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These eight Toyota Highlander alternatives match its family-friendly three-row space while offering different strengths in price, power, comfort, technology and off-road capability
Toyota $TM just made its best-selling three-row SUV pricier and, in one important way, smaller. The 2026 Highlander drops the front-wheel-drive base trim that used to anchor its lineup, so every version now comes standard with all-wheel drive, and a starting price that lands above $46,000 before options. The third row hasn't grown to match. Toyota's own spec sheet lists just 28 inches of third-row legroom, tighter than what shoppers get in the Chevrolet Traverse or Honda $HMC Pilot. For a vehicle built around hauling a full house of passengers, that's a real trade-off, and it's sending buyers to cross-shop the rest of the segment before they sign anything.
The three-row midsize SUV class the Highlander competes in has gone through a wave of redesigns over the past two years. Kia rebuilt the Telluride from the ground up. Hyundai stretched the Palisade's wheelbase and gave it a hybrid powertrain for the first time. Subaru grew the Ascent into the biggest SUV the brand has ever sold. Each of those changes shifts the math on price, cabin space, fuel economy and towing in ways that can make a rival a better fit than the Highlander for a specific household, even if the Toyota name is the one buyers think of first among Toyota Highlander alternatives.
