2026 Toyota Sequoia - Living With Toyota's Flagship SUV! (What’s NEW for 2026?)

What's going on YouTube? So the Sequoia remains the big dog in the Toyota SUV lineup, offering Lexus levels of luxury and performance. And we just spent the last week with the latest addition to the Sequoia lineup, the 1794, which adds a lot of luxury details. So is this the full size SUV you should put in your driveway? Let's go ahead and find out. Like always, let's start off with the spec dump and what is under the hood. So every Sequoia comes with the I-Force Max hybrid system. That's a 3.5 liter twin turbocharged V6 engine with electric componentry to make a total system power of 437. This is paired to a 10 speed automatic transmission and with four wheel drive, you get 20 miles per gallon combined. Now the base price for the Sequoia in 2026 is $64,000. And if you're looking to buy one or any new vehicle, we'd encourage you to go to carconfections.com slash new car quotes to get the best price. Now, of course, this is a real world seven day review. So we have quite a lot to share, such as our real world fuel economy, as well as things like our sound level reading. But let's go ahead and close up the hood so we can take a look at the exterior and interior details of this newest trim edition. Now taking a look at the exterior design when it comes to this new 1794 trim level, there's not a ton of differences from the other trim levels. Toyota kind of just tweaks each trim to give it a little bit of its own character. As far as the grill is concerned, this has the more upper end example. So you have a chrome mesh finish instead of the more traditional line finish you get on the lower end examples. Now the 1794, just like with the Tundra pickup truck, is going to fit in between the platinum and that top end capstone example. And then as we take a down here at the lower fascia, we have the gloss black finish. Now moving over here to our headlights, we have standard LED headlights, of course, on every single Sequoia for 2026. Since we have a trim above the platinum, we have the premium projector LEDs. These are a crystal design here for both low and high beam. We also have the daytime running light and turn signal indicator with the special sequential turn signal. And then down below, as you probably saw earlier, we have LED fog lights. As we move to the back, that same kind of rugged and very handsome design continues. Absolutely. It has a lot of bling to it as well. So let's break down some of the individual design touches. We have a spoiler right here. We have a rear window wiper, a lot of chrome, which I think would look a lot better on a different color other than silver. And then let's take a look at our taillights. These taillights are, of course, very premium. So they're a full LED setup. As you can see, we have the LED brake light, the LED dynamic turn signal indicator, and the LED reverse light. That's standard on your platinum trims and above. And then as we drop down, we have our Sequoia branding. All of this is going to be finished in a nice kind of piano black finish. As far as your tow rating, you can tow up to 9,500 pounds with the Sequoia. This 1794, as equipped, is a little over 9,000 pounds as a maximum. Taking a look at the wheels here, we have a 20-inch contrast alloy design with a gray finish for this 1794. If you want 22s, though, that's still reserved for just the fully loaded capstone example. Now, there's a couple of ways that you can identify this new 1794. Of course, the badge, obviously. Also, we have a special wheel surround here in a metallic gray finish. And as far as our mirrors are concerned, they are fully loaded on every single Sequoia for 2026. So that means you have power folding, auto dimming, blind spot monitoring, and heating. Now, at the side of the Sequoia, this is a big SUV. Of course, it's 208.1 inches in overall length, which does mean it's actually a little bit shorter than something like a Tahoe. And it is worth noting, you cannot get an extended wheelbase version of this model. So it is just going to be what you see today. Now, as far as design, we have our chrome door handles, chrome window surrounds, chrome roof rails up top as well. And then I do want to point out for 2026, the TRD Pro gets a new color. It's called Wavemaker. It's a very bright color for those of you interested in that. Now, when it comes to your safety systems, I'm happy to tell you that the Sequoia gives you every single one of those as standard equipment. Now, we found those safety systems to work quite well this week. And there are also quite a lot of changes for 2026 on the inside that we need to discuss. But first, if you're new here, we're brothers and we've been reviewing cars since we were 12 and 16. We started young. And since then, we've reviewed over 2000 cars at every price point. No matter what you're looking for, from sound level readings to cargo measurements, we'd love for you to subscribe to be a part of our car confections family. Let's learn a lot and have some fun with all the latest cars. All right, now it's time to check out the interior. First, here's our key fob. It's the typical Toyota key fob. Nothing really going on here. No branding or anything like that. You have a standard smart entry system on all trim levels and reaching behind the handle that will unlock the door. It'll fold the mirrors outward. You also deploy power running boards if you have the capstone or you can option that on to some of the higher end trim levels. All right, let's check out this interior. So obviously, the 1794 is a very rich appearance. And let's kind of just jump right into some details about what has changed for 2026 when it comes to the interior, because there have been some adjustments that you need to know about with these trim levels. So the SR5 still has cloth seats on the base level. However, the next trim up the limited for 2026 gains a real leather seat. Now you have real leather on the platinum in the 1794. And then there's also a change on the top end capstone because you probably remember it used to have that black and white semi-aniline leather interior that's actually been eliminated for 2026. Instead, they move to a real leather seat, not the semi-aniline leather seat. And this instead is going to be in a shale color exclusively. So that's something to keep in mind. Although it might be, of course, more family friendly now that you don't have so much white leather for your little grubby kids to put their fingerprints all over. Now, as far as the seats here, very nice with the real leather, soft and supple. I like the brown finish with the 1794 and the color contrast accent. These are also highly adjustable. So we have 14 ways of power adjustment on the upper end examples, including a thigh extension. Memory seats are included at the limited trim and above. And let's go ahead and climb inside. As I close up the door, let's look at the rest of the cabin materials. Obviously, this is a very high end Sequoia. So we have nice materials. You have two different shades of brown leather over here on the door trim, nice leather on the top there with the stitching detail and some wood decor. Up through here, we have a leatherette covering with stitching detail, although it is hard touch on just this one section of the upper dash. We have a beautiful piece of real wood trim with the special branding right there. And you have, again, more two-tone leather materials running through the center section and more wood all through here. Like I said, very Lexus-like in the overall execution, actually somewhat nicer than some of the recent Lexus products, such as the GX we had on loan. Let's fire it up with the push-button start. Now that we're fired up here, let's move into some individual interior details. We'll start with the gauge cluster. We have a standard 12.3-inch full digital cluster for all trim levels. As you can see, we have some special graphics. They kind of beef up the graphics compared to other Toyota SUVs to be more rugged looking for the Sequoia Duty, and it is customizable. Also customizable is the head-up display. This is a 10-inch head-up display, standard on just the Capstone, and it is optional on lower trims such as this 1794. Now, moving back to the steering wheel, we have the Toyota rugged truck design leather wrapped with the perforation on the sides as well. It is power tilt and telescoping. We also have steering wheel heating and rain sensing wipers. Now, of course, you buy a big SUV because you want plenty of storage, and up here in the front, they do a pretty darn good job. Underneath this piece of wood, you have a tiny cubby for a little object. You have a tray right here which can slide back, and this reveals some of your center console, or you can open up the full door there and reveal this enormous console storage. Of course, we've got it loaded up with donuts because we like to put donuts in the console and compare to the competition. Well, as typical really for this class, the console is enormous. It fits the full two dozen donuts. That's the maximum you can possibly score in the car confections donut test, so good job with that. And then further, we've got our two cup holders underneath that piece of wood and then a not super large cubby up here in the front with a wireless phone charging pad for the platinum and above. By the way, the pad's not the effective. This position kind of upright doesn't really keep your phone in place very well. It definitely would have been better if they kind of recessed this back, made this storage a little bit bigger, and made that flat. Now, as far as your shifter is concerned, we don't have an electronic shifter. We just have the traditional style one. Pull back for drive, bump over here to the left. If you want to shift manually, there are not paddle shifters on the steering wheel. And then when we go into reverse, this pulls up our available 360-degree camera system. Inside of this, you have several different views you can choose from. Right now, we're just in that traditional backup view, and you also have the overhead view. You can kind of go around the vehicle, and you have front and rear parking sensors. Now, behind the shifter, you have your four-wheel drive controls as well as your drive mode controller, and then up in front of that, you have your electronic parking brake with brake hold. Then you have a row of just kind of a random assortment of buttons, and then above that, that's where you get into your climate controls and your audio controls. So again, one thing I like about this truck is it's very analog. So with the three-zone auto climate, very simple. You can just adjust your temperature up and down with these large toggles. You can manually control the fan speed and all the different settings right through there. We also have standard heated seats, and you get ventilated seats on the limited trim and above. Off to the side here, we have a big old meaty volume knob, and that will control on the platinum trim and above the 14-speaker JBL premium sound system. Let's go ahead and give that a sample. So just like we've said in past Sequoia reviews, overall sound quality is decent. However, it's definitely very bass-heavy and not very detailed in the overall sound quality, which is disappointing when you consider how much this vehicle costs. Of course, Mason will talk about that later, but it is very, very expensive. Now, moving into our main display, we have the large 14-inch display. This is standard on all but the very base trim. Right now, I'm in wireless Android Auto. We also have wireless Apple CarPlay as well, of course. And let me go into the Toyota system real fast and show you what that looks like. You've seen this in many of their models. They keep it really simple overall. So you just have those big, easy-to-use buttons over here. Actually, everything is very supersized and feels super close to you with this model. Here's your built-in navigation system during the trial period. Up top, you'll find an available auto-dimming mirror with also the digital... Or excuse me, auto-dimming is standard, and this is the available digital camera rear-view mirror. We have HomeLink universal remotes. We also have an optional built-in dash cam. And then up at the top, our top three trim levels, we'll get a standard panoramic sunroof. As you can see, you've got the physical sunshade, and the front panel does open up. Now, let's talk about the very important second and third rows, as well as the cargo area in the Sequoia. Of course, big SUVs need big amounts of space, and let's go ahead and dive into that. So, first and foremost, our legroom is sitting at 39 inches of legroom and 38.4 inches of headroom. That does mean that it's a couple inches behind some of the rivals like the Chevy Tahoe in terms of overall legroom. That does not mean, though, that it's not a lot of space still. It certainly is a lot of space. I'm 5'9 for reference, and this seat is adjusted to Drew, who's 5'8. And look at this. We are looking at a solid foot of knee room, so that is a ton of room, guys. You're certainly not going to be running low on space. Also, my feet can kind of slide up underneath of these seats. And one thing to keep in mind, though, is that these seats are fixed position. So, unlike, I think, all of the rivals, you cannot slide the seats forward and back. So, that's kind of disappointing. So, you can't really customize the amount of space that you have. And then they do recline a pretty good distance, which definitely helps out with overall comfort. Now, speaking of the seats themselves, we have the captain's chairs. That is standard on platinum grades of the Sequoia and above. That means that the overall seating capacity for this model is going to be seven passenger. You, of course, can get bench seating as well to increase your capacity to eight passenger. If you have the captain's chairs, you have the two cup holders here, as well as another little storage area. That's not it for cup holders, because we do have two more up at the top area. We have a nice leatherette pad through there, our own Zona Climate. Heated and ventilated seats are included, actually, on your platinum 1794 and capstone grade. So, really nice feature set back here. And two charging USB ports, a household style outlet, and then you have your vents coming out down below there. Additionally, we have some special Sequoia 1794 floor mats. I think we forgot to mention those up in the front. They definitely have a unique look to them. I think it elevates the cabin experience. We have vents coming out of the ceiling as well. And let's turn over to the door trim. Most of the models will come standard with rear window sunshades, and the door trim itself is nicely done. Lots of leather through everything. We also have open pore wood and a ton of door storage. As you can see, it easily swallows up that water bottle. And let's check out the third row. In order to get back here, they've made it pretty easy. You just pull that one little lever. That's going to kind of fold the seat down and tilt it out of the way. Of course, if you did have a child seat installed, that would mean you have fully remove it. So that's a little aggravating. But let's go ahead and hop back here into the third row itself. Now when it comes to the third row, there's a couple things to consider with the Sequoia. So first of all, your maximum legroom is sitting at about 34 inches of legroom. So the legroom itself is actually pretty good. The headroom is sitting at 35 inches of headroom. So that's certainly not the best in this segment. That's for sure. I'm five foot nine and my head is scraping the ceiling. And you can also slide these seats forward and backwards. So it's between 28 and 34 inches of overall legroom. I brought the ruler back here as well. With the seat in its fixed position, we are looking at seven inches of additional knee room. My feet can kind of slide up underneath of the seat. But the unfortunate thing about the Sequoia is the fact that it doesn't have much thigh support at all. We did not use a independent rear suspension for this generation of the Sequoia. So that does mean that it's certainly not as comfortable as something like a Tahoe. That being said, they have tried to make it better by adding quite a lot of features. We have this piece for your arm to rest on. We also have these buttons to recline the seats a little bit more to give you extra space, two cup holders, and we also have third row window sun shades as well as vents in the ceiling. Overall, how this is going to rate on the third row rating scale is I'm going to say this is fit for the in-laws mainly just because of the overall lack of thigh support. That definitely means it's a lot less comfortable than the rivals and there are three seats back here. Walking up to the tailgate, we have a 2026 change and that's the fact that a power tailgate is now standard on every single Sequoia model. That's a nice addition this year. You can also still pop the rear glass independently, so that's nice as well. Let's go ahead and open it up so you can see how much space you're going to find. Now when it comes to the cargo space, you might be a little disappointed in this as well. Just like the third row, we're sitting at only 11 cubic feet behind the third row of seats, 49 cubic feet behind the second row, and as a maximum 87 cubic feet. Compared to the rivals such as Tahoe, Expedition, those types of vehicles, that's going to be significantly less. Those are all over 100 cubic feet as a maximum, so a pretty substantial size difference between those models. Speaking of all the rivals that you may be cross-shopping with in this full-size SUV segment, we'd encourage you to go to carconfections.com. The reason you do that is because we've looked at all the top 10 categories that a buyer in this segment would be wanting, such as the third row, cargo capacity, interior luxury, powertrain choices, and you can use the chart on our website to sort based on what is most important to you. You can find some of the best options for you, so if you want to make an informed buying decision, definitely go to carconfections.com and use that tool. Now as far as the rest of the cargo area, you will notice that we have a little bit of a built-in shelf here. You can also customize it depending on what layers you're looking at, and then these buttons over here on the side will allow us to power fold the third row seats. It is a one-press setup, so that's nice, and power folding is additionally standard equipment for 2026 on all versions of the Sequoia. Now I do not have buttons to fold the second row, so I will have to go up there and do it manually, and now that we've got those seats folded down, let's get our cargo length, width, and height figures. So as far as cargo length behind Drew's 5'8 driving position, we are looking at good numbers. 89 inches of length from behind the second row of seats. Keep in mind those are fixed position. We're looking at 48 inches of length from behind the third row of seats. You can expect about a foot or a little bit less space. As far as the opening, 52 inches wide. That's really good, and then height as your maximum. I'm going to go ahead and get that for you. That's going to be sitting at about 36 inches tall. That's pretty good, but of course keep in mind that the third row, this is as far down as the third row is going to go. So as far as like a realistic height figure, you're only looking at about 26 inches, which is certainly not very good for this segment. The reason they have this shelf is because the third row cannot, you know, fold down into the floor, but they do give you these little handles so you can actually slide the third row up a little bit. Now you also have a household style outlet on the right side, a USB port in the third row itself, and then down below we have a full-size spare tire. Well guys, here we are behind the wheel of the 2026 Toyota Sequoia. In this test drive, we're going to be discussing quite a lot. As you can see on the screen right now, we'll also be getting things like our sound level reading, as well as our real world fuel economy discussing that. But first, we need to start with a hard acceleration. All right, that was a little over 60 miles per hour with the Sequoia. Now, like we mentioned at the very beginning, Toyota doesn't actually give you any variations of engine options to choose from, so you will get the kind of top dog of the lineup. It's Toyota's Hybrid Maxx powertrain, or iForce Maxx I should say, a 3.5 liter twin turbocharged V6 engine. So that's 437 horsepower and 583 pound feet of torque. Obviously, you don't need me to tell you, that's a lot of power. Absolutely, it is a lot of power, especially a lot of torque over rivals such as that Tahoe right there. So the Tahoe's top engine would be a 6.2 liter with 420 horsepower, 460 pound feet of torque, so over 100 pound feet more torque. Additionally, it's more horsepower, so we've sampled both of those. This definitely feels like a substantial upgrade in terms of power, and of course, it's a hybrid setup. So we'll talk about some of the pros and cons of that, but that really helps you to get the most standard horsepower in the segment. The fact that you're getting the hybrid system as standard on all Sequoias. Right, this is definitely a hybrid system that's much more geared towards performance than fuel economy. And also, of course, you can hear that it's got quite the growl to it. That's because Toyota's using kind of a synthesized sound to make it sound like that V8 you might be used to in your other full-size SUV you had previously or something like that. And I think that's definitely nice because, you know, a lot of people will kind of expect to have that V8 growl in this segment. So you're not really going without that, even though you have a different type of powertrain arrangement. Now, as far as the transmission is concerned, we've got a 10-speed automatic transmission. This is largely a very good transmission. It's nice and smooth and most everyday driving. Just occasionally there might be a little bit of a confused shift, but otherwise it's pretty much perfect. Yeah, and as far as how power is routed to the ground, you have standard two-wheel drive on the vast majority of models or available four-wheel drive. Four-wheel drive is standard on a few of the versions of the Sequoia. But as we're just kind of opening out into the highway section here, I want to talk about ride quality for this model. So living with the Sequoia does give you the unique opportunity to, you know, drive it on a bunch of different road surfaces. We've lived with this model several times in the past as well, and ride quality is pretty good. Now, it does have some pretty stiff competition. This, of course, is a body-on-frame platform, so you do feel a little bit of the vibrations entering into the cabin. You'll see that demonstrated as we go over this bridge abutment here. A couple things worth noting is that you cannot get a full air suspension. So things like the Tahoe, the GMC Yukon, those models will have an air suspension as well as the Nissan Armada. And we have found those to have better ride quality, but I think you'll still be more than satisfied with the ride that the Sequoia is offering. Additionally, the 1794 with the 20-inch wheels instead of the 22s that you get on the Capstone, I think that actually helps your ride quite significantly. So if you want, you know, a luxurious Sequoia with, you know, the better ride quality, I think the 1794 might be a better choice than the Capstone. Yeah, I think this is pretty comfortable overall. Just to be clear, this does have a rear air suspension as an option as well as adaptive dampers. So it does have technology, of course, to smooth out the ride from just, you know, a truck foundation. It's certainly a lot smoother than like a, you know, regular pickup truck or anything like that. But, you know, overall, like Mason was saying, this is a class where you've got a lot of choices, especially at this price point, and you can get easily a full air suspension for this price. All right, we are accelerating up to 55 miles per hour, so we can get our sound level reading. I'll go ahead and toggle us to fan speed one. The rear climate, I will go ahead and turn off, and there we go. Let's go ahead and see how quiet it is. Nicely done. 53.3 decibels is what we are sitting at in the Sequoia 1794. We don't have to sit here and guess how it compares to its rivals. We can find that at carconfections.com slash sound level readings, where we've looked at all of the full-size SUVs this competes with. And indeed, that is actually one of the quietest sound level readings that we have gotten in this segment. That's a very good number, you know, especially for a big SUV like this. They've definitely done a lot to make this cabin feel, you know, more like a luxury SUV than just a traditional truck. Now, we also need to talk about fuel economy for this vehicle. Now, like we were saying earlier, this is a hybrid, but it's definitely more focused on performance than fuel economy. So, when it comes to the fuel economy numbers, we're sitting at 1922 20 mpg combined for 2026 with a four-wheel drive model. The two-wheel drive comes in at 22 mpg. So, that is actually still better than the competition. That's better than the Tahoe that you're going to get with the V8, although it's not, you know, like, you know, amazing fuel economy by any stretch of the imagination. It is better than those rivals. Now, what have we been getting for this week's testing? Well, just due to overall scheduling of this loan, we did have to film this a little bit before we concluded our full week with this model. So, we'll go ahead and insert a picture in of what our real world fuel economy is after we deplete more of the tank. But initially, we were sitting right around that 17 mpg mark in city driving. So, that would be actually just a little bit lower than what the EPA is saying. But we'll, of course, you know, stay tuned and let you see on the screen right now what it is officially. Now, let's get to our slam dunk and air ball. Our favorite and least favorite element. Drew, kick us off with the slam dunk of the Sequoia. For the slam dunk, we're going to say today that we really like this interior. I like the finish of the cabin and specifically with the 1794 we've been testing out, I think this is actually probably the nicest cabin in the lineup now because you still get the nice touches like the open pour natural wood from the capstone. But you have kind of the brown interior, which we think looks a little bit nicer. Yeah, I agree, especially now that they moved the capstone away from the black and white interior. And on the air ball side, what we're just going to say and, you know, has been for years will continue to be this way. The practicality of this model, unfortunately, for a huge large three row, it just doesn't have nearly as much practicality as something like a Tahoe when it comes to cargo space, third row room and comfort. And just a couple like family friendly features that kind of were overlooked for this new generation. So after living with it this week, do we like it better the same or worse? Well, I think we can all agree that we like it the same. We have lived with this model in the past. And, you know, as the model years go by the 1794, we certainly do like, but nothing really changed our opinion of this model. There's a few issues on the practicality side, but there's also a lot to like about this vehicle. Now let's talk pricing for the Sequoia. So prices for 2026 do rise about $1,000 on the base model. It's about $2,000 extra this year. So that's something to keep in mind. We start at 64 grand with two wheel drive. And then, of course, you can see the full lineup of prices on the screen right now for 2026. This is the 1794. We also have pretty much all of the options that you can get on the 1794. After four wheel drive, it's sitting at around $86,000. Now this vehicle is assembled in Texas. So it's made here in the US. And if you're looking to buy one or any new vehicle, we'd encourage you to go to carconfections.com slash new car quotes. The reason you do that is because we have a tool on our website. They'll connect you with local car dealers in your area to get you the best price. It's also going to give you access to invoice pricing information, which is a great tool to use while dealer negotiating. If you'd like to take advantage of that, as well as things like our monthly payment tool, you can find a link to that in our video description, as well as a pinned comment down below. But buying a vehicle is about more than just the original MSRP. So let's talk about resale and reliability. First up, let's talk about resale value. As an economics graduate myself, we took the time to develop what we think is a good estimate for the Sequoia's potential resale value. We estimate that it would be worth 64.5% of original MSRP. And after 10 years and 120,000 miles, 41.4%. Now, those are really amazing resale value percentages. It's the second best brand that we look at across the entire auto industry and well above industry average. Now, also well above industry average is Toyota's reliability score. So we have the thing called combined reliability index. This takes into account several studies on reliability from trustworthy sources and combines them in a way to give you a holistic picture. And when all that's factored in with the latest data, Toyota is the number one most reliable brand. Now, if you'd like to learn more about our resale values, our reliability data, or our methodology, be sure to go to carconfections.com slash resale and carconfections.com slash reliability. Buying a new vehicle is a big decision. So you want to make sure you're making a smart purchase, especially if you're cross shopping between different vehicle brands. Now, when it comes to your vehicle warranty, that's also important. You have a three-year 36,000 mile basic warranty, a five-year 60,000 mile powertrain warranty. You do have a hybrid battery warranty of 10 years and 150,000 miles by the way, and complimentary maintenance of two years and 25,000 miles. And guys, that wraps up our in-depth seven-day review of the 2026 Toyota Sequoia 1794. If you enjoyed watching this video or found it helpful in your purchasing decisions, which we hope you did, we'd really appreciate it if you hit that subscribe button down below. By subscribing, you're going to be a part of our car confections family. We have a lot of fun on this channel and I promise you won't want to miss out. If you're already part of our family, thank you so much for your continued support. You make this all possible and we'll catch you next time as we sample more of the latest automotive delicacies.