本人在買4Runner 前test drove Highlander 和Pilot. My evaluation is:

Highlander: Slightly more expensive. Handles better. Slightly smaller. Exterior looks better. Better reliability. Recommend limited; Pilot: Larger. A little cheaper. Exterior is too minivanish. Handles not as good as Highlander. Usually, I like Toyota better except for the handling. Sometime the handling is so bad that I would rather take Honda. But lateely, Honda is so conservative and handling is comparable to Toyotas. By driving Highlander and Polot side by side, I am so surprised that Pilot drives like a typical Toyota and Highlander drives like a good-handling Honda. This makes me with any hesitate at all to take Highlander over Pilot. I recommend Highlander over Pilot, Accord over Camry, Sienna over Odyssey since its transmission is questionable. For small cars, buy Honda like Accord and Civic. For larger cars like minivan, truck including cross over, buy Toyota. Honda desn't have truck chassis so there is no counterpart for 4Runner on Honda side.