Highlander Owners

Well I have my HyTi, so not looking for another Hybrid at this point. I was when I first wrote this thread, before I made the deals last year, I was interested in a HyHi, but since my HyTi is our daily driver, not so concerned over fuel costs and I dont drive it often enough to put as many miles on as I used to. I put a total of 8820 miles on the Flex in the 10 months I had it, and 18700 on the HyTi in the 8 months I have it. I need a people and cargo hauler, which the Flex fit the bill perfectly, but I still want to give others a try. I do believe the Highlander holds a higher value than the Flex, which is why its on my list, since it might not be a long term vehicle for me like the Flex was to be.


Once you go Boost, it is hard to go to anything else, The pure adrenaline rush you get when you step on the go pedal and get pushed back in your seat in a boxy SUV like car, is just amazing. The fact it can get 21 MPG or better in mixed city highway driving, is even better. During the summer I was seeing just over 21 all the time, in the winter it dropped to 19, but still very good MPG for such a big heavy vehicle. Also the Snow handling is Superb! I cant get over just how well the traction was with Hankook Optimos and how the torque vectoring and AWD kept it stable and on track in snow and ice. Some thing I plan to also investigate with the Toy. In the end I may still find the perfect MKT or Flex, but until then, weighing all options and appreciate the input from other owners on the pros and cons of this particular vehicle.

The downside of this superb traction and handling though is it did have some influence on the crash, since I was going faster than I would have had I been driving the Fusion, however, the crash would have still happened in either car, just due to the circumstances of the whiteout. I just would not have hit it so hard, but the guy who hit me would have still hit me just as hard as he did, and who knows the outcome of that, he hit me high in the Flex, clipped the top of the bumper and slammed into the tailgate, he may have gone through the trunk on the Fusion and made things much worse.

 

When one door closes, another opens. The first MKT I was making a deal on fell through, however I had found a second one that is in Kansas on Wednesday when I found out the one we thought we had a deal on went south. The dealer there made the deal with mine and last night all the papers were signed and they are picking it up today. Should have my new used MKT tomorrow. I know we will like the MKT as well as the Flex, something tells me we would not have liked the highlander, a friend of mine has a FFH and a Prius, and the Entune vs MFT is like night and day, he prefers the MFT much better, and so does his wife. You always hear complaints about MFT, but so far with the latest update, neither the Flex nor the HyTi have had any MFT issues, and works quite well now. I know the BD had the earlier version and what a piece that was, I wanted to punch the screen so many times its not funny, so going to another system that is reported to be slow and not handle voice commands that well would have resulted in a broken screen.

The upside of the Highlander is they do hold their value, which is good if you plan to rotate cars every few years, but I plan to keep this a long time, and when I do that I had better like it a LOT! Thanks for the input too, appreciate it.

 

Thanks, Since I could not find a direct replacement, I settled for the MKT and really am enjoying it. There are a few things I am not really crazy about, lack of a cubby for my iphone in the center stack like the Flex has, the MKT has a shelf underneath instead, so I need a longer USB cable. The color of the MLT is awful, looks washed out, not sharp and crisp like MFT, the Radio is like a pastel purple, not a deep rich purple, and the phone is a mute orange. Just looks sick, and not in a good way. The entertainment screen on the dash mirrors the same color and makes the speedometer look purple. It lacks storage spaces like the Flex has, but not really an issue for me, fewer places for the kids to store junk.


Other than those, which I can live with, the car is very nice, has the same features my Fusion does, so its nice to switch between cars and both have the same features. The lane keeping, Adaptive Cruise, Auto high beam head lights, rain sensing wipers, BLIS with CTA. And it is getting over 20 MPG even in the cold weather on Benzine. Can't wait until summer blend arrives and warm weather kicks in, I should see at least 22 or better in it.