grand Highlander all bring something important to the table, so let's break these SUVs down across a few categories and see how they stack up against one another.
A bit of housekeeping before we start: We'll skip over off-road-oriented models for this comparison, which means we won't be looking at the Honda Pilot TrailSport, or the Nissan Pathfinder Rock Creek, as there are no Mazda or Toyota analogues (yet) to compare them to. Also, the Toyota Grand Highlander is the most recent reveal of the group and thus features the fewest raw numbers.
Exterior
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and we're not here to judge your aesthetic, so we'll focus on the facts. The Grand Highlander is the longest SUV of the group, coming in at 201.4 inches, just ahead of the CX-90 at 200.8, and the Pathfinder plays caboose at 197.7. The Mazda is the wheelbase champ at 122.8 inches, about six inches longer than the Grand Highlander. The Pilot is the tallest of the four at 71.0 inches, while the Mazda keeps it compact at 68.2. Ground-clearance fanatics will dig the CX-90's 8.0-inch figure, besting the Honda and Nissan by about an inch.
Interior
Sadly, the Mazda CX-90's girthy dimensions do not translate to an abundance of cargo space. In fact, the Mazda is the least capacious of this collective, offering just 14.9 cubic feet behind the third row, 40.0 behind the second, and 74.2 with the second and third rows folded down. Its 30.4 inches of third-row legroom is more than the Pathfinder can muster, but the Pilot offers more. The Grand Highlander is the undisputed legroom and cargo king, though, with a whopping 33.5 inches of third-row legroom, 20.6 cubic feet of storage behind the third row and 97.5 cubes with two rows folded. Seven- and eight-passenger configurations are available on all four models.
Engine and Transmission
Honda and Nissan keep it simple here, with the Pilot and Pathfinder offering just a single engine. Both utilize a 3.5-liter V6, although Honda's is marginally more powerful, making 285 horsepower against the Nissan's 284. The Pilot wields a standard 10-speed automatic transmission, and the Pathfinder makes do with a nine-speed.
Things are a little more complex in the CX-90. Mazda's lineup offers three powertrain flavors. A 3.3-liter inline-six produces 280 horsepower and 332 pound-feet in Turbo guise, while Turbo S models bump those numbers up to 340 and 369, respectively. There's also a plug-in hybrid getup that mates a 2.4-liter inline-four to a pair of electric motors to produce 323 horsepower and 369 pound-feet. All three tiers bolt to an eight-speed automatic.
Toyota hasn't divulged all the Grand Highlander's powertrain specs yet, but there's still plenty to talk about. The gas-only option pairs a 265-hp turbocharged 2.4-liter inline-four to an eight-speed automatic. The 243-hp hybrid uses a 2.5-liter inline-four and a continuously variable automatic transmission. At the top of the lineup is the Hybrid Max, which we believe is the same setup as the Crown's Hybrid Max trim, pairing a turbocharged 2.4-liter inline-4 with electric motors to produce 362 horsepower and 400 pound-feet, which is sent through a six-speed automatic.
