After almost four years of exploring in our 2017 Subaru Forester, and more than a year of discussion, deliberation, and research, Adventuremobile 3 is a reality. More concretely, it’s a 2023 Toyota Highlander Hybrid AWD.

Backstory

Over those years the Forester’s job evolved from “go on Forest Service roads that are too much for a Ford Fusion to handle” to “go pretty much anywhere that isn’t actual rock-crawling” – and that will continue. But we found ourselves wanting a vehicle which was more comfortable, more spacious, and capable of more economical long-range travel.

We still love the Forester, but lifting it, adding a roof rack, and switching to all terrain tires have made it a lot louder than it originally was. It’s not as fuel efficient as it used to be – when we got it, it routinely got 31-34MPG but now its long-range average is more like 29. And it was never very comfortable. Tons of fun, but not great for touring.

We also had an encounter in late 2022 with a very upsetti snek-ghetti (a juvenile prairie rattler with very strong ideas about sharing our campsite space) that made us want to move in the direction of being able to sleep inside the vehicle we were touring in rather than using a tent.

And as much as I would prefer not to admit it, at 49 years of age, sleeping in a tent isn’t as much fun as used to be. At home I wake up free from aches and pains (mostly), but camping has become a recipe for back and hip pains on the regular. I do a lot more hiking when I’m enjoying being outside than I do when I’m grumpy and achy, so it was time to find another solution.

Our first thought was to get an ultralight teardrop trailer. One with clearance. But the Forester’s towing capacity is really low (1750lbs; it only weighs 3500lbs) and since the pandemic all decent trailers are more expensive. On top of that, lightweight gear has always at a premium, with ruggedized lightweight gear being doubly so. All those things combined to make “what about a tiny offroad trailer?” a short-lived avenue of exploration.

We started iterating on a light duty version of HASHTAG VANLIFE. Was it possible to find a vehicle which could be comfortable for trips ranging from a weekend up to two weeks long, without needing any sort of permanent converstion? Was there something big enough for me to stretch out in without moving into van territory?

It was a very Goldilocksian situation.

Santa Fe

The first realistic contender was the Hyundai Santa Fe. The 2024 model year’s bodywork redesign made it larger than previous generations, but mostly just by enclosing more empty space. It was available in hybrid and AWD options.

We watched and read reviews. We went to a dealership and made sure we could both lie down comfortable in the back of one. We did a little more research. We got our ducks in a row, vis a vis the loan paperwork.

And then we went to a dealership to try to actually buy one, and the whole thing fell apart. We had girded our metaphorical loins for the cruddiness of dealing with a dealership, but they managed to be scummy and frustrating in ways that we had not anticipated, and this was exacerbated by the fact that 2024 Santa Fes are very popular – especially hybrid models. There wasn’t one available in the trim package we wanted in a 250 mile radius.

Also, fun fact, at least with Japanese/Korean manufacturers, the idea of “special ordering” exactly the car you want is dead. Dealerships get what they get, apportioned out of production lines that are run on a “what sells” feedback loop, and apportioned by how many cars a dealership moves.

It was, overall, a thoroughly unfun and depressing experience.

But MJ, being who she is, got straight to work trying to find vehicles we had not considered in our year+ of dithering and research. I was convinced that there wasn’t any such thing, but she found one in just a few minutes.

Highlander

I had made the mistake of thinking that the Toyota Highlander was a large/luxury SUV – equivalent to the Ascent in Subaru’s lineup since the RAV4 maps very cleanly onto the Forester – but this is not the case. It actually occupies a space in between the RAV4 and two other SUVs, the 4Runner and/or the Land Cruiser.

What it turns out to be equivalent to, among other things, is the Hyundai Santa Fe. And there’s a hybrid AWD variant. So we re-girded our loins (still metaphorically) and set off to one of the two local Toyota dealerships, with incredibly low expectations.

But while the production and popularity situation was the same there as it had been at the Hyundai dealership, they happened to have a 2023 Highlander which had just come back in off of a single-year lease – this was on July 4, and the car’s lease had ended June 30. (Also, no one at this dealership was high-pressure or sleazy.)

For the Santa Fe, the 2024 model year was an enormous makeover, with a completely new body that gave it the space we needed. For the Highlander however, 2024 brought barely any differences at all from the 2023 model years, which was great for us because it meant that the vehicle which was sitting on the lot and available for a test drive was functionally the same vehicle that we had been looking for in the first place: Highlander, hybrid, AWD. It even had crossbars for the roof rails and a towing package, which we had assumed we’d need to get installed post-purchase.

So we test drove it, liked it, and put down a deposit. I’ll spare you (and me) a recounting of the next couple days of back-and-forth with the bank, and just say that it turns out that getting approval for a car loan is not quite like getting approval for a mortage: if you switch the car that you’re looking at, you have to sorta-kinda restart the process. But we worked through that, and bought a freakin’ car.

Next up: tires and wheels.