Prince Edward Highlander / Day 4 – Backseat driving

By John LeBlanc JULY 26 / In reality, the four of us could be driving around Prince Edward Island on our holiday in a much smaller vehicle. Like a compact hatch or wagon. Or a more luxurious vehicle. Like an Aston Martin Rapide. But I suspect one of the biggest reasons most midsize crossover buyers enjoy their vehicles so much is the luxury of space, a quality the Highlander Hybrid doesn’t want for. I haven’t done anything bad enough yet on this trip to spend any time in the seven-passnger Toyota's third-row seats. But I can vouch that the second-row  is THE place to be in the Highlander. Plenty of room all around. And great sight lines to see the rolling Island scenery pass by. But Toyota’s gimmicky middle-seat solution (left) means two passengers will be happier than three. And although there’s a seatbelt provided, the middle throne is essentially a large armrest that stays down the majority of the time to provide some storage space for the two outboard passengers in their comfy captain chairs. More confounding is the available drink tray (right) that can be swapped out for the middle-seat/armrest hardware (far right). It resides underneath the front row console, and it’s heavy to swap out. Why Toyota designers just didn’t mold in some cup holders in the original seat back and save the under console space for, say, a usable stowage tray, I’ll never know. In regards to sights seen today, we spent a potentially rainy day (never happened) in Charlottetown, enjoying a wonderful seafood lunch at FishBones (try the lobster/chipotle frites), bracketed by educational trips to Founder’s Hall (above) at the waterfront, and P.E.I.’s legislative Province House. For you parents out there, you’ll recognize this as “payback”… Total kms: 603 Av. L/100 km: 8.1 Older entries: Day 3- Greenwich beach time Day 2 – Cavendish National Park’s scenic Gulf Coast Drive Day 1 - Settling in

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