It’s not easy being green, and Toyota’s L.A. presentation proved it. First, U.S. division chief Bob Carter showed off an experimental fuel-cell-powered Highlander SUV that recently trekked 2300 trouble-free miles along the Alcan Highway. He then took a pointed poke at rival Honda’s soon-to-be-leased Clarity sedan, declaring that Toyota wanted to deliver the best fuel-cell vehicle to consumers, not merely the first. Besides, as Carter candidly admitted, “We don’t want to squander all the goodwill we’ve earned with our Prius and other hybrid vehicles.” He then proceeded to extol the virtues of a bigger, new 2008 Toyota Sequoia large SUV, a vehicle that looks anything but green and seems poorly timed with gas now costing $4 a gallon or more in some places.

2007 L.A. Auto Show
2008 Toyota Sequoia

As expected, the 2008 Sequoia borrows heavily from Toyota’s new king-size Tundra pickup trucks, including a basic chassis design and an available 381-horsepower 5.7-liter V8 with six-speed automatic transmission that’s standard for a new top-line Platinum edition. The base SR5 and midrange Limited versions offer that powertrain as an option to a 276-horsepower 4.7-liter V8 and five-speed automatic. Though the redesign adds four inches to wheelbase and over 600 pounds to base curb weight, Toyota claims slightly improved fuel economy. Still, the EPA city/highway ratings are hardly stellar at 13/16 mpg for the 4.7 engine and 13/18 for the 5.7, both with available four-wheel drive. Two-wheel ratings are only 1-2 mpg higher. Of course, Sequoia’s redesign was planned long before the current gas crunch, but the timing still seems unfortunate. Sales begin in late December. Prices will be announced early in the month.

We’ve heard Toyota officials worry privately that the new Sequoias may be too big to sell very well in today’s jittery market. Publicly, however, they defend the upsized models by saying that many buyers still need a large SUV for their space and long-distance comfort. On those counts, at least, the 2008 Sequoia equals or beats most anything in its class. In particular, the third-row seat, standard for all models, finally offers reasonable adult-size room, and despite a modest 1.2-inch gain in overall length, the new Sequoia can tote 7-foot-long cargo with both rear seats stowed and 11-foot loads with the right-front seat folded.

The 2008 Toyota Sequoia also offers several first-time features. These include a 40/20/40 second-row seat that slides and reclines, curtain side airbags with rollover deployment covering all seat rows, and a power liftgate window. Newly available are a power-fold third-row seat, air suspension, auto-adjusting shock absorbers, obstacle detection, and a navigation system with rearview camera.

Despite steadily waning demand for big SUVs, Toyota thinks the ’08 redesign will double Sequoia’s market share, drawing some 65,000 sales per year. That seems very ambitious, all things considered, but naysayers have been wrong about Toyota before, so who knows?

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