2017 Toyota Highlander SE AWD First Test

Toyota hopes the revised 2017 Highlander, which in 2016 was sandwiched between the best-selling so-called midsize three-row Ford Explorer and third-place Honda Pilot, can regain traction from its best-selling year in 2015. All Highlanders gets butched-up exterior styling and a suite of standard safety features, including forward collision and pedestrian pre-collision systems with auto brake, lane departure alert/correction, dynamic radar-based cruise control, and auto high-beams. V-6-powered models co-opt the company’s 2GR-FKS engine with automatic start/stop and the eight-speed automatic transmission from the Lexus RX 350. They’ve also added an upper-tweener sporty SE trim that mirrors most of the XLE trim features but with sport-themed suspension, wheels, and styling. Did all this work pay off? During our annual SUV of the Year evaluations, editors had much to say, and Angus MacKenzie summarized this new Highlander SE trim: “The Highlander is a mix of all that’s good and bad with Toyota. Underneath a restyled body, which is one of Toyota’s better recent efforts, is a platform that’s old and a ride/handling compromise that’s been dulled to the point of lethargy.” The Highlander SE was particularly at odds with itself on the faithfully reproduced California State Route 110 section of our assessments, where Frank Markus remarked that it was “even jiggling my face.”

Sporty in Appearance

This criticism is due to the SE’s suspension tuning, which feels like the all-spring, no-damper choice we’ve witnessed in other sporty Toyota/Lexus products. On the best of roads, it feels connected and sure-footed, but bend it into a bumpy corner, and the Highlander leans, and its wheels can’t seem to follow the contours of the pavement without a jiggling/squealing protest. What we assumed would be a measurable and subjective handling improvement was neither. On our skidpad and figure-eight tests, the new-for-2017 SE failed to produce better results compared to a 2015 Highlander LE V-6. The SE gripped the pavement with 0.77 g in lateral acceleration where the LE showed 0.79 g. The SE’s 27.6-second figure-eight lap dramatically lagged behind the LE’s 25.8 seconds. Against the competition, the Highlander SE also trails the 2016 Ford Explorer Limited AWD and Honda Pilot Elite we have tested. Combine these shortcomings with early-onset tire squeal and SE-tuned steering that feels unnecessarily heavy, and the Highlander SE is decidedly sporty in appearance alone.

Another demerit came at the expense of the new driveline. The new V-6 boasts more power (a gain of 25 horsepower and 15 lb-ft in torque), the eight-speed is said to provide better acceleration, and according to the EPA, the combo earns slightly better fuel economy. Our tests showed otherwise. In acceleration, the 2017 Highlander SE reached 60 mph in 7.2 seconds on the way to a 15.5-second quarter mile at 92.6 mph. The previous six-speed 2015 Highlander LE V6: 7.1 seconds to 60 and the quarter mile in 15.5 seconds at 91.2 mph. Our Real MPG lab had more bad news. The EPA tests report an improvement 2 mpg across the board, from 18/24/20 mpg city/highway/combined for 2016 to 20/26/22 for the 2017 Highlander V6 AWD. Our Highlander SE AWD results were well below these estimates at 15.8/23.9/18.6 mpg, respectively.

Wanting to feel the presumed improved response from the more powerful engine and more tightly geared transmission combination, we were disappointed to witness the throttle programming resist acceleration—and the transmission thwart downshifts—until the pedal was applied in earnest. Also, now given the choice of eight forward gears to choose from instead of six, the programming is determined to find the highest-numbered gear possible. On a steady uphill section of our test route, even with cruise control set to 60 mph, the Highlander shuffled gears up-down, up-down, refusing to maintain a single choice for more than a few seconds at a time.

Highway Comfort and Safety Systems

Using the billiard table–smooth four-lane oval at our host’s test facility, more than a few evaluators remarked at how tall the new transmission’s gearing proved to be. “When merging onto the oval, it was just topping out in third gear at 65-ish mph,” Christian Seabaugh said. “It’s almost like it’s geared like a four-speed and has then just been given a handful of extra cogs—just because.” Mark Rechtin concurred. “The gearing of this SUV is really tall, which can be OK if you’re in the sweet spot,” he said. “Third gear easily gets you to 80 mph, but second-gear passing from 45 to 80 is another matter altogether.” Out on the oval at speed, the ride was expectedly smooth, and wind and tire noise were kept hushed, but the matter of the new lane keeping warning and assistant drew ire. “There is a control for lane departure with steering assist, but it’s the drunken-sailor system that bounces off one lane marker then the other,” Markus said. It also makes an audible tone each time. “I much prefer the lane-centering idea.” We also had an opportunity to test the radar-based adaptive cruise control, which was very effective at maintaining a distance to the car in front regardless of set speed. However, on a real-world highway, the Highlander SE wasn’t equipped to maintain a set speed without a pace-setting car in front on a downhill section of highway, running well past the 60-mph set speed to more than 70 mph before we touched the brakes.

Playing in the Dirt

Our evaluations continued on a prepared off-road course, which consisted of gravel, silt, loose and packed dirt, dips and bumps, and slight sideways inclines. Here, the Highlander SE’s ample power, decent ground clearance, and relatively wide tires proved their merit. We were generally impressed with how well and how easily the crossover handled the novice course. “I’m pleasantly surprised by this thing,” Seabaugh said. “It feels impressively well-built. Solid. Off-road, it’s quite apparent that the Highlander comes from the same company that builds the Land Cruiser and Hilux. It doesn’t get bogged down by sand; it powered right through it. That being said, there was a significant amount of rattle from the second and third rows on the gravel road.” We can forgive the early-build prototype the rattles. However, we’re not certain why the driver-selected all-wheel-drive lock mechanism self-unselects at speeds above about 20 mph.

What Remains

The best part of the 2017 Highlander appears to be what was left unchanged: its remarkably well-considered interior packaging. Abundant headroom, legroom, shoulder room, and cargo room are complemented by numerous clever storage options, such as the uniquely useful door-to-door dash-mounted shelf and a sizeable center console that Rechtin reckoned “can fit a medium-size dog—much less your purse, or your dog inside your purse.” The sporty SE trim inside is a welcome upgrade with contrasting stitching on the leather seats, but the dour black/gray color palette won’t do it for everybody. Also, a Toyota Sienna minivan might also better serve those whose kiddos are still challenged by the Highlander’s rather tall second-row step-in height, yet this is a common sport-utility trait not unique to this Highlander. “The second-row seat cushions are low and offer little thigh support,” Markus, always good for in-depth second- and third-row reviews, said. “It offers abundant headroom, legroom, and foot room and good outward visibility. There is a flip-up center console with cupholders, but it is the shiniest cheapest-grained plastic I’ve seen this side of a bowling alley. There are plenty of conductivity options back here: red, white, and yellow video input jacks, a 110-volt plug, and two USB ports. Then there is an [optional] Blu-ray Disc and an SD card input on the overhead screen. The mechanical recline-and-slide second-row unit for third-row access works pretty well. The furthermost back seat is extremely low, forcing my knees up very high, and I must have the center second-row seat moved well forward on its track to accommodate me—this is a child seat. But at least each child gets an overhead air-conditioning vent. Oh, sorry, not the poor kid stuck in the middle. Yes, they expect three people to sit on this third-row bench.”

Conclusion

Those who already like the Highlander will love the new Highlander. Jason Cammisa uncharacteristically found the zeitgeist of the Highlander and is extremely confident that our nitpickiness was overwrought. “Wow, finally a handsome Toyota,” he said. “And although I know my opinion is going to be unpopular, I see many reasons why this Highlander will outsell many of its competitors and why more of those customers will love it more than any other: It nails its intended purpose. Everything about the powertrain oozes smoothness—this V-6 is absolutely imperceptible at idle and inaudible in normal driving. The transmission’s light throttle shifts are perfectly imperceptible, too. The car glides off the line as if were powered by an electric motor. The steering feels like it’s assisted with ball bearings, and no matter what you ask of it on the rough off-road course, the Highlander’s suspension refuses to make a harsh noise, slam into its bump stops, or lose composure. Instrumentation is clear, and the buttons that people who buy these kinds of cars use (i.e. not the stability-control-off stuff) are big, well-labeled, and easy to find. The second row is enormous, with my only complaint being that the seats are mounted so low to the floor. That said, there’s a space between the two captain’s chairs to walk into the third row. The materials in the back (with the exception of the flip-up tray between the seats) are nicer than any other SUV save a Mercedes. I don’t love the way the dash looks, but functionally, it’s brilliant with that shelf for phones and stuff. There’s no reason for the sunroof to have two buttons to control it, and the reach for the stereo tuning knob on the stereo is way too far. But that’s it. This is the kind of vehicle that Consumer Reports will love and that customers will buy over and again. And I see why. Would I buy one? Probably not, but there’s no SUV that I would. However, when someone asks me what the best two-kid-hauling everyday-driving midsize SUV is, my recommendation ain’t gonna be that four-cylinder Mazda. It’ll be this Toyota Highlander every time.”

High praise, indeed, from a typically critical reviewer, and depending on your priorities and values, the 2017 Toyota Highlander SE (or other trim with softer tuning), might just help Toyota sell more Highlanders in 2017. Time will tell.

2017 Toyota Highlander SE AWD
BASE PRICE	$40,000 (est)
PRICE AS TESTED	$42,000 (est)
VEHICLE LAYOUT	Front-engine, AWD, 7-pass, 4-door SUV
ENGINE	3.5L/295-hp/263-lb-ft Atkinson cycle DOHC 24-valve V-6
TRANSMISSION	8-speed automatic
CURB WEIGHT (F/R DIST)	4,551 lb (55/45%)
WHEELBASE	109.8 in
LENGTH x WIDTH x HEIGHT	192.5 x 75.8 x 68.1 in
0-60 MPH	7.2 sec
QUARTER MILE	15.5 sec @ 92.6 mph
BRAKING, 60-0 MPH	126 ft
LATERAL ACCELERATION	0.77 g (avg)
MT FIGURE EIGHT	27.6 sec @ 0.62 g (avg)
EPA CITY/HWY/COMB FUEL ECON	20/26/22 mpg
ENERGY CONS, CITY/HWY	169/130 kW-hrs/100 miles
CO2 EMISSIONS, COMB	0.87 lb/mile

The post 2017 Toyota Highlander SE AWD First Test appeared first on Motor Trend.

from Motor Trend http://ift.tt/2dAZsvR

Gorilla House: Smartphone Tech Will Lighten Your Greenhouse – Technologue

Gorilla Glass. It makes your smartphone screen scratch-resistant and tough, and now it’s being used in the Ford GT windshield and the BMW i8 bulkhead window. What is it, and what makes it different from the plain green stuff glazing other cars? To find out, I rang up Doug Harshbarger, Corning Automotive Glass Products’ business director, who explained that there are two big differences: chemistry and the manufacturing process.

Plain “soda-lime” glass is composed primarily of silicon dioxide. Gorilla Glass is a “technical glass,” an aluminosilicate formulation that includes aluminum, magnesium, and sodium. Plain green glass is typically formed by pulling a hot sheet of glass across a bed of molten tin. Liquid Gorilla Glass is poured into an elevated trough with a V-shaped bottom. It overflows this trough, flowing down both sides and fusing together as it leaves the point of the V. With nothing touching either surface, the optical purity exceeds that of float glass. Gorilla’s strength comes from then dipping the glass sheet in a 750-degree bath of molten potassium salt, where sodium ions flow out of the glass and get replaced by larger potassium ions. This size difference crowds the surface of the glass, creating surface compression that increases scratch and impact resistance.

Ironically, a similar formulation of technical glass got its start as Chemcor, a thinner, ultra-tough windshield glass Corning couldn’t sell. (American Motors’ 1970 AMX and Javelin were the only cars that used it.) It was shelved until Steve Jobs came shopping for a tough, thin smartphone/tablet glass in 2007. Now Gorilla Glass is attracting automakers on its weight-saving merits with the bonus that every lost pound lowers the center of gravity.

 A similar formulation was shelved until Steve Jobs came shopping for a touch, thin smartphone/tablet glass in 2007.

The BMW i8 and Ford GT bulkhead window applications both use two thin layers of Gorilla Glass sandwiching an acoustic-absorbing polyvinyl butyrate layer. But for most other applications an all-Gorilla solution is too thin to be structural, so Corning proposes laminating a thin weight-saving layer of Gorilla Glass to a thicker layer of soda-lime glass. It still ends up 40 percent lighter and two to three times tougher, structurally. And contrary to what you’d expect, the Gorilla Glass goes on the inside.

It’s more effective there because allowing some flex when an object impacts a windshield reduces damage, and the outer soda-lime layer is inherently more flexible. The inner layer of Gorilla Glass then acts like the steel reinforcement in concrete to limit this flex without breaking. Hence more objects are able to bounce off without pitting or cracking than would be the case with a thicker, more rigid windshield—even a structural thick/thin all-Gorilla one. Thinner glass naturally improves head-up display performance, reducing the amount of “wedge” required in the laminate layer to prevent image ghosting. It also defrosts more quickly, and so far Gorilla Glass is performing as well as or better than plain glass in crash testing. One complication for windshields and other glazing with compound curvatures: Whereas plain glass can be laminated and then formed to the desired shape, the Gorilla Glass must be shaped then chemically strengthened in the salt bath before being laminated. (Many side-glass applications use simple cylindrical curvature, to which treated flat sheets of Gorilla Glass can easily be laminated.)

What about cost? Harshbarger pegs Gorilla’s cost-per-pound-saved at $2-$4, similar to the aluminum-versus-steel cost penalty. But that’s for upgrading laminated plain glass to laminated Gorilla Glass. The penalty is greater if compared against simple, cheap, tempered side glass, but in that case Gorilla also delivers a sound-reduction bonus. Rear-seat riders, rejoice; this may be the only justification for fitting acoustic glass aft of the ears of the person making the payments.

Read more Technologue columns here:

• What I Learned at Valvoline’s Sesquicentennial
• Another Batter Swings at the Compression-Ignition Gas Engine
• What the Bentley Mulsanne and Acura NSX Have in Common
• Road Hard (If Not Put Down Wet): Rethinking Concrete Science

The post Gorilla House: Smartphone Tech Will Lighten Your Greenhouse – Technologue appeared first on Motor Trend.

from Motor Trend http://ift.tt/2dQjkiB

Calamity and All, The Show Must Go On: Reflecting on my First Year of Video

“I cannot believe you get paid to do this,” the police officer said, waving his hand through a cloud of smoke thick enough to obscure an entire block of million-dollar houses.

“I can’t believe you’re letting me do this,” I laughed right before I laid another couple hundred feet of black stripes so dark they’re visible from space.

This was a surreal experience, even for me, and it comes thanks to the miracle of making Ignition and Head 2 Head. See, when I create written reviews, I typically commit crimes against machines far away, in quiet corners of the Earth. In the story I casually neglect to include self-incriminating events such as: Our clinically insane photographer used bolt cutters to open a gate onto a military airfield and then talked me into doing a 100-mph drift down the runway for a picture. Even if that’s what actually happened.

I also once popped two tires in a Mazdaspeed3 on a particularly hard landing while drift-jumping it off a sidewalk—at the request of the same photographer, of course. All remaining photos were static, the car leveled using a scissor jack that he simply Photoshopped out. No one ever knew. Well, except Mazda. Sorry, Mazda.

When you’re creating a video, there’s no Photoshop to fix damage after the fact. And you can’t do horrible things guerrilla-style on someone else’s property because you typically need to do everything a dozen times until the car is in exactly the spot where the cameras are focused. Except even then, something else ruins the shot, like a spider running across the lens, the camera freezing up, or an elderly squirrel farting in the background that messes up the sound. So when we’re making videos, we obtain permission, close roads, and take our time. That’s how I wound up nearly asphyxiating a smiling police officer with Pilot Sport-branded tear gas.

I’ve done more damage to cars in the past year making videos than in a decade writing for print. Forgive us.

Getting permission keeps you out of jail, but it does nothing when you really mess the car up. Like, for example, grazing a tire wall with the back of a Ford Mustang Shelby GT350 on the first of three days of filming. The show must go on, I explained that midnight to the visibly irritated casino security guards who wondered aloud what I was doing in their parking lot with a 100-foot-long extension cord hooked to the strongest paint buffer I could find at Pep Boys, using the gnarliest rubbing compound 3M makes to grind off the nastiest skid marks you’ve ever seen down the side of a Mustang. It’s a shame Pep Boys doesn’t carry orange touchup paint.

Not that touchup paint would have helped during the off-roading episode where we nearly destroyed two $200,000 trucks before a single camera had been turned on. Jonny forgot to lock the front hubs and drove his unintentionally two-wheel-drive ICON FJ right out of the parking lot and into 3 feet of mud, getting stuck immediately and filling the pristine interior (which was scheduled to accompany the rest of the pristine truck into a museum two days later) with enough mud to drop the ride height a full inch.

Several muddy minutes later, I pulled the FJ out using a tow rope and a V-12-powered Mercedes Geländewagen then parked the G atop a small rock in a smug demonstration of its unstoppability and indestructibility. Gravity must have been particularly strong that day because the Benz’s tire slid right off the rock, smashing a very expensive heat exchanger and putting a distinct diagonal bend on the bumper.

We did what we had to do: unpacked the cameras and recreated the whole disaster for film. Which became even more fun when the FJ’s transmission selector cable melted and I had to start it using a highly conductive machete to short the positive battery lead to the starter solenoid.

From neighborhood burnouts to smashed bumpers, I’ve done more damage to cars in the last year of making videos than I have in the preceding decade writing reviews for print and web. So although I am asking you to watch our videos (Ignition here, Head 2 Head here), I’m also asking for forgiveness if you occasionally notice some damage. If you’re nice, maybe one day we’ll even show you the blooper reel.

The post Calamity and All, The Show Must Go On: Reflecting on my First Year of Video appeared first on Motor Trend.

from Motor Trend http://ift.tt/2dhBmeR

Alternate Reality: What If Ford Had Bought Ferrari? – The Big Picture

Humanizing Cars to Make Them Ride and Handle Better – Technologue

Mazda always talks about developing vehicles with Jinba Ittai—“horse and rider as one.” Recently the company disclosed that it accomplishes this in part by studying the way humans move and engineering vehicles that mimic or facilitate such movements. Two terms that emerged from this research caught my ear: minimum jerk theory and equilibrioception. “Jerk” is the rate of change of acceleration, and apparently when we move objects or ourselves, we naturally minimize jerk. Equilibrioception is our ability to experience and maintain physical balance, which we endeavor to do while holding our heads upright.

When we walk or run, our view of the world is smooth and level, meaning our brains steady cam out the sinusoidal up-and-down and side-to-side motions our heads go through. Mazda found that many cars lauded for their smooth ride (such as E36 and E39 vintage BMWs) feature suspensions that allow very similar vertical motions, damped so as to transmit minimal jerk, with the front and rear generally moving in unison with no front/rear pitching motions. Our internal steady cams may well improve our perceptions of cars that move like this.

Achieving and maintaining equilibrioception when belted into a moving car primarily requires neck muscle exertion to resist the various g forces trying to sway our heads. By placing electrodes on driver and passenger necks and measuring the voltage potential across these muscles, Mazda has been able to plot electromyographs of the neck muscle effort expended during various vehicle maneuvers. An interesting discovery in this research: When the brain anticipates an impending g force before the neck feels it, the neck-muscle effort ramps up more gradually with less jerk and hence greater comfort. Drivers innately anticipate the reactions to their own control inputs, but a way to trigger this perception in passengers, too, is to design the chassis to induce some early “diagonal roll.” Then, when passengers see the outboard corner of the hood dip a split second before the g-forces hit, their necks can prepare.

Don’t be surprised if GVC so endears you to your Mazda that you anthropomorphize it.

The Skyactiv Vehicle Dynamics systems that are just rolling out are informed by these studies. The first is G-Vectoring Control, which endeavors to foster a bit of diagonal roll and to minimize neck jerk by smoothing g-load transitions in turns. The system automates a basic tenet of performance driving: To improve turn-in, you want to load the steering tires by shifting weight forward with some deceleration, then settle the rear at the corner exit by shifting it aft again. Here’s how it works: As the driver turns in, the CAN bus informs the engine controller, which retards the ignition timing within 50 milliseconds. This reduces torque just enough to produce between 0.01 and 0.05 g of deceleration (undetectable to human neck muscles), inducing a slight diagonal roll that increases the load on the outer front tire by between 2 and 10 pounds. Torque resumes as the driver unwinds the wheel, settling the car. The driver feels more in control, and the passenger’s neck strains less.

In a Mazda6 equipped with a GVC-on/off switch, the amount of steering required to negotiate a tight oval was noticeably increased with it off. That’s because without that little bit of front-tire loading, the turn-in response was delayed just enough to cause me to input a bit too much steering, then back it out—again maybe too much, then dial it back in again, and so forth. The results are more pronounced in slippery conditions or at higher speeds.

GVC adds no cost to the car and will gradually roll out across all product lines starting with the Mazda6. It might not be advertised, and it won’t have an off switch, so you might never “feel” it. But don’t be surprised if it so endears you to your Mazda that you anthropomorphize it.

Read more Technologue columns here:

• What I Learned at Valvoline’s Sesquicentennial
• Another Batter Swings at the Compression-Ignition Gas Engine
• What the Bentley Mulsanne and Acura NSX Have in Common
• Road Hard (If Not Put Down Wet): Rethinking Concrete Science

The post Humanizing Cars to Make Them Ride and Handle Better – Technologue appeared first on Motor Trend.

from Motor Trend http://ift.tt/2d3dLcx