Sequoia/tundra newbie question.

[Spitfisher]

First I am new here! I contribute to many forums of interest and respect the value the contributions and imput that complete strangers can supply. I very often return the favor to others.

read: I am not a lurker

That said I am looking at 2002 sequoia in great shape with low miles. (105K) OccupationalIy needs have me haul around quite abit of demo golf equipment to provide consumer and dealer demos and outings. Clubs, tents banners and tons of golf equi[pement.

My question is fairly simple is sequoia just an SUV version of the tundra, is the frame/suspension roughly the same?

 

[shaka]

I would say its a suv version of tundra.

 

[toyotafan]

Welcome to the site @Spitfisher.

Yeah, basically the Toyota Sequoia is derived from the Toyota Tundra. Since they're the same frame and overall size, the Sequioa of course is Toyota's full-size SUV and the Tundra is Toyo'ta full-sized pickup truck.

What's funny about the Sequoia is that they've had to beef it up and go up-market to find their niche in the US market because of the 2005+ rise in gasoline prices. That might seem like a strange thing to say, they they had to increase the overall physical size, horsepower and price of this large SUV to survive in the market, but that's what happened.

In fact, back in 2002 Toyota sold over 70,000 Sequoia in the US, that dropped a bit each year (along with all other manufacturer's full-sized SUVs) and really dropped when they came out with the new platform in 2008 (with a big jump in price that occured at the worst possible time in our current economy) and they've hovered around 13,000 Sequoias sold each year in the US, with a drop in 2014 to just under 12,000.

That being said, it's REALLY hard to find a good Sequoia on the used car market because as a used vehicle, mostly because it's been built to overperform, as there's such a high demand for second owners who want Toyota quality but also need to tow a heavy trailer or boat.

 

[toyotafan]

Here are a couple of pics to show the relative size of each one, they're sitting on the same frame of course but because of things like bumpers and what not they're not exactly the same length I don't think.

Also, I'm not certain if they use the same suspension components or not, I'll have to check on towing capacity but I think the advantage goes to the Tundra, but I don't quite remember actually.

TOYOTA TUNDRA PIC - FULL SIZE PICKUP TRUCK

TOYOTA SEQUOIA PIC - FULL-SIZE SUV SPORT UTILITY VEHICLE

 

[toyotafan]

Sorry, the server was running slow for the last 20 minutes, but @shaka was right on and said in 9 words what I said in a lot more.

 

[shaka]

@toyotafan I enjoyed the history lesson! I didn't know that Toyota struggled with the Sequoia.

 

[toyotafan]

@shaka, what are you driving? A Sequoia I take it?