2025 Toyota Kluger (Highlander) (inc. 0-100 & braking) review: Still a class leader SUV?

CarExpert

The Toyota Kluger has been one of the best sellers in Australia for quite some time. But, it isn't called a Kluger elsewhere - it's called a Highlander. Hyundai owns the trademark to Highlander in Australia, which is why they can't get away with calling it a Highlander locally. Anyway - Paul Maric tests out the Kluger Grande hybrid to see whether it's still one of the best in the segment.  Hardness tester, noise and lane keeping results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE  Skip Ahead: Intro: 00:00 Exterior: 01:30 Interior: 03:17 Infotainment: 04:29 Safety Tech: 06:29 Practicality: 07:06 On the Road: 10:51 Driver aids: 17:22 Performance: 18:16 Verdict: 20:29  We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.  Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.  Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1  You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.  Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!  Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!  CarExpert: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarExpertAus Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au  Paul Maric: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulMaric Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric  #toyota #kluger #highlander #review

Transcript

00:00let's see how that went so 100 to zero not very good 3.17 seconds 43.71 meters that is a fair old

00:16stopping distance um yeah that could be much better i was expecting it to be a little more

00:21cramped than it is here so knee room's not great but given that row slides forward you can afford

00:25yourself extra space if you need to tow room's fine headroom is pretty cramped but you do get your own

00:30air vents there cup holders as well so for a short distance this would be perfectly fine for adults

00:35for kids uh you wouldn't have any dramas at all g'day i'm paul toyota kluger it's a name that is

00:41kind of a name stay in australian suvs but a lot of people don't know overseas it's actually called

00:45something different it's called the highlander they can't call it the highlander in australia

00:49because young days calls their cars the highlander so this is the kluger for the australian market

00:53and this is the top spec toyota's actually killed all the other variants they used to have

00:58and now just do hybrid for the kluger it had a price increase as well so this one here the top

01:04spec kluger grande all-wheel drive is now priced at over eighty thousand dollars before your on-road

01:10cost which is big old chunk of money if that is too expensive the entire range kicks off at just over

01:16sixty thousand dollars so you're cutting back on a lot of equipment but you're still getting

01:20the hybrid drivetrain so today we're going to do a detailed review of this car so if you do want to

01:24skip ahead to other parts of the review you've got the time codes on the screen or if you're on

01:27youtube you can scroll down and use the chapters below now your optional colors are actually not

01:32expensive they're all under a thousand bucks which is great news this white has like a pearlescent

01:36color effect inside it which i think looks pretty good grande gets chrome highlights you can see around

01:42the grill they're all chromed blue toyota badge which signifies that this is a hybrid they're actually

01:47moving away from this i have seen some of the newer updated toyota products that sort of ditch the

01:52blue in the badge because basically all the toyota products now are hybrid so they're slowly moving

01:57away from that full led headlights you still have a globe in there which is a bit old school for your

02:03indicator which is a little bit disappointing fog lights down the bottom now top spec gets 20 inch

02:08alloy wheels they're like this sort of chrome finished alloy wheel a little bit much for some but

02:13you know it's not not the end of the world over here you've got wheel arch cladding as well so this

02:18is all-wheel drive but it's not really a four-wheel drive you're not going to be able to do a great

02:21deal of off-roading in this this is the same sort of setup that other toyota products use where they

02:25have basically an internal combustion engine and electric motors at the front here and then an

02:30electric motor at the rear as well there is no physical driveline link between them so that gives

02:35them advantages in terms of efficiency and space efficiency inside the cabin as well our hybrid badge off to

02:41the side here again newer toyota products they've gone down the path of hev with a new sort of symbol

02:46there for hybrid this is a slightly older badge setup they haven't updated yet roof rails you've got a

02:51panoramic glass roof there privacy glass now around the back shark fin aerial up the top hybrid grande

02:58again no sort of led taillights which is a little bit disappointing 80 odd thousand dollars you would have

03:04thought they'd deck this out and led everything like some of their cheaper models but anyway kluger badge down

03:09the bottom there as well now let me know what you reckon about pricing of kluger do you reckon it is

03:13too expensive what do you reckon about the design as well let me know in the comment section below

03:17okay so we're inside the kluger we'll start off with the key you've got lock unlock boot panic and the

03:25toyota logo and then kluger on the back there it's a proximity sensing key so you can leave that in your

03:30pocket get a push button start just over here now in terms of presentation for an 80 odd thousand

03:37car i actually think this looks pretty good so they've upgraded infotainment got a digital screen

03:42ahead of the driver it is just a really nice place to be seated and this contrasting sort of leather

03:48color i guess works as well probably not if you've got kids i don't know i'm just picturing my daughter

03:53throwing her food all over the back seat there and it kind of gives me chills just thinking about it but

03:57it all does look quite nice and and presentable especially here with the darker wood grain i just think

04:02it's got a classier look to it so that's all pretty nice in terms of your touch points so pretty much

04:06everything around here is nice and soft to the touch how soft is it we've got our durometer we've

04:12tested the main surfaces in this cabin if you do want to see how this car compares to others that

04:17we've tested before there is a link in the description below now build quality what's it like give that a

04:21little shake a little bit of movement there in the center not too bad there let's see what the door

04:25slam sounds like that's not too bad let's chat infotainment so 12.3 inch display here 12.3 inch

04:33display ahead of the driver as well this is toyota's new connected infotainment system which means it

04:39can get software updates it's got online connectivity for maps and it also has stuff like an sos button

04:44here as well if you ever get stuck or in any trouble at all inbuilt satellite navigation sound system

04:50for top spec grande here 11 speaker jbl branded really good sound system a lot of smartphone

04:55connectivity so wireless apple carplay i'll show you what that looks like um it does have issues

05:01though okay so i'll run you through this quick story had it hooked up wirelessly drove through a

05:06toll gantry and it started playing up immediately my calls had like a lag so i'd be talking to someone

05:12but they'd hear what i was saying like two or three seconds later by which point they were talking over

05:16me it was it was just a cluster so i had to pull over and restart it all then i'm like all right well

05:22i just won't do wireless i'll just plug straight in even with a cable it was making like ticking

05:26noises for podcasts that i was listening to so yeah it's just a really weird setup and i don't know

05:32how they could have just not tested it well enough it could be my phone i don't know i've got the

05:36latest ios version on there so not sure but anyway just highly annoying so this is what android auto

05:42looks like the spec says it's wireless but we haven't been able to get it to work wirelessly so

05:46it is currently hooked up with a cable full screen integration there as well so i'm not an android

05:51user so i don't know whether it has the same connectivity issues that the iphone did but

05:56yeah let us know do you want a kluger do you have any dramas with the wireless or even just wired

06:01smartphone mirroring let us know your thoughts now over on the screen ahead of the driver here so

06:06a bit of customization available there you can sort of go through all the menus and change the way that

06:10it looks and what appears on either side of those dials so i like the fact that you can sort of take

06:15control of all of that head up display there as well which gives you all the key information that

06:19you need especially for the hybrid system it gives you a really good indication of when it's in its

06:23eco mode and power mode and that allows you to conserve a bit of energy if you don't need to be going

06:27flat stick which is good now safety tech you've got autonomous emergency braking with pedestrian and

06:33cyclist detection an auto dimming rear vision mirror you've got blind spot monitoring built into your

06:38wing mirror front rear parking sensors you have rear cross traffic alert you've also got

06:43radar cruise control with a lane tracing assistant which we're going to test a little bit later on

06:47to see how well that works and a 360 camera i'll show you what that looks like

06:51there it is there yeah quality is good just not stupidly good actually it's not too bad i mean you

06:57can kind of see what's going on there and there's your top down view as well

07:00not the worst but could be slightly better and this is what the horn sounds like

07:05now given it's a family car what is the practicality like and we'll start off with your

07:10connectivity so you've got usb c charging down the bottom here usb a and you've also got a 12 volt

07:16outlet as well a little trap door there for passing a cable through if you do want to sit a device up

07:21there while it's charging you've got wireless phone charging in the center here as well a bit of a weird

07:26location for it because it's on this tray that you then have to move out of the way to get access to

07:31the rest of the center console which is a little bit strange you've got storage at the bottom here

07:35some storage there some storage here as well look at that glove box pretty reasonably sized too and

07:40this center section is really deep as well so they've done a great job here in terms of giving

07:45you places to store things and even down here as well near the driver's knee you've got storage there

07:50too which is a pretty handy addition now comfort you've got three zones of climate control all automatic

07:56two for the front row one for your next row and also for for the rear row you've got heated and

08:02cooled seats for the front here as well and i'm pleased to say it was bloody hot the other day and

08:06i had the ac running in this and it was fantastic it did a really good job of cooling the cabin which

08:11is exactly what you want from a car like this in an australian summer so that's all good news now in

08:16terms of seat adjustment you've got electric adjustment for the driver and front passenger so

08:19you can go forwards backwards your backrest can go forwards and backwards you've got lumbar adjustment you

08:24can lift the front of the seat back of the seat and you've got seat memory as well

08:29steering offers both tilts and reach adjustment and on our reach test some of this stuff on the

08:34outer edge is a little bit hard to reach while you're driving including the volume knob which is

08:38all the way over on this side i think this is a hangover from this being a u.s market vehicle

08:43now second row have a look at this look how much room i've got heaps of knee room toe room is great

08:50headroom is reasonable uh thanks to this massive roof that has to open yeah there's plenty of space back

08:56here which makes it kind of ideal as a family car because you can just load the kids in and not

08:59stress too much about it that's where your third zone of climate is two usb-c ports down the bottom

09:05you've got window shades there got a center armrest here as well with a couple of cup holders there

09:11and you can recline the seats as well if you do want to which is pretty good so matte pockets too

09:16and what about our window test does it go all the way down so it's auto up and down

09:20look at that excellent now third row let's hop in there and see whether you can actually fit

09:27adults back there let's see how this works so you can basically slide that forward and then

09:33okay it takes a little bit of maneuvering now let's see what that's like

09:40okay so this is insanely far back i might actually just lift that up a bit but

09:48um so when it's in that position you know i was expecting it to be a little more cramped than it

09:53is here so knee room's not great but given that row slides forward you can afford yourself extra

09:58space if you need to toe room's fine headroom is pretty cramped but you do get your own air vents

10:02there cup holders as well so for a short distance this would be perfectly fine for adults for kids

10:07you wouldn't have any drivers at all so typically you don't really get a huge amount of room behind

10:13the third row in these sorts of vehicles let's see what it's like

10:16it's actually not too bad so you've got around 250 litres here a little bit of storage under there

10:23including storage for your cargo blind which is good then you can expand the space by dropping

10:29your third row out of the way once that is out of the way the space expands to around 550 litres

10:37i'll show you what it looks like with the bags in there there you go it's actually a pretty decent

10:42size space and if you want the ultimate space you can drop the second row as well and by doing that

10:48you afford yourself over a thousand litres of cargo space

10:51okay so we've just hit the road in the kluger now this has all changed so they used to offer a

10:59turbocharged petrol version of this and now it is hybrid only for australia so pretty simplified

11:05you've only got three specs effectively to choose from and you know you pick whichever one you can

11:11align to your budget i guess so here at the top spec over eighty thousand dollars you're talking about

11:17money where you know you're getting plug-in hybrid options from mazda you're getting six cylinder

11:23options from mazda as well so it is a big old stretch in terms of money but it is an efficient option

11:28so basically toyota uses an interesting drivetrain so under the bonnet you've got a 2.5 litre

11:33four-cylinder petrol engine and it pairs in this instance because it's all-wheel drive with three

11:39motor generators two of those live on the front axle one lives on the rear axle and they work in unison

11:44to basically pair with that internal combustion engine to give you extra torque as required so

11:50just on its own the internal combustion engine makes 142 kilowatts of power but when it pairs with

11:56the electric drivetrain we're talking almost 200 kilowatts of power and while torque is a little bit

12:01hard to describe in this situation because the peaks differ they do offer a rated torque output

12:07for the internal combustion engine of around 250 newton meters of torque importantly what does that

12:12feel like behind the wheel so you sink the boot in like it's not astronomical in terms of the

12:20acceleration it's not going to get you anywhere in like lightning pace but it gives you a gentle sort

12:25of push in the back and it does feel like it can keep up with traffic which is important if you've got

12:29this thing loaded with family you're going to be adding more and more weight to the to the whole

12:33combination now in terms of fuel economy toyota claims a combined average of under six litres per

12:38100ks we're sitting closer to the six and a half litres per 100k mark so close enough to what toyota

12:45says predominantly highway driving as well so it is pretty efficient once it's on the highway it's able

12:50to switch off on downhills and with this particular drivetrain as well it's able to effectively

12:55recharge the small battery that it has every single time you slow down and that's one of the big

13:00benefits here especially on a heavy vehicle as you slow down you're charging the battery and as you

13:05get to a lower speed you see the ev light flick on there because when you take off it actually takes

13:10off just using electric alone and then as you add a bit more throttle and speed increases it kicks

13:16the internal combustion engine on part of the reason that is such a fuel efficient way to do things is

13:20that that initial sort of push that you get off the line when the vehicle is stationary requires a lot

13:25of energy so if you're able to overcome that by using a small store of energy that you've regenerated

13:31when you brake means that you're kind of getting that free it does have a small weight penalty but

13:36that is how they're able to get such good fuel efficiency out of a vehicle that is as big as this is

13:40i'm talking about a car that is over just over two tons so pretty impressive figures there

13:44now let's talk about ride we've got our sine waves coming up here we attack these at 130ks an hour

13:51which is the maximum speed limit in australia and gives us a good idea of what body control is like

13:57especially when you're doing things like overtaking in the country what a country people are going to

14:02be buying these for family duties given there's lots of toyota dealers in the country so let's see

14:07how we go here oh that is that is very not good yeah it's way too soft uh you get the advantage in

14:17around the city of having a soft and comfortable ride but what you'll find is when you hit undulations

14:23like that out in the country it's going to feel like it just goes forever and ever and that's going

14:28to be amplified with more people in the vehicle as well so if you do have a full complement of

14:32passengers it'll really feel like it's lingering there a lot that's just not a comfortable uh way

14:37to drive uh so i think they probably do need to do a little bit of work there to to the i guess the

14:43suspension package to give it a bit more firmness and make it more comfortable this is an american

14:47market vehicle remember where they really do like the softer more comfortable ride as opposed to

14:52the sportier tune that we like in australia okay bumpy road time so we do this at 90 k's an hour

14:58this is representative of corrugations a terrible country road and this it actually soaks up quite

15:05nicely we'll see what it's like on our condensed sine wave here which kind of um replicates corrugations

15:10cars with quite soft suspension tend to float over these which isn't overly good for

15:16yeah i think it's not too bad the issue with um cars with super soft suspension over the corrugations

15:21is that any steering inputs just cause the car to float and become unnerving over that stuff whereas

15:28that didn't seem too terrible now let's look at drive modes you've got sport normal and economy

15:33whack it over to sport go for a drive around our track we test all cars back to back in the same way

15:38just to get a feel for what they're like when the speed picks up a little bit

15:43as expected this has a fair bit of body roll there

15:46but it sort of gets up and moves okay once you get on it um with the body roll it's quite predictable

15:56too so it's not really overly surprising in terms of what it's doing and it's happy to carry that

16:03little bit of pace when you need it to as well which is encouraging for things like overtaking you

16:08want to know that you have that torque available brakes feel reasonable as well they blend the

16:14the regen from the hybrid system quite nicely with those bumps mid-cornerer definitely not the

16:22kluger's best friend but yeah look it's blending the brakes there pretty nicely

16:27it all sort of feels uh pretty straightforward so yeah look it's not gonna win any sports car awards but

16:33it's sort of competent enough if you do need to get on the throttle a little bit

16:38let's talk road noise uh they've actually done a decent job with road noise uh spent a bit of time

16:44in this car now especially highway driving and i found that even on coarse chip surfaces it's really

16:48not too intrusive within the cabin so that's a good thing this is how it went up against our

16:54calibrated sound meter if you do want to see how this car compares to other cars that we've tested

16:58before there's a link in the description below that you can follow

17:00so visibility what is it like i can see clearly down the front of the car there

17:05decent size wing mirrors as well and visibility out the back is pretty good that's despite the

17:10third row being up i can still sort of quite clearly see out there so um on that front it's

17:14good and decent reverse view camera too now towing capacity probably not going to be towing much but

17:19if you do want to you've got a 2,000 kilo brake towing capacity okay time to do a little bit of

17:24lane support testing so i'm going to set it to 70ks an hour we're going to use our three outer lanes

17:30here just to see how well it holds itself within the lane okay so first lane doing a reasonable job

17:37there we look pretty central to that lane all right jump over one

17:41wait for that to activate

17:45yeah sort of slowly moving its way down to that uh lane marker but then it corrects itself back into

17:55the center so it's not too bad all right we'll try out at a most lane this is the hardest one for it

18:01to actually achieve its goal in so we'll see how this goes and it's active

18:09no it doesn't want to hold it there so yeah it's just unwilling to provide enough steering torque to

18:14hold it in that position okay time to do a little bit of performance testing so we're going to go

18:19zero all the way through to 120 and that'll give us zero to 100 and also our 80 to 120 overtaking time

18:26as well so i'll pop that into sport mode switch traction control oh okay and let's see how we go

18:33a little bit of wheel slip off the line okay 80 90 100 and 120 all right took a while to get there

18:57let's see how that looks okie dokie so zero to 100 9.93 seconds that is pretty leisurely 80 to 120

19:077.03 yeah not great either i mean yeah almost 10 seconds to 100 k's an hour with just me in the car

19:15imagine what it'd be like if we you know loaded this up with passengers and all the cargo and stuff

19:21it'd probably uh take a lot longer than that so yeah a bit surprised by i thought it'd be a little

19:26a little bit quicker all right let's do a stop from 100 to see what the brake and tire package is like

19:34all right here we go

19:42let's see how that went so 100 to zero not very good 3.17 seconds 43.71 meters that is a fair old

19:52stopping distance um yeah that could be much better look it is hot today it's 34 degrees outside at

19:58the moment so that is going to sort of affect the way that it can it can sort of pull up but

20:03yeah for a family suv you really want to be pulling up much quicker than that i think the sorento did

20:08like 35 meters so to think that a sorento will stop eight meters short of this is yeah it's interesting um

20:16okay so how quick does it go in reverse let's see if it can redeem itself here we go

20:24all right so

20:2653 kilometers an hour okay so toyota kluger what do we reckon um look it's a lot of money 80 odd grand

20:34i just think is a heap of coin but when you look at the interior it's actually quite a nice place to

20:39be seated i think the hybrid system could do with a bit of punch i'd love to see the uh the drivetrain out

20:44of the lexus rx in this that's got a really punchy turbocharged engine coupled with the hybrid system

20:50i reckon that'd go all right so uh but look if you look at your alternatives for about 80 grand you're

20:55getting into the territory of prado everest all those sort of ute based uh four-wheel drives all

21:00those sort of more hardcore off-road four-wheel drives and if you don't need that this is giving

21:04you just as much room inside and a fairly sort of economical drive train as well so let me know

21:10what you reckon in the comments section below is it too expensive what have you looked at instead of

21:14this i'm keen to see what you think if you did enjoy this video please make sure you like it

21:18and you share it with your mates and if you haven't done so already subscribe to the channel and press

21:22the bell icon button until next time take it easy

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