2026 Toyota Highlander
The 2026 Toyota Highlander is sold in the U.S. as a hybrid and gas large SUV with 3 EPA-rated configurations. The most efficient version, the Highlander Hybrid AWD, is EPA-rated at 35 mpg combined. NHTSA lists no recall campaigns for this model year so far (Safety Signal A). Owners have filed 4 complaints, most often about the back over prevention. NHTSA crash-tested it at 5 stars overall. Manufacturer pricing runs from $45,570 to $54,975 across 7 trims.
| Trim | Powertrain | Drive | MSRP | HP | Torque | MPG comb | Seats | Cargo (2nd row) | Wheels |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| XLE | Gas | AWD | $45,570 | 265 hp | 310 lb-ft | 24 mpg | 7 | 48.4 cu-ft | 18 in |
| XSE | Gas | AWD | $47,640 | 265 hp | 310 lb-ft | 24 mpg | 7 | 48.4 cu-ft | 20 in |
| Limited | Gas | AWD | $50,025 | 265 hp | 310 lb-ft | 24 mpg | 7 | 48.4 cu-ft | 20 in |
| Platinum | Gas | AWD | $53,225 | 265 hp | 310 lb-ft | 24 mpg | 7 | 48.4 cu-ft | 20 in |
| XLE Hybrid | Hybrid | AWD | $47,320 | 243 hp | 175 lb-ft | 35 mpg | 7 | 48.4 cu-ft | 18 in |
| Limited Hybrid | Hybrid | AWD | $51,775 | 243 hp | 175 lb-ft | 35 mpg | 7 | 48.4 cu-ft | 20 in |
| Platinum Hybrid | Hybrid | AWD | $54,975 | 243 hp | 175 lb-ft | 35 mpg | 7 | 48.4 cu-ft | 20 in |
MSRP excludes destination. Open a trim for the complete spec sheet and standard/optional equipment. Have the car in front of you? Decode its VIN to see which of these trims it is and what it was priced at.
Specs & fuel economy
Source: EPA fueleconomy.gov| Configuration | Powertrain | Drive | Engine / motor | City | Hwy | Comb | Annual fuel* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Highlander Hybrid AWD | Hybrid | AWD | 2.5L 4-cyl | 35 | 35 | 35 | $1,900 |
| Highlander Hybrid AWD LTD/PLAT | Hybrid | AWD | 2.5L 4-cyl | 35 | 34 | 35 | $1,900 |
| Highlander AWD | Gas | AWD | 2.4L 4-cyl turbo | 21 | 28 | 24 | $2,800 |
*EPA estimate at 15,000 miles/year at EPA reference fuel and electricity prices. fueleconomy.gov record ids: 50181, 50180, 50132.
The cheapest ownership win
Insurers price the 2026 Highlander very differently, and the gap between the best and worst quote on the same car and driver is usually larger than any option you are weighing on this page.
How to compare cover →Affiliate disclosure: some links on this page are affiliate links. If you request a quote or buy through them we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Nothing on this page changes because of it.
Recalls (0)
Source: NHTSA recall databaseNo NHTSA recall campaigns are on file for the 2026 Toyota Highlander. New campaigns appear here within a week of NHTSA posting them.
These are vehicle campaigns — the ones the automaker filed against this model. NHTSA also records equipment recalls, filed by a parts maker against a component (a tyre, a child seat, an aftermarket part), and those are not listed here or counted above. nhtsa.gov/recalls shows both for a VIN.
Hear about a recall before the letter does
The manufacturer’s letter is the last step of a recall: it has up to 60 days after filing to mail owners, at the address on the registration. We email you the day NHTSA posts a recall on the 2026 Toyota Highlander, with what to do next. Nothing else, ever — no newsletter, no marketing, one-click unsubscribe in every message.
Parts & accessories for the 2026 Toyota Highlander
Search by fitment on eBay Motors — OEM take-offs, aftermarket, and the trim pieces dealers no longer stock. The listing and the price are the seller's.
Find parts for this Highlander →Owner complaints
Source: NHTSA complaint database0 involved a crash · 0 a fire · 0 injuries · 0 deaths reported
1.4 per 10,000 built · Toyota reported 29,056 Highlander built (its Early Warning production report to NHTSA)
Filed per year: 2026: 4
Most-cited components
In owners' own words
Filed with NHTSA by the people who own these cars, one per problem area. Quoted as written, with anything identifying removed.
The foam seat cushion has failed on my 2026 Highlander. The seat causes me to sit canted towards the driver's door. The vehicle only has 11,000 mi on it and although Toyota has denied my claim to get it repaired, their service director today acknowledged that there was undue wear and tear on the seat foam.
The vehicle has a strong gas smell especially after using the car and coming to a complete stop. The gas smell comes from the gas tank. Tried putting less gas and still the problem persists
I own a 2026 Toyota Highlander Hybrid Platinum purchased new. The vehicle has repeatedly exhibited hesitation, shuddering, jerking, and abnormal vibration during acceleration from a stop and the transition from electric propulsion to the gasoline engine.
The rear back up camera is grainy the blue lines are digitized and shaky during the day everything is very blurry during the night you cannot see anything really the quality is extremely poor There are also no dynamic turning lines at all and the camera settings buttons are not present
Complaint counts are raw owner reports to NHTSA, not verified defects, and scale with how many were sold. Use them to spot patterns, not to rank.
Crash ratings
Source: NHTSA NCAP| Configuration | Overall | Frontal | Side | Rollover | Rollover risk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SUV AWD | ★★★★★ | ★★★★☆ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★☆ | 16% |
| SUV AWD | ★★★★★ | ★★★★☆ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★☆ | 16% |
NHTSA New Car Assessment Program. Standard driver-assist: forward collision warning, lane departure warning, automatic emergency braking.
Service bulletins & campaigns
Source: NHTSA manufacturer communicationsMost often about: Unknown Or Other, Wheels, Structure.
- T-SB-0003-26 Rev1 Service bulletin2026-06-25 · Unknown Or Other
- 2026 model year Toyota vehicles are equipped with driver side floor mat retainers to secure the floor mat in the correct position. In addition, some models may also utilize retainers for passenger side and rear seat floor mats. During Pre-Delivery Service (PDS), follow the appropriate Installation Procedure to attach the driver side, and if applicable, the passenger side and rear seatfloor mats to
- T-SB-0040-24 Rev1 Service bulletin2026-06-25 · Structure — Body
- Some 2020 – 2026 model year Highlander and Highlander Hybrid vehicles may exhibit a water leak from the roof rack attachment clips. This may be caused by the sealant in the roof channel obstructing the proper seating position for the clip gasket.
- T-SB-0004-26 Rev1 Service bulletin2026-06-18 · Unknown Or Other
- During the manufacturing process, tires are mounted on the vehicle as matched sets to help reduce conditions such as pulling or drifting. If the wheels are replaced or refinished before vehicle delivery, it is important that the tires remain on the vehicle in the same location and in the same direction of rotation.
- T-SB-0005-26 Rev1 Service bulletin2026-06-10 · Unknown Or Other
- A battery in a stored vehicle is subject to conditions that can reduce its performance and service life. These conditions include storage period, temperature, parasitic drain, and battery load. Because of these factors, battery inspection and maintenance are required in order to ensure proper operation and optimal battery life.
- T-SB-0002-26 Rev1 Service bulletin2026-06-10 · Unknown Or Other
- Long-term or off-site storage requires special care to maintain vehicle condition. The following guidelines should be performed to minimize vehicle component/part degradation due to extendedvehicle storage conditions. Long-term storage can affect a vehicle’s systems and components. Any problems that are found should be corrected immediately.
- T-SB-0017-25 Rev2 Service bulletin2026-02-12 · Unknown Or Other
- OBSOLETE NOTICE February 12, 2026: This bulletin is now obsolete. Please see T-SB-0005-26.
- T-SB-0005-26 Service bulletin2026-02-06 · Unknown Or Other
- A battery in a stored vehicle is subject to conditions that can reduce its performance and service life. These conditions include storage period, temperature, parasitic drain, and battery load. Because of these factors, battery inspection and maintenance are required in order to ensure proper operation and optimal battery life.
- T-SB-0005-25 Rev2 Service bulletin2026-02-06 · Unknown Or Other
- OBSOLETE NOTICE February 6, 2026: This bulletin is now obsolete. Please see L-SB-0009-25.
A service bulletin is the manufacturer telling its dealers how to diagnose or repair a known condition. It is not a recall, not a finding that the vehicle is defective, and the work is not automatically free — though a bulletin is often what a dealer works from when you describe a symptom, so quoting the document number can save a diagnosis. The count is every communication filed; the list shows the most recent, one entry per campaign, because a single campaign is usually filed as several documents on the same day. The summaries are NHTSA's; the full documents come from the manufacturer.
Compare the 2026 Highlander with
Any vehicle, your weights →| Head-to-head | Verdict | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 Jeep Wagoneer · Large SUV · grade B | Wagoneer +16.9 | |
| 2026 Jeep Grand Cherokee · Large SUV · grade D | Highlander +43.8 | |
| 2026 Ford Explorer · Large SUV · grade F | Highlander +16.3 | |
| 2026 Honda Pilot · Large SUV · grade A | Toss-up | |
| 2026 Hyundai Palisade · Large SUV · grade B | Palisade +4.4 | |
| 2026 Mazda CX-90 · Large SUV · grade A | Toss-up |
Highlander by model year
all years, side by side →Common questions about the 2026 Highlander
Source: EPA, NHTSA and manufacturer press kitsHow much does the 2026 Toyota Highlander cost?
Manufacturer pricing runs from $45,570 for the XLE AWD to $54,975 for the Platinum Hybrid AWD, across 7 trims. Those are MSRPs from the manufacturer's own press material; they exclude destination, options, taxes and whatever the dealer adds. Every trim and price is listed above.
Does the 2026 Toyota Highlander have any recalls?
No NHTSA recall campaigns are on file for the 2026 Toyota Highlander. New campaigns appear here within a week of NHTSA posting them, and a clean sheet on a recent model year often just means the vehicle is new.
How safe is the 2026 Toyota Highlander?
NHTSA gave the 2026 Toyota Highlander 5 stars overall in its New Car Assessment Program tests — 4-star frontal crash, 5-star side crash, 4-star rollover. WhichTrim also grades it A (100/100) on its recall record, which is a different question from crash protection.
What is the fuel economy of the 2026 Toyota Highlander?
Across the 3 EPA-rated configurations of the 2026 Toyota Highlander, the best EPA combined figure is 35 mpg. Figures are the EPA's own, per configuration, and every one is listed above.
What do owners complain about on the 2026 Toyota Highlander?
Owners have filed 4 complaints with NHTSA about the 2026 Toyota Highlander, most often about back over prevention, visibility/wiper, power train. Complaints are unverified owner reports, so treat the pattern as a signal and the individual report as an anecdote.
Are there service bulletins for the 2026 Toyota Highlander?
The manufacturer has filed 48 service bulletins and related communications with NHTSA for the 2026 Toyota Highlander, most often covering unknown or other, wheels, structure. The most recent is dated 2026-06-25. A bulletin is not a recall: it is the repair procedure a manufacturer sends its dealers for a condition it knows about, and the work is not automatically paid for. It is still worth knowing — if the symptom matches, quoting the bulletin number at the service desk can save a diagnosis. The document numbers and summaries are listed above.
Which 2026 Toyota Highlander trim is the best value?
$9,405 separates the cheapest of the 7 trims from the most expensive, so the answer depends on which of the differences you would actually use. Every trim has its own page here with the manufacturer's full specification and equipment list, plus a short summary of exactly what it adds over the base trim — worth reading before a dealer frames the walk-up for you. The trim-by-trim ladder shows what every step up costs and what it makes standard.
Is the 2026 Toyota Highlander better than the 2026 Jeep Wagoneer?
The Jeep Wagoneer wins clearly, 91.4 to 74.5, on fuel & range. The Toyota Highlander is ahead on safety. We publish a full side-by-side of the 2026 Toyota Highlander against the 2026 Jeep Wagoneer — specifications by family, equipment feature by feature, safety record and ownership costs. You can re-weight what matters to you and the verdict recalculates.
What we hold, and what an empty row means
Paid vehicle-history reports will not tell you the difference between “nothing happened to this car” and “we never received that record” — both of the big two say as much in their own help pages. Most of what is on this page comes from complete federal registers, so we can tell you which is which, row by row.
| Data | Held | Source | What it covers — or what empty means |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fuel economy & configurations | 3 configurations | EPA certification records | Every configuration the EPA certified for sale, with its own test figures. |
| Emission certificates | none | EPA emission certificates | The EPA published no certificate we could match to a configuration on this page. |
| Recalls | none | NHTSA recall campaigns | No campaign has been filed. Because the register is complete, an empty row here means there is nothing to find — not that we are missing it. |
| Owner complaints | 4 | NHTSA complaint database | Also complete, but unverified: these are reports owners filed, not findings. Counts scale with how many were sold. |
| Crash ratings | 2 tested | NHTSA NCAP | Only the configurations NHTSA chose to crash-test, which is never all of them. |
| Service bulletins | 48 | NHTSA manufacturer communications | Everything the manufacturer told its dealers about a defect or malfunction, short of a recall. |
| Investigations | none | NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation | No defect investigation has been opened. |
| Driver-assist crash reports | none | NHTSA Standing General Order 2021-01 | No report has been filed. Only entities named in the order report, and only crashes they hear of — so this is also what an unequipped car, or a manufacturer without telematics, looks like. |
| Specifications filed with NHTSA | none | NHTSA vPIC, decoded from VIN patterns | We had no VIN pattern to decode for this model year, or the manufacturer filed nothing usable. |
| Trims, pricing & equipment | 7 trims | Manufacturer press kit | Transcribed from the manufacturer's own press material, every value carrying the document it came from. |
Rebuilt nightly; this page was generated 2026-10-26. Every figure above is traceable to the source named beside it, and the JSON for this page carries the same values with their identifiers.
Sources & method
Safety Signal starts every model-year at 100 and subtracts points per open NHTSA recall campaign by severity: critical 15 (fire risk, park-outside or do-not-drive advisories), high 8 (brakes, steering, airbags, loss of drive power, structure, battery), moderate 6, minor 3 (software, labels, lighting fixed by an update). The most serious recall counts in full and each further one counts 85% of the one before, because a vehicle sold in millions is recalled more often than a rare one without being more dangerous — and because a flat subtraction bottomed the scale out, scoring a vehicle with 22 recalls within a point of one with six. A ≥ 90, B ≥ 80, C ≥ 70, D ≥ 60, otherwise F. Read it as what it counts: recall campaigns on the federal record, weighted by severity. The damping reduces the sales bias by roughly 40% but does not remove it: like our complaint counts, this is not normalized by how many were sold, so a best-seller still scores somewhat worse than an obscure model with the same real risk. NHTSA crash ratings, do-not-drive and park-outside advisories, and the crash, fire, injury and death counts in owner complaints are reported separately on every page and never blended into the letter — a vehicle can hold five stars and a poor letter at once, and where that happens we say so rather than leave you to notice. Because the scale subtracts from a clean sheet, a model year too new to have been recalled, complained about or bulletined scores full marks on an empty record; we label those grades provisional rather than present them as earned.
EPA figures come from fueleconomy.gov vehicle records. Recalls, complaints, investigations and crash ratings come from NHTSA's public flat files, refreshed nightly. Trim-level specifications and pricing are transcribed from the manufacturer's official press kit; every value carries its source in the data file.