Yesterday marked one year with our Highlander. We brought it home Saturday, September 14, 2019.
It now has 10,541 miles as of my fuel-up this morning. We don’t drive as much as the national average anyway, but this figure is extra low because we have all been stuck at home for most of 2020.
The vehicle itself has been problem free, as expected. Averages mid-to-upper-20s as far as MPG goes on road trips. Around 19-20 in the city. Not bad for a big, AWD crossover.
My wife recently shut the garage door on the open tailgate and scuffed it pretty bad, and there are some assorted tiny parking lot scuffs, but it still looks good overall. We (I) keep it fairly clean.
ToyotaCare is pretty cool in that they’ve paid for my second oil change, first and second tire rotations, and first cabin air filter change. They would pay for the first oil change, but I had that done at 5k miles instead of their suggested 10k miles because we do so many short trips.
I can’t wait to get a trailer hitch and a small pop-up size camper to tow behind it next year. We won’t be doing that too often but it’ll be nice to have the option since we can’t do much else right now.
Overall, the Highlander has proven itself to be a good value and a great kid-hauler. Our two kids and my wife’s younger siblings fit well in it. And, thanks to this model’s relative lack of depreciation, it’s still worth around $8k more than we owe on it.
First photo (September 14, 2019):
Most recent photo (September 12, 2020):
