Compact SUVs may be practical, but a lot of them are honestly quite boring. Despite their dull driving dynamics, they remain some of the most popular vehicles on the road. This boils down to the simple fact that people value practicality above most other things in their lives. Whether you're starting a family or hauling lots of equipment all the time, compact SUVs offer space that more entertaining cars simply don't.

The Toyota Prius arrived in the United States in 2000 amid the SUV boom with the sole purpose of squeezing as many miles as possible out of a gallon of gas. Before the Prius, a “hybrid car” was not something American consumers had seen, let alone driven.

The luxury SUV market is full of expensive options, but not every buyer wants to pay a premium price for a premium badge. More shoppers are looking for vehicles that deliver comfort, technology, and refinement without the long-term costs associated with traditional luxury brands.

Lexus is Toyota's luxury division, but Toyota often builds a Lexus-badged twin to capture buyers who want that extra refinement without the higher sticker price. The Grand Highlander and the Lexus TX mimic that pattern as closely as any two vehicles have. Both are three-row midsize SUVs, both ride on a version of the same platform, and both come from the same Toyota Motor Manufacturing plant in Princeton, Indiana.

Toyota introduced a plug-in hybrid version of the Prius for the 2012 model year, giving buyers a way to drive on electricity alone for short trips while keeping the same hybrid safety net for longer ones. More than a decade later, that basic idea has not changed all that much, but the price of admission has.