Edmunds: 08 Sequoia

[dinkeldorf]

So I spent 20 minutes driving a 2008 Seqquoia Platinum over the weekend with the family unit in tow. Toyota adjusted the price such that this thing is cheaper than in the US and cheaper than comparable Armada / Yukons etc. The Yukon needs to be a Denali to get the AWD version which ups the donero count.

Rambling thoughts follow, mostly in comparison to my better 1/2s pilot

Interior
I don't like the perforated leather, nor the gray colour - I'm a beige flat leather guy. Front seats extremely comfy under thigh, the minimal side bolstering. Many many adjustments. The front plastics in the lightish gray and faux(?) alum didn't work for me - I would prefer either a darker shade, or much lighter, and wood. The touch screen / reverse camera / nav screen is a bit of a reach but hey, this is a big truck. JBL 14 speaker system was just OK - didn't have my own tunes to thrash er. Oddly the FM radio reception was weak.

Plenty of space in all 3 throws - I'm 6' and 200LBs - no problems at all. Mucho bottle holders every where. DVD was a single screen unit rather than head rest units, this probably makes sense for 3rd row passengers. This unit has the heated but not cooled captains chairs in the second row and the size of the console is humungous.

Entry to the 3rd row is best of the bigs I've passengered in - the door darn near opens to 90 degrees and is huge. This of course causes other probs.  Second row slides as expected. I think it's viable to put 3 grown ups in the 3rd row and room for some gear in the very back. Our labradoodle would fit back there and I'd forgeten Toyota still makes the sliding tailgate window. The trunk isn't Denali / 'lade XL big.

Power rear door and 3rd row split folding are nice.

Great visibility

The powertrain
Sweet mother of pearl that powertrain is suweet. Smooth, maybe too quiet for my liking, really friggin quick. Unscientifically I think it smokes the 6.1V8 in the 'lade. Takes a while to get used to the 6 spds - it doesnt really hunt but it just has a lot of gears and is quick to down shift when you boot it. Manumatic mode shifts are quicker than my T5, mostly did that for engine braking. Could gauge whether if holds gears on grade. Has tow mode, 4wd mode and lockable centre diff and a Multimode AWD mode which engages a Torsen centre diff.

The drive
This wasn't on familiar roads so hard to gauge with out an over night test. Steering was light, hard to really tell what the front wheels were doing but the floaty ride & mass were more of probs at fist. It actually goes where pointed just with a lot of lean.  Bump / impact insulation good.

Verdict?
We're going to hit up the Armada & Yukons to compare. At MSRP in Canadian dollars, it's strong value and with the big Thule Evo 1800 box on top, still would fit in the garage. More to come. We were looking at ditching her pilot next year. And if spouse gets this, I get to really downsize my car in July. The C30 T5 is looking good but crap just found the STI is similar price...

[ifcar]

Will you also be looking at the Durango and Expedition?

And be warned: like the other Canton Nissans, only the worst things have been about the Armada's reliability.

[dinkeldorf]

Will you also be looking at the Durango and Expedition?

And be warned: like the other Canton Nissans, only the worst things have been about the Armada's reliability.

Thanks Ifcar. We weren't looking seriously at the Armada, just wanted to compare - dunno if you remember but we owned an 04 quest once.... I've driven the expedition in the past and don't much like the styling nor the triton v8. The Durango has the same passenger space as the pilot so a bit small + I'm not a fan of it's styling.

[ifcar]

Thanks Ifcar. We weren't looking seriously at the Armada, just wanted to compare - dunno if you remember but we owned an 04 quest once.... I've driven the expedition in the past and don't much like the styling nor the triton v8. The Durango has the same passenger space as the pilot so a bit small + I'm not a fan of it's styling.

The Durango certainly has a lot more passenger space than the Yukon. I don't know about Canada, but it's a ridiculous value here, so it can't hurt to give it a spin.

[dinkeldorf]

The Durango certainly has a lot more passenger space than the Yukon. I don't know about Canada, but it's a ridiculous value here, so it can't hurt to give it a spin.

OK OK you caught me out, I'm not a big Dodge fan at all. But I will check them out.

[Catman]

Got a look at the new Sequoia at the NY Show and came away pretty impressed, it's a nice truck.  Too big for me at this point though.

[Lebowski]

Got a look at the new Sequoia at the NY Show and came away pretty impressed, it's a nice truck.  Too big for me at this point though.

I was at my local toyota dealer last week looking at 4runners (just looking!), and the sequoia is nice, but man is it BIG.

[dinkeldorf]

What I just cottened onto is the Sequoia, Expedition and Armda all have IRS & hence the 3rd row folds flat. On the GM0900 beasties, no deal. You gotta remove it.