Hey crazy, some of us have kids who sit in the third row, even BEFORE we're carpooling a bunch of kids to soccer or lacrosse or whatever. And even if we only have two kids in the car with us, our dog goes in the third row. And our groceries and luggage and paddle boards and whatever. We LOVE our Highlander, but also loved our Acura MDX! Your wife shouldn't be driving alone to work if you care about the environment. Try carpooling. It will make you a nicer and calmer person I bet. |
| I have a Highlander that I’ve had for 10+ years. I can’t wait to get rid of it, but it’s never ever caused me a problem. It is not exiting or fun to drive, but it won’t let you down. |
LOL - my wife and I both take Metro to work and only put a few thousand miles a year on the one car our family owns. And I don't feel like being nice to people driving gas guzzling status mobiles - no doubt you haul paddle boards, groceries and the lacrosse team and your golden retriever around all the time and at the same time and need all that extra horse power to do it. The west and Siberia are on fire so no I don't give a $hit about your ego or need to look cool when you are driving - if it was actually about utility you'd be driving a mini-van and if you weren't selfish you'd manage with a car like our very active family does. But you be a cool bro in your SUV! |
| Stop feeding the angry, unhelpful troll. |
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My Pilot Elite is a wonderful vehicle and meets all of our family needs.
And dont worry- we have a big gas guzzling t truck to tow the boat. |
| Look at a Pacifica plug in hybrid. It has much better mpg and plenty of room. |
| I'm another Highlander owner, ours is a hybrid and 14 years old, great gas mileage for city driving. We just had to replace the radiator due to a crack but other than that it's been a very solid, reliable SUV. We've been through 3 military cross country moves and each time it has pulled a small uhaul without problems. I would like a newer one, but DH insists that this car will have to literally fall apart (unlikely) before we replace it. |
I'm pretty sure that a new Highlander is more safe than your 15 year old station wagon - including for other cars on the road and pedestrians. Next time you are out driving, say thank you to a modern SUV. |
I'm pretty sure you are someone who gets their info from SUV commercials! Rollovers are dangerous incidents and have a higher fatality rate than other kinds of crashes. Of the nearly 9.1 million passenger car, SUV, pickup and van crashes in 2010, only 2.1% involved a rollover. However, rollovers accounted for nearly 35% of all deaths from passenger vehicle crashes. In 2010 alone, more than 7,600 people died in rollover crashes. Lots and lots of articles about this. From: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/rollover/unsafe/theme.html It's a myth that SUVs are safer than cars. People in SUVs die just as often as people in cars; they just die differently. They are more likely to die in rollovers, and they are much more likely to kill other people. ... Even the largest sport utility vehicles don't really make you appreciably more safe than you would be in a large car or minivan, and you will get much better gas mileage [in a car or minivan], you will produce a tiny amount of the air pollution, and you will not be putting your neighbors at an enormous risk. . So you aren't safer, everyone else on the road is less safe and you are burning even more gasoline than you otherwise need to. But hey you look cool tooling around Olney in your Pathfinder! |
| Weird feedback about the Ascent. We have it and love it (kids, big dog), but we had an outback before, so maybe that’s it? It has more room than the highlander third row. Never had an issue with pick-up (and by comparison we have a small sporty car as out second car). |
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How much do you really need the third row? I test drove like every three row SUV and stuck with my Lexus RX hybrid. The highlander drove like a truck and made me carsick in the back seat, the Subaru ascent was a contender but just felt huge, and many of the smaller three row suvs had poor safety for the back seat, if I’m remembering correctly.
We now drive two cars on the rare situation we need more seats than the car has. If you are carpooling, I recognize that may not be possible... at which point, just get a minivan |
| Another vote for a Toyota Highlander. |
The facts don't agree with you: https://www.consumerreports.org/car-safety/study-shows-how-death-rates-for-drivers-vary-by-car-size/ |
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The article that crazy anti-SUV poster linked is probably 15 years old. Modern SUVs are significantly better at resisting rollovers.
You can't get around physics. If someone sitting up high in a 7500lb Suburban crashes into someone in a 3500lb Camry sitting almost at road level, you can guess who is going to fare better. |
You bore me. I'm sure you're not perfect either. |