CHICAGO — The 2024 Toyota Grand Highlander, which debuted Wednesday on the eve of the Chicago Auto Show, takes the body and bones of one of the Japanese brand’s top-selling crossovers and super-sizes it to deliver a more comfortable and competitive family vehicle — at least without sliding rear doors.
The biggest feature of the Grand Highlander is its bigness, especially in the third row. Overall, the Grand Highlander is larger in every dimension compared with the Highlander, yet not quite as big as either the Toyota Sienna minivan or Toyota Sequoia body-on-frame SUV.
The Grand Highlander’s third row features an additional 5.8 inches of legroom compared with the Highlander, 2.5 extra inches of shoulder room and more than an inch of extra headroom. With all the seats in use, there’s an added 4.6 cubic feet of cargo space behind the third row, which the brand says is now able to hold seven carry-on suitcases. With all second- and third-row seats down, the Grand Highlander boasts 97.5 cubic feet of cargo space, 16 percent more than the Highlander, though still below the Sienna and Sequoia.
Designed in the U.S. and manufactured in Toyota’s plant in Princeton, Ind., the 2024 Grand Highlander comes equipped with a standard 2.4-liter turbocharged I-4 engine. Two optional hybrid powertrains are also available — one tuned for fuel economy and capable of delivering an estimated 34 mpg combined, the other tuned for power and capable of delivering up to 362 hp and towing up to 5,000 pounds.
