Up Close With the 2008 Toyota Sequoia

• The operation of the new Sequoia's second- and third-row seats is particularly interesting and well-executed. Lift a lever and the second row slides forward and out of your way for easy access to the third row.
  
  As for the third row itself, it wins points for its power-reclining feature, which makes the seat more comfortable than the third row in the Ford Expedition, which has been one of the leaders in this regard. Getting out of the third row is simplified by a foot kick on the back of the middle row that lets it slide forward and out of your way. — Mike Hanley

• The new Sequoia is, beyond everything else, spacious. The cockpit area ia roomy, with a gi-normous center storage unit. The second row has honest-to-God space for three adults, even three big adults. The center dash controls are large knobs; I appreciate Toyota going for usefulness over techno-flash. Everything has been butched up, from the front, which sees much larger bumpers and an enormous grille, to the long truck-like lines down the side. My only worry is this: I know many suburban moms who either drove the old version of the Sequoia or who wanted it. Given the rougher, rugged new looks, I wonder if this version may be too truck-like to stay on their consideration list. — Patrick Olsen

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More on the LA Auto Show: 2008 Toyota Sequoia

Comments

[Ken L.]

SD,

The Sequoia is just fine right now; it’s not butchered up at all. It’s meant to have a take charge look, but not stray too far away that it’ll only appeal to certain personalities. Like the Armada, I can see them possibly softening or redesigning the grille for the Sequoia when it’s time for a refreshing in a few years. Other than that, I see the new Sequoia appealing more to men the first couple of years and then the percentage of female owners will increase later on. Tell us how the qualities of the materials feel? Are they exactly the same as the Tundra’s? Does the 2nd row recline? Is there a retractable cargo cover behind the 2nd row?

[huzzah]

Awful interior design and ergonomics. Uninviting and bulky. It looks like something GM would've built 10 years ago. Now GM's full size SUVs trump Toyota. That certainly shows how far Toyota has fallen due to it's far-too-aggressive global expansion.

[JM]

those guages look like a pretty far reach for the driver. not only that, but they look kindof cheap. it is really easy to see all of the hard plastic on the dash and glove box. that may be "ok" in a car that is under $17k, but in an SUV that will reach over $50K, thats just (blatantly) unacceptable.

Toyota worked really hard to make their vehicles reliabile, and then they screwed it up by expanding to fast and neglecting to keep up to par with their reliability. Now the brand new Tundra has been scarred with the mark of unreliability, along with the Camry and soon the Avalon and Sienna, possibly even the Rav4. I would not be suprised at all if the new Sequoia is deemed unreliable, along with the new Corolla and Matrix. It seems the only "reliable" vehicles that Toyota has left are the Solara, Tacoma and 4Runner, all three of which have not been redesigned since Toyota's quality has plummeted.

[ANGELA]

GOT IT. Handles really well. Only options I don't have is the driver's memory seat, rear seat dvd, or 20 in rims, have 18. Pretty cool, I call her BALCK BEAUTY.