How The 2014 Toyota Highlander Got It Wrong

The 2014 Toyota Highlander. 

I've busted car manufacturers in the past for being overly cautious...so worried about messing up what's good in their vehicle in a re-design that they pull back and don't go far enough.

I may need to stop that.  Less than a year ago, I reviewed the 2013 Toyota Highlander and said about the only thing wrong with it was that it was "GeneriCar".  I also mentioned that the auto show photos of the 2014 model looked like they slapped a Tundra grille onto a Venza.  I wish it were as simple as that.  Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but the '14 Highlander hits me as one homely machine, nose-heavy in the extreme. And the back 3/4 of it is nowhere near as svelte as a Venza.

Is It There Yet (The 2014 Hyundai Equus)?

Print ad for the 1964 Toyota 700.

50 years ago, a Japanese car was a punch line in America.  World War II vets who carried a grudge 19 years after the end of World War II couldn't imagine driving one instead of a 20-foot GM, Ford or Chrysler sedan, and the phrase "cheap Japanese knockoff" was still in common usage.

40 years ago, thanks to the oil crisis, the small, economical models (Toyota Corolla, Datsun B-210) began to do very well.  30 years ago, family sedans like the Honda Accord and Toyota Camry started beating the domestics in sales.

Then, about 25 years ago, Toyota founded its Lexus division and took Mercedes-Benz on head to head.  There were a lot of doubters.  But building a high-quality alternative to the big German S-Class sedan with more features at two-thirds of the price proved to be a winning formula.  Within a couple of years it was clear Mercedes had competition...and in fact, during that time, they've changed their cars in fundamental ways so that they can better fend off Lexus.

In the past ten years, the story has been replaying with a twist.  This time, it's the South Koreans roaring up behind the Japanese.  The punch-line status for Kia and Hyundai ended about a decade ago, with rapid growth and acceptance the past five years as their cars kept ramping up the quality of materials and workmanship.  There are very few buyers of Toyotas, Nissans, Hondas and Mitsubishis who still wonder if they'd be taking a step down to go with Kia or Hyundai.  And it's the same formula as Lexus...match quality, add features, and do it at a lower price.

The Texas-ization Of The 2014 Toyota Tundra (The 1794 CrewMax 4X4)

The 2014 Toyota Tundra 1794.

What will it take for Toyota to become the official pickup truck of the U.S.A.?  Despite being built in Texas, which should boost its credibility with the more than one million people who buy pickup trucks every year, Toyota's big truck is still sixth in sales, behind Ford F-150, Chevrolet Silverado,  Ram 1500, GMC Sierra and Toyota's own mid-size Tacoma.

Back in January, in a review of the 2014 Toyota Tundra Limited, Michael hit on some very likely reasons for the continued struggle to make Toyota's big truck as dominant in its segment as the Corolla and Camry are in theirs.

For now, Toyota's answer appears to be to double-down on Texas. For purely business reasons, most of the company's marketing arm is packing up and leaving Southern California for the Lone Star State soon. And this year, Tundra has added a fifth trim level, a step above the previous top-of-the-line Platinum, the 1794.

How The Lexus ES 350 Has Finally Come Into Its Own

The 2014 Lexus ES 350.

If, as the Phoenix bureau suggests, the Toyota Avalon is the new Caprice or LTD, then this must be the new Buick Electra or Mercury Marquis.  Not the grand leap that a Sedan DeVille or Continental was from the Ford or Chevy back in the day (late 60s/very early 70s, before the great Brougham plague), the Lexus ES 350 is still a significant step up from the Toyota sedan with which  it shares so much of its architecture.

Meet TireKicker's Most Expensive Pickup Truck (So Far): The 2015 GMC Sierra 2500 HD Double Cab SLT

The 2015 GMC Sierra 2500 HD.

An odd thing about living in Arizona that is also probably quite common in places like Texas, Montana and Wyoming:  Heavy Duty pickup trucks are used like passenger cars.  People take them to the mall, to the grocery store.  You will even occasionally see them at a nice restaurant or cultural event, causing no small amount of fear and trepidation for the valet parking people.

These are really trucks that are made for things a normal full-size half-ton pickup cannot accomplish, such as towing very large house or horse trailers.  They are really not meant for urban commuting.  Yet, people do.

How The 2014 Toyota Sienna Wins On Swagger and Capability, But Loses At The Pump

Okay, it's four years old, but it's still pretty darn funny.  And creative.  And a surprising number of people are still only seeing it for the first time.  Toyota tried to infuse a sort of humorous cool into the hopelessly unhip idea of "we need a minivan" with this music video for the then-new Sienna.

The 2014 Toyota Sienna Limited.

They were rollin' in the HOV in an SE, but we recently had a top-of-the line Limited AWD, yo (I promise, no more of that)...and where you might expect anything four years into its product cycle to be feeling a bit less than fresh, the Sienna struck me as still being on top of its game.

Now, that may be because it and the Honda Odyssey have pretty much taken the minivan as far as it can go.  They are, as noted in the Odyssey review we posted recently, the two dominant minivans, and as the Phoenix bureau noted recently, the dark horse Nissan Quest has a lot going for it, too.

Why I'd Buy The 2014 Toyota Avalon Hybrid

The 2014 Toyota Avalon Hybrid.

The Phoenix bureau has already sung the praises of the 2014 Toyota Avalon.  But perhaps too softly.  Mind you, it got the basic tune right.  Having had experience at the wheel of great fullsize American sedans (my earliest experiences at the wheel were in my mom's 1970 Mercury Monterey Custom Coupe with a 429, and my Bishop Union High School Driver's Ed car was a 1972 Pontiac Catalina with a 455), the new Avalon does indeed feel like the best of that long-gone breed, with modern attributes baked in.

Ask yourself:  What were those cars just brilliant at?  Answer...long-distance highway cruising.  So when Easter weekend coincided with Navigator's dad's birthday, with 14-year-old daughter in tow, an Avalon was a natural choice for the run from Sacramento to Ukiah and back. Even better, ours was the Avalon Hybrid, EPA-rated at 40 mpg city/39 highway. We could ace the 340-mile roundtrip and still have gas in the tank.

Well, we could...if we weren't us.

What The 2014 Volkswagen Eos Has That Other Retractable Hardtops Don't

The 2014 Volkswagen Eos Sport.

Volkswagen calls the 2014 Eos "The only hardtop convertible with a built-in sunroof". And that's true.  With all other retractable hardtops, which includes the Chrysler 200, Lexus IS 350C, the Mazda MX-5 Miata PRHT and the BMW Z4, you can either look at the sky above by putting the top down, or not, by leaving it up.

The Eos has a sunroof built into the retractable hardtop, giving you a third option: A little sun, without having to take the top all the way down.  On its own, it is somewhere between a great feature and a cute gimmick, and it is also a very subtle reminder of Volkswagen's role in popularizing sunroofs, dating all the way back to 1950s Beetles with a canvas sunroof that rolled back to let the sun shine in.

In A Perfect World, The 2014 Audi A6 2.0t quattro Tiptronic Would Be In Your Garage

The 2014 Audi A6.

The difficult part in reviewing the 2014 Audi A6 is not to gush.  This is a car that is so clearly engineered and designed, not built and styled.  Every detail on the A6, and most Audis for that matter, has been clearly thought out.