Highlander on rough roads

I don't do a lot of off-road use of an SUV. However, I do live 4 miles
down a gravel county road that has quite a few potholes. The other
consideration here; we get quite a bit of snow in the winter. Our road
is pretty much at the bottom of our county's priorities for
maintenance.

We are debating how well a Highlander would handle our road. We've
gotten by for years with a Subaru legacy. A bit more clearance would
be nice-as would be the ability to put on a heavier tire(the gravel
the county uses seems to eat tires).

We've also considered going to a true off-road vehicle like the FJ
cruiser. The ability of the highlander to seat more people and its gas
milage are both big pluses.

What is the opinion of other folks here?

<randall_burns@m> wrote in message
news:1182238982.892783.226020@i38g2000prf. o...
>I don't do a lot of off-road use of an SUV. However, I do live 4 miles
> down a gravel county road that has quite a few potholes. The other
> consideration here; we get quite a bit of snow in the winter. Our road
> is pretty much at the bottom of our county's priorities for
> maintenance.
>
> We are debating how well a Highlander would handle our road. We've
> gotten by for years with a Subaru legacy. A bit more clearance would
> be nice-as would be the ability to put on a heavier tire(the gravel
> the county uses seems to eat tires).
>
> We've also considered going to a true off-road vehicle like the FJ
> cruiser. The ability of the highlander to seat more people and its gas
> milage are both big pluses.
>
> What is the opinion of other folks here?
>

I think the Highlander will do at least as well as the Legacy. Both are
car-based vehicles built on a unitized chassis. Besides the FJ Cruiser, the
4Runner is a body-on-frame chassis and is more suited for off-road use. I
think any of those vehicles should be fine for rough road use.
--

Ray O

What kind of highlander? If the hybrid, it is not designed to be
driven off-road. If your getting the 4cyl dont get the 3rd row
package, you may feel underpowered with 7 passengers. If your coming
from a AWD vehicle you will feel a significant change once you go 2WD
on a highlander. I used to drive an AWD 4cyl 98 RAV4 and then switched
to an 07 Camry since I no longer drive on rough roads.