2023 Toyota Sequoia

SPEAKER: Most vehicles go six or seven years between a complete redesign. Some flagship supercars go 10 or 12 years between redesigns. But the Toyota Sequoia, well, it's testing our patience. It's gone 15 years between redesigns. Thankfully, though, the new one's here. [MUSIC PLAYING] Yes. This is the all-new 2023 Toyota Sequoia. It's completely redesigned from the ground up, and we're going to take a closer look and ask questions like what does it compete against? Does it still have abysmal fuel economy? And can it keep up with modern rivals from Jeep, Ford, and Chevy? For more awesome first-look look videos-- [SOUND EFFECTS] --and seeing all the coolest newest car content, click the link and press subscribe below. Or don't. You know, do whatever you want. And for a cash offer on your car today, go to edmunds.com/sellmycar. Really. We want to give you cash. What is it? Well the, Sequoia is a three-row family SUV that's based underneath on the same architecture and underpinnings as the Toyota Tundra, a full-size pickup truck. It's also based on the same underpinnings as the global Land Cruiser, which we no longer get in the United States, and the Lexus LX 600. So you know it's robust underneath. What does it compete against? Well, vehicles like the Chevy Tahoe and Suburban and the Ford Expedition, and more recently, the new Jeep Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer. They're pretty much all in the same class. Does it still have abysmal fuel economy? Well, we can't say for certain yet. The old model was rated around 14 or 15 miles per gallon combined, which is pretty bad even considering its size and the class it competes in. The new model has exclusively a hybrid-only powertrain. That's the only one you can get. It replaces the old V8, so we're hoping that fuel economy numbers will be higher-- closer to where the new Tundra is around 19 or 20 mpg combined. But the EPA estimates aren't in yet. Thankfully, we know it will definitely be higher than the old V8. That's something you can put your money on. Up front, the first thing you notice is the grille. It's very different from the Tundra, and it looks a lot slimmer because it is, which I really like. The trim level here is the TRD Pro, which is one of the top two trim levels-- this and the new capstone trim level at the very top of the lineup. And the TRD Pro does some cool stuff. You can see that it's got this light bar here, and it's got a different black treatment up front. You follow it down the side, and you actually see that these are functional. They do go in there, and they lead to cooling exchangers, heat exchangers. Then you go along the side of the vehicle and there's this cool kind of digital camo down here. The kind of square wheel wells I'm not a huge fan of, but I do really like these wheels-- BBS wheels-- on the TRD Pro. And I do like the styling. I think this styling actually lends to a much better look than in the Tundra because you can extend it all the way back. And the TRD Pro pulls off a pretty cool trick with the roof rack and the black cladding. To my eyes, it looks a little bit like a larger 4Runner or maybe a smaller version of other Sequoias, so I like that. It does have some pretty harsh angles here, which I think is good. It makes it look like it's got a strong stance, and there's some cool TRD logos here and there. I like the outside looks of it I think this is going to be really successful, and it's very modern compared to the old design. Well, let's hop inside and see what that's like. [MUSIC PLAYING] [DOOR OPENIING] So we're inside now, and it looks like a Tundra but with a third row, which is a good thing. The redesigned Tundra has a much more approachable interior than previous models. And I really like the interior on the Sequoia. Now, it does have some drawbacks in terms of organization of the center space compared to class leaders like the RAM 1500 or the Ford F-150, but this is a big, big step forward for the Sequoia. And this screen-- while the one isn't on in this particular model-- is also a big upgrade. The standard SR5 Sequoia comes with an 8-inch screen, but everything above that gets the big 14-inch center touchscreen. It operates well. And there's a lot of duplication of tasks down here with the physical buttons, which is helpful if you don't want to rely on the touchscreen. There's also Toyota's voice control system that you can now do the kind of Mercedes trick, and just shout out, hey Toyota, take me to the nearest burger joint or Starbucks or whatever it is that you're craving, and it will pop it up in the navigation. It's a good system on the Tundras that we've tested, and we're looking forward to trying it out in the Sequoia. Every Sequoia gets Toyota's Safety Sense 2.5 system. What does that mean? Well, it means you get systems from Toyota like adaptive cruise control, lane keep assist. We found those to be pretty good in practice in the Tundra and hoping for the same in the Sequoia. We don't know about overall cargo space yet. Toyota hasn't released those numbers. We do know that from nose to tail, this is a little bit shorter than a Tundra. But that doesn't tell us much about the actual cargo space. The previous Sequoia, though, had 120 cubes or something around there when you folded down the second and third row. So it's got quite literally, and figuratively, big shoes to fill. So let's take a look in the second and third row and see how much space there is just sitting there. All right. Now we're in the second row, and there's plenty of space back here. I'm 5' 8"-- 5' 9" on a good day. Lots of space for my knees, leg room, a lot of room under the front seat for my feet, and plenty of headroom up here, even with the sunroof in the front row. And I want to take this opportunity to talk about this second row and the third row. The second row is now stationary in the Sequoia. Yeah, you can fold it. There's a choice between bench and captain's chairs. But these seats don't move fore and aft. Why is that? Well, the third row moves forward and aft or forward and back. So that's a cool trick for third-row passengers. If you have someone back there that's not very large, you can move the third row up and get a little bit of cargo room behind them. Thankfully, these ones don't really need to move forward and back because there's plenty of space here. And it should be pretty easy to climb into the back. So let's do that now. So this is the third row. As you can see, there's plenty of room back here. It's hard to tell without the numbers exactly how much more or less room it was than the previous generation. But as an adult, on a long journey, I could be comfortable back here. Your knees are a little bit high up because the floor is, compared to the second row, a little bit higher, but honestly, these seats are comfortable. And cool trick-- if I can find it-- of the moving forward and back-- that's not bad at all. I also want to take the time back here to talk about how much this truck can tow. It's a big difference over the previous model. [MUSIC PLAYING] With the new hybrid and the fully-boxed frame underneath, the newest Sequoia can tow 9,000 pounds. Compared to the old model, which could only tow 7,400 pounds, that's a big increase. And it's more than the Chevy Tahoe and Suburban, and it's almost as much as the Ford Expedition at around 9,300 pounds. It can't quite beat the Jeep Wagoneer, though, which can tow as much as 10,000 pounds. Still, the jump from 7,400 to 9,000 is big. And this change in the third row is big too. The Sequoia has got a lot of good stuff going for it I see it doing pretty well. [MUSIC PLAYING] Almost forgot to show you Toyota's new cargo loading system. So if you have groceries or something and you want to keep them from sliding around-- now, I haven't perfected this-- but you can have a flat floor here, or you can raise it up to the middle level here, put all your stuff on it. It's pretty great. And you can keep items separated. So if you have a lot of groceries and you have three rows of kids sitting in there, you can have some down here, some up top. That, I think, is a pretty nice little feature. [MUSIC PLAYING] So along with this feature, the TRD Pro that we're looking at here has a lot of cool hardware features-- stuff like skid plates-- and software features like Toyota's Multi-Terrain Select, or the other hardware feature, a locking rear differential. So people that are lamenting the loss of the Land Cruiser for the US market, I get it. It's sad. Your icon is going away. But this one can go pretty far into some hairy places. So maybe just think about buying a Land Cruiser badge and sticking it on the back. [MUSIC PLAYING] As for the Sequoia in general, this is an exciting new vehicle in a pretty limited class that doesn't get a lot of new entries. It was languishing for years. Honestly, it was an underperformer in almost every category, and it couldn't keep up with stuff like the Suburban that had been redesigned two or three times in the last 15 years. This one, though, has a new lease on life. I'm really excited to get it out on the road and do some comparison tests with the newest stuff from Jeep, Ford, and Chevy. What do you think about the new Sequoia? Do you love the looks? Do you hate it? Do you want the capstone trim but with the TRD wheels? Let us know in the comments below. And click like and subscribe. Hit that little bell while you're down there. We appreciate it. [MUSIC PLAYING]