HyHi wins!
Wife felt that the MMH sat a little too high and that height had an impact on handling that she felt was markedlly different than her Forester. Also, the towing became a factor when we decided that we could not put our sea kayaks on the roofrack of the MMH. The last drop was the time to delivery. The MMH is basically sold out for this year and the only way the local dealers could get one was to buy it from another dealer or wait for the factory ... next year sometime. We were able to find a Highlander within the state.
Thanks all for the input.