Still stuck in the SUV loop with tiny incremental improvements that are behind the times. They are fortunate to have Prius, Corolla, Yaris lines.

I guess they couldn't justify the cost of direct injection versus the gains?

i don't understand why not make the hybrid with the 2.7L? i understand its to keep the costs down however, at least this is better than the hybrid for highway driving.

20/27 is not much worse MPG than your average V6 family sedan. Yeah, the Prius, Corolla and Yaris get better MPG, but you sure can't carry 5 adults comfortably. What's the point of a 50mpg vehicle that can't fill the needs of the average family? I hate Toyota, but they're doing a good job on this one.

The average family has 5 ADULTS whom travel together often? I know when I was a teenager - the occassions when I rode with my parents were few and decreased rapidly as I aged. By the time I was "fully grown" at around 16 either myself or my friends would drive.

20/27 falls short compared to the currently available 4 cylinder mid-size sedans with the exception of one or two poor examples (2009 and previous Fusion, any Chrysler mid-size).

This 2.7L 4 banger offers about the same performance as the smaller size 4 bangers in mid size sedans due to the Highlander's greater mass and aerodynamic resistance.

[2 adults up front and 3 kids in the back of a Corolla/Civic/etc works just fine or even 2 adults up front, 1 adult in back and 2 kids in back. The current crop of Corolla/Civic/Focus and other compacts are the size of most mid-size sedans from 15-20 years ago and they worked as "5-passenger" vehicles seeing as how few people actually try to pack 5 average size adults into these cars on a daily basis].

since the last sentence is a little confusing I meant to say mid-size sedans from 15-20 years ago worked just fine for 5 passenger "classification". Current compacts are roughly the same size as those mid-size sedans from 15-20 years ago. Compare 90-93 Honda Accord versus 2009 Honda Civic for a comparison illustrating this (pay attention to the interior room measurements).

yea i bet this 2.7L has a timing chain... the 3.3 2gr-fe still has a timing belt! hahaha poor hybrid highlander owners... you will have a fat bill when changing ur timing belt at the 100,000 km mark!

why im willing to wait the 2.7L version of the hybrid, plus the EV mode restrictions really sucks balls compared to the EV mode in the prius. VERY DISAPPOINTING TOYOTA YOU COULD HAVE HAD A HOME RUN BUT YOU **** IT UP DIDN"T YOU!?!?!?

Timing belt change is not very difficult nor expensive I would imagine. Maybe 2 hours of labor, change the accessory/serpentine belt at the same time and save on some maintainence costs.

Do they really last only 60,000 miles in Toyota's? It must be an interference head/engine. Most modern vehicles I have seen with timing belts don't recommend timing belt changes until 90,000 miles and the Highlander Hybrid would not even be running the engine as many hours to achieve 60,000 miles vs a non-hybrid so I find that number to be even more suspect unless they are trying to be ultra-conservative.

check the maintenance schedule, but yes it is conservative as always, then again a timing belt bomb is not fun either. For us timing chains (prius) i just use synthetic oil and always change the oil on time!

Over revving the engine will be more detrimental to your timing change than the type of oil...I doubt the oil has much impact at all on your timing chain (or belt).

Timing belt going out on an interference engine is bad news. Timing belt going out on a non-interference engine is not much of a problem. The engine will die before any thing bad can happen (water pump may stop and you have some valves stuck partially open but combustion stops right away as well so no chance of a valve getting burnt or the engine overheating). The worst part is having to coast to a stop and losing vacuum pressure for the brakes.

omg hi2uy