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2020 Toyota Highlander vs other 3-row crossovers: There can only be one!

We've done quite a few spec comparison posts involving three-row family crossovers, and when included, the Toyota Highlander has always been the runt of the group. While the rest increasingly seemed to be benchmarking each other toward greater girth, the Highlander was the outlier.  That changes a bit for the 2020 Toyota Highlander, but only a bit. It's now larger and more competitive, specifically in regards to the amount of cargo space aft of the third-row seat. As you can see below, this aligns the Highlander most closely to its long-time competitor the 2020 Honda Pilot. However, let's see how it stacks up to others in the segment, which is heavily populated now, so for the sake of space, we've selected the newest entries: Kia Telluride, Hyundai Palisade, Subaru Ascent and Ford Explorer. The order in which they are presented is random.  Performance and fuel economy The 2020 Highlander is more than 200 pounds lighter than its predecessor, but has the same 295-horsepower V6 engine that was already one of the strongest in the segment. We'd say that would give it a leg up, but the Pilot and Explorer have proven to be sprinters, delivering 0-60 times in the low-6 range by some publications' stopwatches (or VBoxes, whatever). We don't expect the Highlander to beat them, but it may dip into the 6's. The heavy, less-powerful Subaru Ascent is most likely to take up the rear. It's fuel economy of 23 mpg combined also matches the Highlander and Explorer for segment-best. Remember, however, that the Explorer's turbocharged inline-four engine is likely more susceptible to differences in driving style (read: a heavy foot).  Of course, if you're really interested in fuel economy, the Highlander and Explorer are the only vehicles in the segment to offer hybrid versions. The Ford Explorer Hybrid puts a greater emphasis on performance, however, resulting in lower estimates of 25 mpg combined (AWD) and 28 mpg combined (FWD). By contrast, the new 2020 Toyota Highlander Hybrid is estimated to return 36 mpg combined.  Passenger and cargo space According to Highlander chief engineer Yoshikazu Saeki, he had a choice of two directions with the new Highlander. He could have indeed made it bigger, matching these very competitors, especially in terms of third-row and cargo space. Or, he could have maintained a smaller-than-average size. He obviously chose the latter. First, it was the size customers had come to expect. Would they be put off by something bigger?

Hyundai sells its 10,000,000th Elantra

There aren't many nameplates that have sold over 10 million units in the history of the automotive industry. In fact there have only been ten, and now Hyundai has joined the list for the first time with the Elantra.
Launched 24 years ago, the Elantra has far and away been Hyundai's top selling model. Now in its fifth generation, the Elantra is sold as a coupe, sedan and wagon, and under the Avante name in its home market. It's one of the top selling cars in the world, and Hyundai has earned the right to crow that it has sold its 10,000,000 of them globally. That means that, on average, Hyundai has sold more than 45 new Elantras every hour of every day of every year since its introduction in 1990.
Other models in the 10 Million Club include the Toyota Corolla, Honda Civic, VW Beetle and Golf, and the Ford Model T and F-Series. The latter might still be considered the most impressive, selling over 34 million units - the vast majority in the US - to be America's top-selling vehicle for over 30 years running.

Hyundai testing in-car payment system with Xevo

Hyundai is working on a proof-of-concept in-car payment system with automotive software supplier Xevo. With four initial commercial partners in Chevron, Texaco, Applebee's and ParkWhiz, a future owner could use the Hyundai Digital Wallet to buy gas or food-to-go, or reserve and pay for a parking spot without leaving the vehicle. Perhaps even more important than those three, Hyundai has trialed payments with coffee chains, too. The service would be tied to the carmaker's Blue Link app suite and would store an owner's payment details to enable transactions. The carmaker still has big questions to answer about the service, such as whether the digital wallet will be contained within the mobile Blue Link app, or be integrated into the vehicle's infotainment software. An impending pilot program will determine the best deployment, but that means implementation in consumer vehicles remains awhile away. Hyundai's announcement moves it into a space slowly gaining more entrants. Ford's FordPay, launched two years ago, contains a digital wallet used for paying for service and parking, and even for keeping up with the car note. Last year, Jaguar partnered with Shell to provide in-car payments in three Jaguar vehicles. This year, Chevrolet did the same as part of the GM Marketplace, also with Shell. Hyundai's digital wallet comes not long after the South Korean carmaker announced another infotainment-based software partner. In April, Hyundai hooked up with Verisk, a company that manages a data exchange providing driving data to insurance companies. The partnership enables a Hyundai driver to share his driving habits and be assessed a Verisk Driving Score. The score would be taken into account for usage-based insurance programs offered by companies like Allstate and Progressive. Related Video: