For years, Toyota entered the three-row SUV arena with the Highlander, a vehicle often considered undersized compared to its rivals. However, the game has changed with the introduction of the all-new 2024 Toyota Grand Highlander, designed for those seeking a larger SUV experience. In this head-to-head comparison, we pit the Grand Highlander against a key competitor, the 2024 Honda Pilot, to determine if Toyota’s newcomer can truly claim segment leadership. We’ll evaluate these two popular crossovers across eight critical categories to crown an overall champion and help you decide which SUV best fits your needs.
Pricing and Features
The Toyota Highlander, even in its standard form, tends to be positioned at a higher price point within the three-row crossover segment. The Grand Highlander elevates this further, starting at a considerable $43,070. This contrasts sharply with the Honda Pilot, which begins at a more accessible $37,090.
This price difference is partly explained by Toyota’s strategy of offering the base LE trim for the standard Highlander but positioning the Grand Highlander’s entry point at the mid-range XLE level. The Grand Highlander XLE comes generously equipped with features like heated leatherette front seats, a power liftgate, rear sunshades, push-button start, and blind-spot monitoring. This specification aligns closely with the Honda Pilot EX-L, priced at $42,400. However, even when comparably equipped, the Honda maintains a price advantage, while also offering the option to save further by opting for lower trims with fewer frills.
Winner: Honda Pilot
Exterior Design
Despite sharing the “Highlander” name, the Grand Highlander diverges significantly in design from the standard Toyota Highlander. Instead, it adopts a more boxy silhouette reminiscent of the smaller Toyota RAV4. The Grand Highlander’s crisp, straight lines lend it a handsome, more traditional SUV aesthetic compared to the sleeker Highlander. While some may desire more elaborate design elements or find the high, narrow headlights and prominent dual grille less appealing, its upright stance is undeniably assertive.
The Honda Pilot, freshly redesigned the previous year, also embraces a more upright SUV design language. Honda opted for a vertical front fascia and a boxy roofline for their three-row crossover. Our test vehicle, the off-road-oriented Trailsport, amplified these SUV cues further. Honda injects more visual interest into the Pilot with sharply angled windows, pronounced fenders and bumpers, and unique Trailsport styling touches. However, aside from its striking front end, the Pilot’s overall form remains more rounded compared to the Grand Highlander’s sharper edges. Ultimately, exterior design preference is subjective.
Winner: Tie
Interior Design
The Honda Pilot’s interior showcases Honda’s contemporary minimalist dashboard design. It features a clean, horizontal layout with a prominent infotainment touchscreen, seamlessly integrated climate vents, and user-friendly climate controls below. While the vents aren’t concealed within a honeycomb strip as seen in some other Honda models, the design is still sophisticated. The Pilot’s interior exudes an upscale feel without being ostentatious, and it conveys a sense of robustness arguably exceeding that of the Grand Highlander. The controls are intuitively arranged and easy to operate. However, our test Pilot featured a modest 9-inch infotainment screen, and base models come with an even smaller 7-inch display.
In contrast, the Grand Highlander’s dashboard is designed around a large 12.3-inch touchscreen, standard across all trim levels. Toyota complements this with straightforward physical controls and, particularly in our top-tier Platinum test vehicle, luxurious upholstery on the seats and dashboard. While we favor Honda’s infotainment system over Toyota’s – finding Toyota’s system less efficient in utilizing its screen real estate and requiring more menu navigation – the Grand Highlander’s larger standard screen is undeniably appealing, especially for tech-savvy buyers who might find a base Pilot’s smaller screen inadequate. Considering these trade-offs, we’ll call this category a tie overall.
Winner: Tie
Passenger Accommodations
Both the Pilot and Grand Highlander offer seating for up to eight passengers across three rows (or seven with optional second-row captain’s chairs). However, the Honda Pilot takes the lead in overall passenger space and versatility.
Firstly, while both SUVs can accommodate adults in their third rows, the Pilot provides easier access and slightly more legroom in the rearmost seats. Secondly, higher Pilot trim levels offer a clever removable center seat in the second row. This innovative feature allows you to switch between captain’s chairs for easier access or a bench seat to accommodate an eighth passenger as needed. While the Grand Highlander offers premium amenities like ventilated front seats, heated second-row seats, and a heated steering wheel at a lower price point than the Pilot, and uniquely offers ventilated second-row seats, the Pilot’s superior passenger space and flexibility are more practically valuable in a large family vehicle.
Winner: Honda Pilot
Cargo Accommodations
As expected of a three-row crossover SUV, the 2024 Honda Pilot provides a generous cargo area. It offers 18.6 cubic feet of space behind the third-row seat, expanding to 48.5 cubic feet with the third row folded, and a maximum of 87.0 cubic feet with both rear rows folded.
However, the 2024 Toyota Grand Highlander surpasses the Pilot in cargo capacity, offering even more room: 20.6 cubic feet behind the third row, 57.9 cubic feet behind the second row, and a substantial 97.5 cubic feet with both rear rows down. The Grand Highlander’s cargo area is also praised for its boxy, regular shape, maximizing usable space. While we found the Toyota’s second-row folding mechanism a bit cumbersome, the sheer volume of the cargo hold, once accessed, is undeniably impressive. Both SUVs share a towing capacity of up to 5,000 pounds.
Winner: Toyota Grand Highlander
Ride and Handling
In terms of ride and handling, both the Pilot and Grand Highlander perform as expected for large three-row crossover SUVs. They both deliver smooth, comfortable rides and are easy to maneuver, though not particularly agile. However, we give a slight edge to the Honda Pilot in this category.
While the previous Pilot generation felt somewhat disconnected from the road, the new generation exhibits improved steering feel, body control, and braking. It inspires greater driver confidence without compromising ride comfort. Furthermore, Honda has enhanced the Pilot’s off-road capability with the Trailsport trim. The Grand Highlander offers similar characteristics (albeit with less off-road emphasis) but doesn’t quite match the Pilot’s overall cohesiveness. The Honda feels more like a well-sorted large car, while the Toyota feels more like a large box on wheels. This is a subtle distinction that not everyone will perceive, but from the driver’s seat, the Pilot is our preferred choice.
Winner: Honda Pilot
Acceleration
As many crossovers transition towards turbocharged four-cylinder engines, hybrid powertrains, or full electrification, the Pilot stands out with an anachronistic 3.5-liter naturally aspirated 285-horsepower V6 engine. Remarkably, this is a newly engineered engine at a time when many automakers are reducing investment in gasoline powertrain development. This V6 gives the Pilot a richer, more resonant engine note compared to four-cylinder rivals, including the Grand Highlander.
Toyota offers three four-cylinder-based powertrain options for the Grand Highlander: a 265-hp 2.4-liter turbo (which replaced the standard Highlander’s V6), a 243-hp hybrid powertrain (shared with the standard Highlander), and a 362-hp Hybrid Max (borrowed from high-end Lexus RX models). The Grand Highlander Hybrid Max delivers more power than the Pilot, but it also comes at a significantly higher price. The most affordable Hybrid Max, the Limited model priced at $54,060, is already considerably more expensive than the top-spec Pilot Elite. In the core model range, the Pilot’s V6 engine is smoother, quieter, and quicker than the Grand Highlander’s more accessible powertrains. While the Toyotas aren’t slow, the Honda delivers performance with less perceived effort.
Winner: Honda Pilot
Fuel Efficiency
A V6 engine is not typically associated with optimal fuel economy, and unsurprisingly, the Grand Highlander emerges as the fuel efficiency leader, especially in its hybrid configurations.
EPA testing rates front-wheel-drive Pilots at 19 mpg city, 27 mpg highway, and 22 mpg combined, with most all-wheel-drive models achieving approximately 1 mpg less. The AWD-only TrailSport, like our test vehicle, achieves 18 mpg city, 23 mpg highway, and 20 mpg combined, and we observed an average of 22 mpg during our week-long test. This fuel economy is typical for a three-row crossover. The Grand Highlander’s base turbo engine, in contrast, is rated at an impressive 21 mpg city, 28 mpg highway, and 24 mpg combined with front-wheel drive, and 1 to 2 mpg lower with AWD (depending on trim). The front-drive hybrid variant achieves an outstanding 37 mpg city, 34 mpg highway, and 36 mpg combined, with AWD reducing these figures by about 2 mpg. The AWD-only 362-hp Hybrid Max manages 26 mpg city and 27 mpg highway, while our test vehicle even surpassed these figures, averaging 28 mpg.
Winner: Toyota Grand Highlander
Fuel economy sticker on the window of a Toyota Grand Highlander.
Final Thoughts
We appreciate the driving experience offered by the latest Honda Pilot. We commend its refined, sonorous V6 engine, its comfortable yet reasonably agile handling, its well-finished and ergonomically designed interior, and its spacious and versatile passenger cabin. Considering these strengths, and its lower price point compared to the Grand Highlander, the Pilot presents a compelling package.
However, our overall pick is the Toyota Grand Highlander. We believe that many families will willingly invest a bit more and accept slightly less spirited acceleration in exchange for significantly more cargo capacity and potentially substantial fuel savings – up to 12 mpg in certain configurations. While we wish the Grand Highlander’s seats folded more effortlessly, and we feel Honda should equip their $40,000+ SUVs with larger than 7-inch touchscreens as standard, the Toyota ultimately triumphs in key areas that are paramount for many SUV buyers.
While the Pilot may appeal to those prioritizing driving dynamics, design flair, and clever passenger solutions, the Toyota Grand Highlander secures the win by excelling in crucial aspects like cargo room and fuel efficiency, making it the more practical and ultimately more compelling choice for a broader range of families.
Winner: Toyota Grand Highlander
