2002 Toyota Highlander review from North America

Haven't had anything go wrong with the car. as soon as I purchased it I switched it to Amsoil synthetic oil and Amsoil filters... had all fluids changed, brake pads changed, filters changed etc. all with OEM parts at the Toyota dealership.

We're tired of seeing the Hummer H2 as the new soccer mom vehicle of choice. My wife works at a school and 2nd graders getting dropped off in this behemoth of an SUV is ridiculous, we think... considering that it's them and mom as the only passengers in the car. The Hummer is built to run over land mines in Iraq, not take orange slices to the team at the soccer field.

ALL that to say, we wanted a bigger car with a roof rack (we like to bike, camp and backpack and plan on kayaking soon) but we wanted the car to be good to the environment... looked at honda and toyota as we always do. GM, Ford & Dodge still make cars? Not sure why on God's green earth anybody would buy them, but oh well. Looked at the CRV & Pilot, the Highlander and 4 Runner. Wanted some other sucker to eat the depreciation so we bought the car from the auction. Bought a Highlander in desert sand mica color with factory installed leather for $13,900 ($15,500 after taxes, auction fees etc.) and it had 56k miles on it... this was back in April '06. Sold our old 2001 Camry to help pay off the loan, which we now have, so what we're left with is this: a beautiful '02 Highlander with great leather, in perfect shape (ran a Car Fax on it before we bought), great GROUND CLEARANCE (have you looked at the Honda CRV, Pontiac Aztek, the Buick Rendezvous and the Saturn VUE--how cna they call those SUV's -- their ground clearance is WORSE than what my old Camry was!! -- the Highlander has several inches of ground clearance!) and with plenty of power, even though it is the 2.4 L 4 cyl. There's something about the 2MZFE VVT engine Toyota makes...it's torqued really well. I have never felt underpowered in this car--that lie is coming from those Hummer drivers.

Get a Highlander--they're built in Japan so you know the build quality is excellent... they get great gas mileage; they're extremely comfortable and versatile and cheap to insure. Did I mention safe?