2023 Chicago Auto Show: Best in Show
The Chicago Auto Show always has a little something for every car shopper, and the 2023 edition is no different. Whether you’re interested in the newest SUVs, trucks or sports cars — or want to experience some of them on the various indoor test tracks — it’s easy for show attendees to focus on what’s most important to them.
Our editors were focused on the all-new and redesigned vehicles debuting at the show, and after walking the show floor to see them all, one rose to the top: the new 2024 Toyota Grand Highlander.
Related: More 2023 Chicago Auto Show Coverage
Why It Won
The Grand Highlander shares its platform with the regular Highlander, but it’s longer, wider and taller. It puts that extra size to good use in the cabin, which offers roomy accommodations in all three rows of seats — even for taller passengers. There’s more cargo room, too, with around 98 cubic feet with the rear seats folded flat.
The Grand Highlander is also well equipped with important comfort, convenience and safety features, including heated front seats, second-row sunshades, a power liftgate, wireless device charging, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, adaptive cruise control and lane-centering steering. Like the regular Highlander, the Grand Highlander is also one of the few three-row SUVs with an available hybrid drivetrain, and it gets a Toyota-estimated 34 mpg combined — well ahead of competitors’ fuel economy.
You could argue Toyota missed the mark when it redesigned the regular Highlander for 2020, as that model retained the smaller interior it’s long had even in the face of new competitors with roomier, more spacious interiors. With the new Grand Highlander, the automaker now has an SUV to go wheel-to-wheel with models like the Hyundai Palisade and Kia Telluride from a space perspective, and we can’t wait to see how it drives.
More From Cars.com:
- 2023 Chicago Auto Show Winners and Losers
- Up Close With the 2024 Toyota Grand Highlander: Grander in Every Way
- 2024 Toyota Grand Highlander: Is Bigger Really Grander?
- 2020 Hyundai Palisade Vs. 2020 Toyota Highlander: Family SUVs Duke It Out
- Shop for a 2023 Toyota Highlander
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