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Deanne with the all-new Toyota Sequoia TRD Pro as we get ready to head up Mapleton Canyon in the snow. The Sequoia turned out to be the perfect winter weather vehicle.

Craig Conover, Daily Herald

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Deanne with the Sequoia high in the Wasatch Mountains up above Sundance, where the snow was up over the top of the SUV on the sides of the roads. It been a great winter for snow in Utah.

Craig Conover, Daily Herald

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Inside the all-new 2023 Toyota Sequoia TRD Pro.

Courtesy photo

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Inside the all-new 2023 Toyota Sequoia TRD Pro.

Courtesy photo

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Inside the all-new 2023 Toyota Sequoia TRD Pro.

Courtesy photo

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After falling in love with the all-new Toyota Tundra last year, it would have been really hard not to feel nearly the same about this year’s all-new Sequoia, as they are basically produced on the same frame and have many of the same awesome features inside.

One of the great things we have come to love about Toyota is how the company doesn’t skimp on trim levels and includes quite a lot of features, even on the base version of a vehicle. We experienced this with the Sequoia, which comes in five trim levels starting with the SR5.

At this level, it is standard to get the 12.3-inch digital driving display, heated seats, a moonroof and Toyota’s legendary Safety Sense 2.5 — well, it’s legendary in our world, that’s for sure. Many of the safety features that come with the 2.5 version can be very expensive or not even offered as add-ons by the competition!

We are not sure if being given a week with the all-new Sequoia in the dead of winter was the best opportunity or not. We would have loved taking it on a short overnight trek to Moab to really get to know more about its off-road prowess. Being the TRD Pro, it was loaded with everything one could want to get off the pavement.

But with all the snow we have received during the past few weeks, that was not an option, so we did the next best thing and took it as far up Mapleton Canyon as we could go before getting out and hiking another couple of miles further.

We quickly found that there was more than 3 feet of snow, even at the comparatively lower elevation we were able to reach, but it made for a great Saturday adventure with the Sequoia. There was plenty of room in the back for all our winter gear and a couple of backpacks for carrying some snacks.

We also took it up Provo Canyon to Sundance and beyond until the road ended with a huge wall of snow just past Aspen Grove. The snow on the sides of the road was often higher than the top of our Sequoia and limited the road to a single lane of travel.

The Sequoia handled it all in stride, conquering snow, mud, ice and anything else that Mother Nature could throw at it during this great Utah winter. We can only imagine how it well would take on the slick rocks of Moab.

After our week of driving the Sequoia, we were completely taken with this new full-sized SUV. Deanne didn’t want to give it back to the driver when he came to exchange vehicles with us.

The Sequoia comes with a V-6 engine just as the Tundra does and, with the enhanced hybrid drive train, makes a whopping 437 horsepower and 583 foot-pounds of torque. Those are some awesome numbers and would pull pretty much anything most folks have in their backyard. There was no point at which we ever felt underpowered with the new V-6 engine, and we were impressed just as we were with the Tundra a few months ago.

We managed a nice 18.9 mpg during our week, which was mostly getting around town and being in four-wheel high for more than 50% of that driving.

Inside, of course, the new Sequoia is really a work of art. It comes with a huge 14-inch multimedia display that features the “Hey, Toyota” option through which the vehicle acts similar to Siri or Alexa, answering questions and performing vehicle-related tasks. “Awesome” is all we can say about this new system!

The seats were heated and cooled and there’s a heated steering wheel, which really helped on the cold winter days when we were out with the new SUV.

We also loved that fact that wireless Apple CarPlay or Android Auto was part of the package also. We never tire of not having to tether our phones to our vehicle to stay connected and using them seamlessly as part of the infotainment package.

The TRD Pro comes with standard second-row captain’s chairs that made getting into the third-row seating easier through the gap in the second-row chairs. It also comes with TRD-tuned Fox internal bypass shocks that offer a smooth ride on the road but are certainly very confident when one gets off the pavement.

Other off-road options included a standard selectable locking rear differential, Muti-Terrain Select for differing surfaces, CRAWL control and downhill assist. These are all things we have seen in the Tacoma and 4Runner, which are very confident off-roaders themselves.

As we mentioned, all trim levels come with the standard Toyota Safety Sense 2.5 that now includes pedestrian detection in low light, bicyclists in the daytime, and oncoming vehicles and pedestrians at intersections. This system is designed to detect vehicles and pedestrians when making a left-hand turn and will even brake if certain conditions are met.

Of course, we loved the included lane keep assist that could center the Sequoia in the lane with the radar cruise control set. Road sign recognition, automatic high beams, rear cross path detection and blind spot monitoring rounded out the safety features we enjoyed.

There was not much to not like in the new Sequoia. It will prove to be a great contender in the full-sized SUV marketplace — one that would get our vote of confidence every time.

Base price: $76,000

Destination charge: $1,595

Price as driven: $80,291

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