“You don’t really know if you love a car until you’ve lived with a car for a bit.”
That was the phrase that popped into my mind as I sat down to write this review of the 2026 Toyota Grand Highlander Platinum Hybrid MAX.
The next thing that popped into my head was:
“I think I’ve actually led a review with that phrase before.”
So I checked, and I have – here in the pages of the Los Altos Town Crier and the pixels of losaltosonline.com.
And it was my review of the 2019 Toyota Highlander Hybrid Limited Platinum (“On the Move,” November 2019). My wife and I had taken it on what was a tradition for us in those days – an annual big camping trip in early fall, and we had the ’19 Highlander for two weeks as we drove to Telluride, Colorado and back.
Things have changed in six years – there was no Grand Highlander then, but there is now. And what was supposed to be a one-week loan was graciously extended to two weeks by the good folks at Toyota and their associates at DriveShop when we arrived at San Simeon for four nights and decided to extend our stay to eight nights.
The reason for the escape is plain to see in the picture, taken before we left. This was during the extended inversion that trapped fog and bitter cold between the Sierra Nevada and the coastal ranges for three weeks. The Central Coast was sunny and 65 – so we went.
All told, we put 1,000 miles on the 2026 Toyota Grand Highlander Platinum Hybrid MAX. It’s a very different vehicle from what Toyota was making in 2019. While Toyota still sells the Highlander (updated since), the Grand Highlander is a larger three-row SUV that in 2025 sold more than twice as well as the smaller Highlander.
The Grand Highlander can be had with a 265-horsepower gasoline engine, a hybrid powerplant with 245 combined net horsepower, or in this case, the Hybrid MAX – 362 combined net horsepower. That leap in output is not wretched excess. It gives the Grand Highlander a 5,000-pound towing capacity and more than sufficient passing power, all while delivering solid fuel economy. The EPA estimate is 26 miles per gallon city, 27 highway. The ads always say “your mileage may vary,” and mine did. But in a good way. I beat the EPA estimate. Substantially. During the long highway drive to and from San Simeon, I averaged 32.5 miles per gallon. Credit a steady, light foot on the throttle and a consistent legal speed. Or what my neighbor Phil, who owns two Porsches, would call “driving like an old man.” Whatever.
The base price of the 2026 Toyota Grand Highlander Platinum Hybrid Max is $59,275 ($60,770 including destination) and that buys a thoroughly loaded vehicle, with all-wheel drive, a comprehensive suite of active safety features, 20-inch alloy wheels, keyless entry and pushbutton start, a panoramic moonroof, a hands-free power liftgate, a 12.3-inch center touchscreen with an 11-speaker JBL audio system featuring wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, leather-trimmed upholstery, heated and ventilated power front seats and heated outboard second-row seats, a three-zone climate control, digital rear-view mirror, plus a 1,500-watt inverter with two household 120-volt AC outlets.
And… that’s it. There are no extra-cost options. The total as-tested price? $60,770.
Two weeks and a thousand miles is enough to reveal the flaws in any vehicle. I could find none in the 2026 Toyota Grand Highlander Platinum Hybrid MAX other than…
I had to give it back to Toyota.
Mike Hagerty, past vice president of membership for Western Automotive Journalists (waj.org), has been writing about cars since 1997. Read more of his reviews at MikeHagertyCars.com.
