2008 Toyota Highlander Limited

The new Highlander sports some distinctive exterior design cues, including the same trapezoidal snout as Toyota's brawny Tundra pickup truck and two sharp creases down the length of the hood.

Third on our list of destinations was the Highlander Motel in Oakland. According to its sign, the establishment offers great rates, free HBO, and free local calls.

The last stop on our Test the Tech journey was the Highlander Laundromat in Albany, Calif., just north of Berkeley.

Our first stop was Highlander Apartments in Sunnyvale, about 40 miles south of San Francisco.

With its smart key, leather seats, as-standard back-up camera, available voice-activated GPS navigation system, and Bluetooth hands-free calling, the Highlander borders on being a luxury SUV. The car's small, secondary LCD screen at the top of the central stack is the most unique aspect of its cabin tech.

At all trim levels, the Highlander's stereo can support CD-R/RW discs encoded in MP3 and WMA formats. With these discs playing, full ID3 tag information is available for artists, track names, and albums.

If you option up the navigation system on the 2008 Highlander, the number of disc slots behind the motorized drop-down LCD screen is reduced to four.

Drivers wanting to play their digital audio players through the Highlander's stereo system can make use of the as-standard aux-in jack concealed behind a plastic door at the bottom of the central stack.

To test the multipoint programmability of the Highlander's navigation system, we entered a series of Highlander-themed destinations on a single journey.

The 2008 Highlander's optional GPS navigation system makes use of a huge in-dash touch-screen LCD display, which makes destination entry very user-friendly.

The 2008 Highlander comes with third-row seating as standard, and features a design that enables the second-row center console to be removed to create a walkthrough to the back seats.

The Highlander shows the suggested route in blue, reverting to a split screen when approaching an intersection to show drivers a detailed close-up of where to go.

Those wanting to upgrade the Highlander's standard stereo have two options: a six-disc in-dash changer with satellite radio prewiring hooked up to the same six speakers; or a JBL-branded system with the same six-disc in-dash changer and satellite radio capability with the addition of three speakers (including a subwoofer) and Bluetooth hands-free calling.

For those who want to use the third-row seating space for cargo, the Highlander comes with Toyota's "Center Stow" seat, which is stored under the two front seats.