2012 Toyota Sequoia - a.k.a Bertha

[BertieWooster]

For the past 17 months I've been running around in a 2008 Toyota Highlander Hybrid. It's been faultless and, even at 154,000 miles, didn't rattle inside.





However, having had a winter of fairly epic proportions up here in the high Rockies of Colorado (it snowed from October 2018 to June 2019), I decided it was time to invest in something a little more capable in the snow. My Highlander was predominately front wheel drive, with the rear wheels being powered whenever the electric motor felt like it.



Mrs Wooster has a 2011 Subaru Outback 3.6R, which is pretty much unstoppable in winter weather. However, with two little Woosters on scene, it isn't quite big enough for road trips / vacations.





I wanted something with proper 4WD and, naturally, a V8. Top of my priority list was reliability, build quality, and ease of maintenance. Fuel economy was not a major factor - my weekly commute is a total of 16 miles (8 each way) and fuel isn't that expensive up here (although it's not as cheap as down in Denver).

I spent a few weeks researching various makes and finally narrowed my selection down to the following:

• Toyota Land Cruiser
• Lexus LX570
• Toyota Sequoia

After some more thinking, I discounted the Land Cruiser as they command a premium (mainly for the name) over the other two vehicles. The LX570 is more luxurious than the Land Cruiser but, somewhat surprisingly, used models cost less.

I kept comparing the LX570 and Sequoia and finally decided that the latter was more suitable for the following reasons:

• The third row was fold-flat, unlike that of the LX570 (and also Land Cruiser), where the third row folds up and to the side, thereby reducing cargo space.
• The Sequoia had selectable 4WD, so could be left in 2WD unless the weather and road conditions dictated otherwise. The LX570 was permanent 4WD.
• When looking at a Sequoia and LX570 of the same year, I could get one with less miles for less money.

And so the search began. I wanted something with leather and heated seats, which meant the SR5, the base model Sequoia, was not an option. Both the Limited and Platinum models have leather as standard.

After a couple of weeks searching I found a 2013 Sequoia Limited, with 149,000 miles on the clock, for sale at a Nissan main dealer down in Denver. From the photos it looked promising so I went to have a look. Up close, things were different. The outside looked tired, with numerous scratches and fairly large dents in several places. In addition, it had been up for sale for over two months - which is fairly unusual as Sequoias are quite popular - so that didn't make me feel comfortable either. The dealer tried a hard sell approach, and then gave me a low ball offer to take my Highlander as a trade-in. I walked away and kept searching.

A couple of weeks later a broker I had used to purchase both the Outback and Highlander contacted me to let me know that he had a 2012 Sequoia Platinum and asked if I was interested. He offered me a decent trade-in value for my Highlander and the deal was done.

I'm now running around in this, which has been nicknamed Bertha. It has pretty much every option ticked, including: heated and cooled seats, radar cruise control, blind spot monitoring, captain's chairs in the second row, rear entertainment system, and adjustable air suspension.



















It has Toyota's very reliable and well-built 5.7l iForce V8 (which is the same as in the Land Cruiser and LX570) up front. With regard to fuel economy, it has a thirst for unleaded that, by comparison, would make an alcoholic look teetotal. I'm currently averaging around 15 mpg US (about 18 UK), and am fully expecting that to decrease when the really cold weather arrives. However, in terms of performance, maintenance, and reliability, the engine is among the top V8s out there.



It's great to drive - the V8 isn't short of power, so makes acceleration fairly effortless for something so big. It is pretty easy to park (or should I say dock) as it has parking sensors all round, a rear camera, and side mirrors that automatically adjust downwards when in reverse. There is a huge amount of space inside, along with numerous storage compartments. As previously mentioned, the third row folds flat (electronically) in a 60/40 split. Even with all the seats up, there is still a decent amount of luggage space.







I plan on doing routine maintenance (oil and filter changes, brake replacement) myself as it is pretty straight forward. In terms of modifications, I am going to swap out the original plastic oil filter housing for a metal one, and put a Fumoto valve in the oil pan (which makes oil changes a lot easier). I may also replace the current air filter with a K&N one to help the car breathe better given the altitude this will be running around at (we live at 10,000ft).

That's about it. I will plan on updating this thread, once winter fully arrives, with more photos and details of fuel (un)economy.

[Jag_NE]

Great bit of kit, I expect that will last you a long time. I presume you are paying $2 to $3 a gallon so fuel isn’t too much of a worry!

How much is a brand new one?

[BertieWooster]

Jag_NE said:

Great bit of kit, I expect that will last you a long time. I presume you are paying $2 to $3 a gallon so fuel isn’t too much of a worry!

How much is a brand new one?

Unleaded is around $2.80 a gallon up here so not that pricey.

A new one in Platinum trim is about $65,000. I paid just under $25,000 for mine.

[Geekman]

Quite tempted by one of these. I'm surprised they fitted air suspension though: I can imagine it's quite expensive to fix and more fragile than a traditional system? My main reason for getting one would be durability so that's put me off a bit.

[BertieWooster]

Geekman said:

Quite tempted by one of these. I'm surprised they fitted air suspension though: I can imagine it's quite expensive to fix and more fragile than a traditional system? My main reason for getting one would be durability so that's put me off a bit.

Only the Platinum has the rear air suspension as standard I believe. I didn't come across many issues with it when I was doing my research. If it does go then I can swap out the air system for regular coil springs if I don't want to pay for a direct replacement.

[Geekman]

BertieWooster said:

Only the Platinum has the rear air suspension as standard I believe. I didn't come across many issues with it when I was doing my research. If it does go then I can swap out the air system for regular coil springs if I don't want to pay for a direct replacement.

Interesting, that makes more sense then. I have an air suspension system on my current Range Rover and whilst it's been pretty reliable, I think I'd like to avoid it in my next car as we have a huge amount of potholes and dirt roads where I live, so cheap, simple shocks would remove a lot of potential issues. I'll be interested to hear how you get on with it long term: hopefully it proves as reliable as most Toyota products.

[jimmyjimjim]

As I mentioned a while back, I'm in a similar position to you vis-a-vis children, and we're finding that the current fleet doesn't really cut it.

Interesting observations regarding the outback; I've been pondering the Forester, and conceivably the Ascent, but neither really appeal.

It sound like the only thing really putting you off the Highlander was the weird AWD system - presumably if it was a permanent AWD without hybrid, it would have been ok? I was surprised on the other thread you mentioned getting the Sequoia to improve handling in snow - I was under the impression that the Highlander was meant to be good....

[BertieWooster]

jimmyjimjim said:

As I mentioned a while back, I'm in a similar position to you vis-a-vis children, and we're finding that the current fleet doesn't really cut it.

Interesting observations regarding the outback; I've been pondering the Forester, and conceivably the Ascent, but neither really appeal.

It sound like the only thing really putting you off the Highlander was the weird AWD system - presumably if it was a permanent AWD without hybrid, it would have been ok? I was surprised on the other thread you mentioned getting the Sequoia to improve handling in snow - I was under the impression that the Highlander was meant to be good....

If the Highlander had been a regular AWD then I think it would have been fine. The issue was just the way the hybrid worked which meant it wasn't the best in the snow.

Let me know if you want to look at the Sequoia - I'm down in Denver fairly regularly.

What's in your current fleet?

[jimmyjimjim]

Mazda6 and Audi S4. I'm struggling to persuade the wife to get anything bigger than a CR-V to replace the Mazda, a sequoia is a non-starter....

She likes the look of the Highlander, so we could get lucky. It's no longer, just a little wider. Same with the passport, which I like the look of. With the Highlander getting replaced next month, some decent deals to be had.

My commute is to walk to the basement, so if I get her to get something family related, I don't need anything particularly practical.

[The Moose]

Cool car! We’ve been looking at these too.

Do you enjoy CO? What do you do there? Are you originally from the UK?

[BertieWooster]

The Moose said:

Cool car! We’ve been looking at these too.

Do you enjoy CO? What do you do there? Are you originally from the UK?

We love it out here. Although last winter was way too long for my liking.

I'm a

I am indeed from the UK. We've been out here a couple of years now. Before that we were in Germany.

[jimmyjimjim]

Winter here lasts until you're begging for summer. Summer lasts just as long. Spring and Autumn are blink and you'll miss them events.

[The Moose]

BertieWooster said:

The Moose said:

Cool car! We’ve been looking at these too.

Do you enjoy CO? What do you do there? Are you originally from the UK?

We love it out here. Although last winter was way too long for my liking.

I'm a

I am indeed from the UK. We've been out here a couple of years now. Before that we were in Germany.

How did you manage that?

I haven't been to CO, but have a sister in law there and really want to visit...and do some skiing - I hear you have a bit of that

[BertieWooster]

The Moose said:

How did you manage that?

I haven't been to CO, but have a sister in law there and really want to visit...and do some skiing - I hear you have a bit of that

It's something I've wanted to do for a while and the opportunity opened up a couple of years ago so I took the plunge. I focus on traffic safety so have the freedom to go anywhere and have a huge amount of discretion on what enforcement action to take.

We have a few resorts up where I live. It was opening day at Breckenridge on Friday so the roads have been pretty busy over the last couple of days.

[BertieWooster]

I posted a few photos in the GG crash pics thread but thought I would update this one.

This happened earlier in the week. Initial estimate is about $8k worth of damage due to where it was hit.