For a long time, GM’s Suburban had little direct competition. But when its sales took off in the 㣾s, other companies got into the act. Ford introduced the Expedition and the Excursion, the former a half-size smaller than the Suburban, the latter a bit larger. GM for its part introduced shorter versions of the Suburban, the Chevrolet Tahoe and GMC Yukon. In part because there has been little competition, these have been among the most profitable vehicles for GM and Ford. Now, for 2001, a Japanese auto maker joins the fray.

Toyota has long offered the nearly full-size Land Cruiser. But the Land Cruiser is priced far higher than a Tahoe or Expedition, reflecting its severe-duty hardware and high level of luxury content. This kept its sales low. To offer a more competitively-priced vehicle, Toyota for 2001 has developed a truly full-size SUV off of the frame of its full-size pick-up, the Tundra. The new vehicle, the Sequoia, is both considerably cheaper and considerably larger than the Land Cruiser. I drove a fully-loaded (everything but the tacky Gold Package) Sequoia, and the sticker read $45,000. The 2WD base model starts around $31,000. The Sequoia most likely does not perform as well off-road as the Land Cruiser, and certainly lacks the Land Cruiser’s heritage, but for most people shopping for this type of vehicle it is clearly the better choice of the two.

Toyota Sequoia Reliability

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Styling and Accommodations

How large is the Sequoia? Though somehow it looks substantially smaller than the Ford Expedition, it’s virtually the same size. This makes it significantly larger than the most comparable GM vehicles, the Tahoe and the Yukon. The styling is most similar to that of the Expedition: smooth and contemporary, with just of touch of SUV-ish ruggedness. Though it won’t stand out in a crowded parking lot, it’s a nice-looking truck that no one will find unattractive.

The real story with the Sequoia is the interior. Sure, it’s huge. The interiors in all of these large SUVs are huge. There are three rows of seats. The first two rows are very comfortable for adults of any size. I’d like a slightly higher seat in the second row, like you’ll find in a Suburban (and I suspect the Tahoe and Yukon as well), but then I say this about most vehicles. The third row seat (which folds or comes out in two sections) is mounted still lower to the floor and provides less legroom, but it still is not uncomfortable. While it’s not as roomy or as comfortable as the third row in the larger Suburban, I suspect it’s competitive with the Expedition/Tahoe/Yukon, and is certainly far superior to the cramped third row seats in smaller vehicles such as the Dodge Durango and Acura MDX. All seats in the Sequoia recline, unlike in the GM products. Even with all three rows in the vehicle there is quite a bit of cargo room. Toyota claims this vehicle has significantly more cargo room than a Tahoe/Yukon or Expedition, and nearly as much as a Suburban/Yukon XL. There happen to be many ways to compute cargo volume, so there might be a little smoke and mirrors here. But any way you cut it, fold or remove some seats and you get all the room for stuff 99% of us could ever need. Some people might need all of the space in a Ford Excursion, but I have a little bit of trouble seeing how. I guess to hold eight people and their luggage for a one-week vacation.

Getting into the Sequoia is much like getting into any of these large SUVs. It’s quite a step up. The vehicle I drove included running boards. These helped a lot, making getting in an easy, two-step affair. Unless you have really long legs, you want them. Loading cargo would be a similar story. This ain’t no minivan. Be prepared to lift your cargo fairly high.

So what is the real story with the interior? How nicely designed and furnished it is. I drove a similarly priced GMC Yukon XL (i.e. Suburban) right after driving the Sequoia, and the Yukon felt quite low-rent in comparison. It seems GM designs its full-size truck interiors to serve the tastes of the $20,000 work truck market, and then throws leather on the seats for the $44,000 models. (The new Cadillac Escalade will also use the same basic dash, though I suspect it will cost over $60,000.) Sorry, GM, but this just doesn’t cut it. It’s time to design a totally unique interior for the up-level trucks. Look at the Sequoia’s interior and you’ll see what I mean. No brick-like dash styling here. As in the Expedition, the dash is composed of pleasant curves, but with much classier looking materials. Particularly successful is the metallic-look trim. Vehicle manufacturers have been looking for a substitute for wood (real or otherwise) that manages to liven up an interior without looking cheap. The stuff in the Sequoia does quite well here. The interior feels luxurious and elegant without the aid of wood.

One area where the imports clearly surpass the domestics is the precision of the leather seat trim and the carpeting. In the Yukon there were many puckered seams in the seats, especially at the corners, and the carpeting was very roughly fitted. The Yukon’s interior just looked shoddily tailored. In stark contrast, the seams in the Sequoia’s seats were straight and neat, and the carpet lay flat and fit precisely, further enhancing the luxurious feel of the interior. These seats could almost be in a Lexus, they look and feel so nice. All they need is that fine leather aroma…

Capping off this impressive interior are a number of nice touches. These range from the generally expensive feel of the well-laid-out switches to the controls for the rear climate control mounted on the back of the center console. Airflow is excellent throughout the vehicle, aided by plenty of vents. A six-disc in-dash CD changer, a feature popping up in many vehicles this year, is another nice touch. Finally, the optional sunroof is very large, in contrast to the one in the GM products.

On the Road

The Sequoia just gets better when you get moving. OK, the engine could be stronger. Though it’s a DOHC eight, with 240 horsepower, this is a lot of vehicle to move around. At least the engine makes nice, refined noises all the time, even when it’s struggling to accelerate all that mass. It might lack the power of the current GM engines, but it doesn’t erupt in a throaty roar every time you hit the gas hard either. Don’t expect good fuel economy. The sticker read 14/17. The trip computer never broke 10.0 during the somewhat aggressive test drive, even though this included some highway travel. I’d be surprised if this vehicle ever broke 20 MPG, no matter how you drove it. Probably high teens at best, and who knows at worst.

The 4WD Sequoia is rated to tow up to 6200 lbs. A Yukon is rated for another ton or so. So if you need to tow extremely heavy trailers, the Sequoia may not work for you. I suspect that the engine is the weak link here.

The four-wheel-drive system is less sophisticated than that in the GM products. You select 2H, 4H, or, with a floor-mounted lever, 4L. 4H is supposedly good for up to 70 MPH. But there is no option for leaving it in Auto and letting the system decide when the front wheels need power. In the Sequoia’s favor, it does offer over ten inches of ground clearance, quite a bit more than the competition.

A slightly underpowered engine is the only weakness in the Sequoia’s performance. It rides smoothly and quietly, much better than the Yukon. At highway speeds road noise from the tires was clearly audible from the front seat (but not the second row), but otherwise the highway ride could pass for that of a luxury car. Around town larger road imperfections jolt the vehicle a bit, but I never perceived that quivery feel often present in large body-on-frame vehicles. The Sequoia felt all-of-a-piece. Overall, the ride is surprisingly good for a large truck.

Around town the suspension and steering did a surprisingly good job of making this large vehicle feel maneuverable. You sit quite high, and you never forget that this is a very large vehicle. But this mass imparts a feel of solidity and competence rather than one of clumsy bulk. I didn’t drive it nearly as aggressively as the performance sedans I’ve tested—this vehicle rightly makes no pretensions in advertising or through the wheel of being suited for driving enthusiasts—but I didn’t go easy on it either. The feel through the wheel was smooth and confidence-inspiring. The amount of body roll was quite reasonable. Most importantly, body motions were well controlled. The Sequoia has a refined fluidity to just about everything it does, a by-product of all the time Toyota has spent figuring out how to refine its Lexus models. In contrast, the larger Yukon XL felt far more trucky, which is to say bulky and unrefined. The Tahoe and regular Yukon surely feel less bulky than the XL I drove, but I cannot imagine they approach the Sequoia in handling feel. I haven’t driven an Expedition recently, but if memory serves it felt smoother than the Yukon but more sloppy as well. I distinctly remember the sensation of soft body mounts allowing the body to jiggle on the frame. The Sequoia manages to feel smooth without feeling sloppy. Quite an achievement given 5300 lbs. of high-mounted mass.

To provide an extra margin of safety, Vehicle Stability Control (VSC) and side airbags in front are available as options. The former especially makes sense in an SUV, especially a large SUV, because it is designed to step in and prevent the vehicle from spinning out of control, the sort of thing that can lead to a rollover. Highly recommended.

The brakes left no strong impressions in my mind, which is a good thing. Too often in this large of a vehicle the brakes feel spongy and weak. No so with the Sequoia. The brakes, like the handling in general, make this an easy vehicle to drive.

Update: More recently I have driven the GMC Yukon and Ford Expedition, but in their 2003 forms. To read my reviews, click on the links. The current Expedition in particular handles very well for such a large vehicle, while the Yukon handles much better than I recall the Yukon XL handling. Both are more refined than in past model years, though the big Toyota probably still leads in this area. I would advise anyone shopping for a large SUV to drive all three vehicles. The Ford is currently my personal favorite even though it has the least smooth ride of the three at low speeds because it has the most composed chassis and largest third row seat. The Yukon has the nimblest feel through the wheel, but suffers from unnerving rear end sway. I drove both the GM and Ford more aggressively than I drove the Toyota, so it might similarly suffer the effects of a softly suspended live rear axle.

Pricing

For quick, up-to-date new car pricing, and especially user-specified price comparisons, check out the website I created: www.truedelta.com. Why yet another vehicle pricing website? Well, I personally lacked the patience to keep using the others. They were too slow and required too much effort, especially when trying to compare prices. So I taught myself some programming and created a site where there is no need to dig through option packages, prerequisites, and the like one by one -- the TrueDelta algorithm figures these out for you in one swift pass.

Last Words

I’m not an SUV person, but I was impressed with the Sequoia. It’s still not something I’d personally enjoy driving. But if you want a luxurious, large SUV that is very pleasant to drive, this is the one to get. So what if the engine could use a bit more oomph. The interior is wonderful, and the driving experience is amazingly refined. I cannot imagine buying a GM or Ford product instead, unless you need to tow a very heavy trailer, REALLY need the room in their largest models, or just love that coarse trucky feel. GM and Ford have taken this market for granted for too long. They’d better wise up, or Toyota is going to eat their lunch.

To learn more about my reliability research and sign up to participate in it, or to perform thorough, up-to-date new car price comparisons, visit www.truedelta.com. A link to this website and alphabetized links to my other vehicle reviews can be found on my profile page.

Amount Paid (US$): 38000
Condition: New
Model Year: 2001
Model and Options: Loaded Limited 4WD