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Toyota Grand Highlander Could Be a Bigger Three-Row SUV
The new name, trademarked recently, could portend a stretched Highlander with a roomier third row of seats.
Toyota recently trademarked a new name: Grand Highlander, as first seen on a forum post.
This moniker seems to suggest a larger variant of the existing Highlander three-row SUV.
The Highlander was redesigned for 2020, so the Grand Highlander may arrive for the mid-cycle refresh a few years from now.
Toyota is apparently envious of Jeep's Grand-iosity and may add a new model called the Grand Highlander, following in the footsteps of the Grand Cherokee and Grand Wagoneer. The company filed for a trademark on December 28, 2020, and the name indicates that it will be a bigger version of the Highlander SUV.
The Highlander currently competes in the three-row mid-size SUV segment, but its third row of seats is notably less spacious than competitors such as the Kia Telluride, Volkswagen Atlas, and Chevy Traverse. A Grand Highlander, possibly with an extended wheelbase, could help fix this shortcoming. Size-wise, it would slot in between the Highlander and the full-size, body-on-frame Sequoia, and it would likely cost a few thousand dollars more than the Highlander.
Toyota has yet to confirm anything about such a model, but we think it could arrive as soon as the Highlander's mid-cycle refresh, which should come for the 2023 or 2024 model year given that the current model debuted for 2020. Mechanically it would likely share its 3.5-liter V-6 and hybrid drivetrains with the standard; a plug-in-hybrid Grand Highlander Prime also seems possible.
I hope for Toyota's sake, they don't use this nameplate on a different vehicle. Owning a Hyundai Santa Fe, I can't begin to tell you the levels of customer confusion between "Santa Fe", Santa Fe Sport" and "Santa Fe XL".
I hope for Toyota's sake, they don't use this nameplate on a different vehicle. Owning a Hyundai Santa Fe, I can't begin to tell you the levels of customer confusion between "Santa Fe", Santa Fe Sport" and "Santa Fe XL".
I hope for Toyota's sake, they don't use this nameplate on a different vehicle. Owning a Hyundai Santa Fe, I can't begin to tell you the levels of customer confusion between "Santa Fe", Santa Fe Sport" and "Santa Fe XL".
Yes, I wasn't very impressed with the Santa Fe Sport version the last time I sampled one.....I thought it lacked the road-manners of the larger Santa Fe models. I think you did correctly in getting the regular Santa Fe.
Using stretched-smaller platforms (or simply rebadged ones) to replace larger ones is nothing new for automakers, though. In fact, in the 1970s, it was the norm for American automakers.....formerly mid-sized vehicles became the new full-sized ones.
sounds a lot like the RX-L, but a prime model sounds cool!
Well the RX-L basically already is the Highlander in length. RX still being on the older platform of course. So a bigger Highlander would go beyond where the RX-L is at. Maybe like an RX-LL haha.
Which would be great for both the next gen of whatever the Lexus gets called (if it gets diverged from the RX, or maybe they'll keep RX and RX-L nameplates) and for the Highlander to better compete against the rest of the larger 3 rows that are garnering lot of attention like the Palisade and Telluride. Don't forget new Pathfinder will also be here shortly.
I hope for Toyota's sake, they don't use this nameplate on a different vehicle. Owning a Hyundai Santa Fe, I can't begin to tell you the levels of customer confusion between "Santa Fe", Santa Fe Sport" and "Santa Fe XL".
They're simply following one of the most successful SUV business models out there lol
Didn't that brand used to be "Range Rover", and they swapped the Range Rover/Land Rover names of the brand and model?
Range Rover was once just a Land Rover model, but then later became its own sub-brand of SUV. The irony is that Land Rover now has more vehicles under the Range Rover sub-brand than its own Land Rover brand.
Toyota Grand Highlander (confirmed post 63)
