BIGGER AND BETTER; Conservative wins in an election year.(News)(Highlander Hybrid is back with new stuffs)

Byline: MARK VAUGHN

Didn't Toyota just introduce a new Highlander a couple of years ago? No, that was the 2004 "minor change,'' just a new engine and transmission. This is a new body, a better engine and some other stuff, so it's really new.

In keeping with the changes seen in every automotive new model since the Toyopet, this new Highlander is longer, wider and higher and has a longer wheelbase than the vehicle it replaces. (If anyone ever introduces a new car that is shorter, narrower and lower than what it replaces, prepare for the apocalypse.) This one is 3.8 inches longer, 3.3 inches wider, 2.8 inches higher and 2.9 inches longer in the wheelbase. Inside, that translates to 4.0 more inches front to back, or 156 cubic feet total, 11.6 cubic feet more than before.

Because of its larger and stiffer body, the Highlander is now about 300 pounds heavier. So, to move all that around, the 3.5-liter gasoline V6 gains 55 hp to 270, with better fuel economy and lower NVH to boot. The four-cylinder has been axed (the new, larger RAV4 will take up the 20 percent of Highlander sales that were four-bangers, Toyota says). The extra power of the new V6 raises towing capacity to 5000 pounds.

The Highlander Hybrid is back, too, also with 270 total hp. Last year's model accounted for almost half of Toyota's hybrid sales. For 2008, the Hybrid Synergy Drive gets an EV mode allowing it to run on electricity alone, for sneaking back into the garage late at night. It'll run on battery power for up to three miles at 25 mph. There's also an ECON button to get better mileage in gasoline-and-battery driving.

We drove both powertrains and a couple of suspensions. Like the Camry from which it sprang, the Highlander is faultless almost to a fault, its smooth efficiency making it almost invisible. Though the sport suspension tries to give it life, it was tough to tell the difference during our drives on two-lane highways. This is a vehicle made to do its job quietly for years and years, not to wow the owner on the test drive.

The optional full-time four-wheel drive on the gasoline-powered Highlander is the same system as that on the Sienna minivan. "It's not a rock crawler by any means,'' said Toyota general manager Don Carter. But a mile or so of driving through a sandy desert wash showed the Highlander could get over rough terrain easily enough.