Best Tires for Toyota Highlander

Is there one right tire for the Toyota Highlander? There very might well be and we’ve aimed to highlight that below.

Chances are, there’s more likely to be numerous best tires depending on how much you drive, what you demand of your tires and what sort of budget you have.

What Tires Are Right for Me?

Tire shopping can be pretty darn confusing, so before you dive into the list below it might be helpful to get some background on the types of tires we’ve listed so you can make sure our recommendation matches up with your expectation.

First up, most of the the tires on this list are all-season tires, which, contrary to the name, means they are really only good for three of the fur seasons. Winter performance isn’t great. If it doesn’t say otherwise, the tire below is going to be an all-season tire.

A sub-set of all-seasons are touring tires. Sometimes even called “ultra touring” these are more premium offerings designed to deliver increased ride quality and low rolling resistance (read: better fuel economy) while maintaining all-season grip.

Next up there are Highway Terrain tires. These offer some capable off-road grip, but are still very on-road focused. They generally have a long tread life and sacrifice little in the way of on-road noise or ride quality.

Finally there are All-Terrain tires. Designed for true off-roading while still being very useable on-road, they are best for pickup trucks and SUVs. We’d only recommend these for a Highlander if you really do use it off-road a lot, or if you find you spend a lot of time on dirt or gravel roads and “regular” tires just wear out too fast for you.

Best Tires for Toyota Highlander

Bridgestone Dueler HL Alenza Plus

Our overall pick as the best well-rounded tire for the Toyota Highlander are these, the Bridgestone Dueler HL Alenza Plus. The tire mixes wet and dry performance with long life and affordability.

With an extra-wide center tread rib it’s incredibly stable at highway speeds and initial response to direction changes is first-rate. Large shoulder tread blocks mean it goes through turns effortlessly. You might not care about performance driving dynamics in a 3-row crossover, but these attributes really make the Highlander drive more car-like.

It’s great under hard stopping and all of these features are (while slightly diminished) very admirable in the wet as well.

On top of that, it’s both quiet and comfortable and comes with a very impressive 80,000 mile tread life guarantee.

     

Longest Lasting Tires for Toyota Highlander

Goodyear Assurance MaxLife

Yup, the name says it all. The Goodyear Assurance MaxLife is the champ when it comes to long lasting all-season tires with a manufacturer-backed guarantee for 85,000 miles. Rated 4.6 out of 5 by owners on the Goodyear website, there’s not much of any compromise to get this rating either.

This all-season tire still delivers first-rate grip in dry and wet conditions, while delivering a comfortable and quiet ride. Plus, you’d expect this milage feat to come with some sort of price markup and yet the Goodyear Assurance MaxLife is priced comparably to other tier-1 tires on this list.

We particularly like the tire’s built-in wear gauges to help you track tread depth over the life of the tire.

     

Best Touring Tires for Toyota Highlander

Michelin Premier LTX

Perhaps you spent quite a bundle on your top trim Limited Highlander with all the bells and whistles? Sure, it’s not a luxury SUV, but it’s got all the features of one, so you’d like a tire that delivers a luxury ride.

The Michelin Premiere LTX is just such a tire. From the experts at experts at all-things tire, Michelin, the Premiere LTX is what’s known as a Touring tire.

What that means is that it puts a higher priority on ride quality, with heightened levels of comfort and quietness. You’ll pay a bit of a premium for a tire like this, but you’re probably ok with that.

     

Best Fuel Efficient Tires for Toyota Highlander

Goodyear Assurance CS Fuel Max

Increasingly, drivers are looking for what are called low-rolling resistance tires. When you read that term, it means that the tires produce less drag on the road. The benefit being that they can actually improve your vehicle’s fuel economy. While any improvement is minuscule, over thousands of miles it adds up.

That’s what you’re getting in the Goodyear Assurance CS Fuel Max tire. In fact, Goodyear claims that on a set of these tires you could save up to 2,500 miles worth of fuel. Not bad!

The tire itself is made up of a special tread compound that enables this feat. Exterior tread blocks are designed for superior dry grip while the tire’s interior tread section is built to evacuate water.

As for the tire’s physical makeup, the internal structure used dual steel belts to give it a long lasting durability, while a polyester casing helps deliver a smooth ride.

The Goodyear Assurance CS Fuel Max is a great option for Highlander Hybrid owners.

     

Best Budget Tire for Toyota Highlander

Kumho Crugen HP71

Perhaps you’re looking to save a few bucks on a new set of tires for your Highlander. Well, you’ve come to the right place.

Kumo tires is a Korean brand and is what we’d refer to as a Tier-2 tire manufacturer. That’s not intended as a knock. In many ways it’s a compliment. Much like how Korean cars are often a bargain for what you pay, the same can be said of tire brands like Kumho.

The Crugen HP71 is a well-rounded all-season tire for crossovers and SUVs that delivers more than adequate performance in the dry and wet. It comes equipped with a mid-range milage guarantee of 65,000 miles (just a few years ago this would have been considered excellent) and it’s very affordable. You’ll look to pay 25% less than most of the other tires on this list.

     

Best All-Terrain Tire for Toyota Highlander

Toyo Open Country A/T III

If you are looking to spend a fair amount of time off-road in your Highlander, then a set of all-terrain tires might be in order. This third-generation of Toyo’s Open Country AT tire delivers an up-tick in off-road performance and true winter capability now as well.

These really will deliver excellent levels of off-road grip, although they come with reduced driving dynamics on-road, as well as road noise levels that you might not want to put up with. We’d probably only recommend these if you’re doing some real off-roading on a regular basis, or you put in a lot of miles on dirt and gravel roads. In that last circumstance, you’ll need a tread that doesn’t degrade under that type of wear and you’ll get that here. In fact, the mileage guarantee is an impressive 65,000 miles.

     

Best Highway Terrain Tire for Toyota Highlander

Yokohama Geolandar HT

Splitting the difference between an all-season and an all-terrain tire, a highway terrain tire like the Yokohama Geolandar HT could be your best bet if you do some off-roading must mostly drive on tarmac. And chances are this is the best off-road tire for a Highlander driver and the Highlander isn’t really designed for much off-roading.

Combining features of on-road and off-road tires, you’ll find these lean more towards on-road performance with a dose of off-road durability.

They also come with a 70k mile tread life guarantee. Pretty impressive for a tire the manufacturer expects will put in some miles off-road.

     

Best Winter Tire for Toyota Highlander

Michelin Latitude X-ice Xi2

Not all winter tires are created equal. And while we’ll often say that even bad winter tires are better than no winter tires at all, if you’re going to go through the trouble of swapping tires twice a year, why not go with the best?

This tire’s name can be a bit misleading. It’s not really designed to be driven on ice, per say. It’s really build to deliver world-class grip on icy surfaces. And by that, we mean cold roads. Sure, the roads can have ice patches on them, but primarily these tires deliver their maximum benefit by operating more like an all-season in summer time and they do this using a tread compound that resists freezing.

In actual snow, they perform amazingly well (although there are better deep snow tires) and provide the best option for the majority of drivers.

Remember, you don’t need snow to buy winter tires. They out-perform all-seasons as soon as the temperature gets in the 40s.

     

Cheapest Tire for Toyota Highlander

Laufenn S Fit AS

If you’re in urgent need of some cheap new rubber for your Highlander we have you covered. Although we’ll also include a warning. No, these tires aren’t junk. In fact, they’re surprisingly good value for the money.

The reinforced sidewall and mostly uninterrupted center tread sections mean these tires grip excellently, with good handling and braking. They have a slightly stiffer ride than more premium offerings though.

The warning is about tread life. These are actually some pretty aggressive all-season tires and the down-side of that excellent grip is a tread life of just 45,000 miles. For the price, however, you might not be very upset.

We’ll add that while Laufenn is a pretty unknown tire brand, you don’t have to worry too much about quality here. That’s because it’s actually a sub-division of Hankook.

 

Toyota Highlander Tire Size

Below is a list of all the trim levels available for the highlander as well as the tire sizes available for that trim from the factory.

  • XLE 235/65/18
  • L 235/65/18
  • LE 235/65/18
  • Limited 235/55/20
  • Hybrid LE 235/65/18
  • Hybrid Limited 235/55/20
  • Hybrid Platinum 235/55/20

What Tires Comes on the Toyota Highlander?

From the factory most Highlander models come equipped with either Michelin or Goodyear tires. More entry level models come with the Michelin Premier LTX in a 235/65/18 size, while more well-equipped trim levels run on Goodyear Eagle Touring tires in a 235/55/20 size.

How Long Should Tires Last on a Toyota Highlander?

The factory tires on a Toyota Highlander should last approximately 50,000 to 60,000miles. The Michelin Premier LTX does not come with any tire length guarantee from the factory, although the Goodyear Eagle Touring is estimated to last 60,000 miles. These ratings assume regular on-road use, no abuse, properly maintained tire pressures and regular rotation intervals.

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