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Originally Posted by JOE540CI
Yesterday I was at the toyota dealer in las vegas and when I asked about the 2007 hilander hybrid here is what I was told: The 2007 highlander will be a new body design and the hybrid will be avalible in the new trim. Nothing else. Does anyone have any more info on this???? JOE
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The Highlander and the Lexus Rx SUV are essentially the same vehicle in the same way the Camry and the ES are the same. The emphasis is reversed for the two segments.
The Camry is always intro'd first as Toyota's primary vehicle and the ES350 takes a backseat and is intro'd later.
The Rx SUV is Lexus' primary vehicle and the Highlander takes a backseat and is intro'd later. It makes sense that the Highlander will be a year or so behind the Rx350 which is debuting now.
The HUGE question is.... what are the ICE's for each vehicle? For engineering and production it makes sense to make both the Rx and the Highlander the same, both with 3.5L ICE's. However for the hybrid versions does it make more sense to give the Rx a performance slant using the 3.5L +HSD getting above 300 hp while giving the new HH a fuel economy slant by using the 2.4L +HSD from the TCH getting only 190 hp but maybe 33 mpg on average? I am intrigued.