Toyota Grand Highlander is indeed a Grand Highlander

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Toyota's enhanced Highlander SUV is not only a really nice three row vehicle, it's also snagging honours including the prestigious "2024 Canadian Utility Vehicle of the Year" from the Automotive Journalists Association of Canada.

It's quite flexible, too. Toyota Canada will let you have a 2024 Grand Highlander with one of three different powertrain setups. Toyota's sample, the Hybrid MAX, generates a most lovely 362 combined horsepower and boasts a 5,000-pound towing rating for high-performance adventures. The other hybrid option offers 243 "system horsepower", while the base non-hybrid comes with a turbocharged gas engine that cranks out 265 peak horsepower.

I've only tried the Hybrid MAX and its power is really nice – and the engine sounds almost as if you're standing on the gas pedal of an old fashioned V8. I loved it!

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Part of that love comes from the fact that the Hybrid Max comes with a very nice six-speed automatic transmission. The others get either an Electronically Controlled Continuously Variable Transmission (hybrid) or an eight-speed auto (non-hybrid). I think six speeds – okay, maybe seven – is optimal because it doesn't require the excessive hunting and pecking to find the optimal gear for the circumstance that other, more "gear laden" automatics.

I can live with an eight-speed, but find that the nine and 10 speed trannies I've driven upshift too quickly (in the name of fuel economy, not driving pleasure) and then, when you want to pull out to pass someone, they have to downshift a bunch of gears to get where you want.

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