The ideal other Toyota for a family of five?

I love my truck. I do not love my wife’s Yukon XL. It has lots of little issues and has stranded her twice. To be honest, I want her in another Toyota. She is a Suburban fangirl and prefers them (or Yukon XLs) to everything else. But her recent issues have opened her up to something different. She is very allergic to the idea of a minivan. Our time frame is 6-12mo worth of saving, assuming the Yukon holds up for that long, which I think is likely.

Her criteria:
• at least 7 seats (she wants to be able to cart around all our kids plus their friends)
• cargo space for our kids’ bikes, sports gear

My criteria:
• dependable over the long term. Although there is some satisfaction on my part rescuing her in my Toyota when her GM fails, I’m getting sick of fixing the dang thing.
• AWD
• efficiency. Her current vehicle does worse than my Tundra, and she drives almost as many miles as I do. Except we can’t claim mileage on her vehicle on our taxes. I’d love for her to be in a hybrid.

The contenders:

AWD hybrid Sienna. Obviously a minivan is the most practical family vehicle ever made. If I can get her over the irrational stigma of driving one, this would be the no-brainer choice for me.
AWD hybrid Highlander. It does all the things the Sienna does, just not as well. Also, our youngest probably won’t fit in the 3rd row in about 5-6 years.
Lexus LX 470. I love these, but it would not move the efficiency needle, and it would require careful attention regarding maintenance.
Lexus GX/5th gen 4Runner Limited. Again, very strong in the dependability and utility categories, and I have a soft spot for 5th gen 4Rs, but like the Highlander the utility of the 3rd row will expire in 5-6 years for us, and it’s not significantly more efficient than my truck.

Honorable mentions:
3rd gen Sequoia: I’ve changed my mind on this since seeing it. Cargo design looks like an afterthought, and cargo space is somewhat lacking. It’s not on this list because I don’t want to deal with the hassle and potential issues of a brand new design. And I really don’t want to join the mad rush of people trying to get one in the first 18 months. Everyone with a 4Runner is itching to get one of these. Maybe in 5 years?
2nd gen Sequoia: Fairly practical. But for its size, you should not have to choose between a third row and cargo space. Also does not move the needle on the efficiency front.

Feel free to chime in with any experience you have with the 4 contenders. I’ll put up a poll as well. At this point, I’m only interested in Toyota/Lexus vehicles.

 

I am going for a sienna for my soon to be fam of 5. When you take into account the price, utility and gas mileage, it really is no comparison to anything else.

 

I have taken 6 adults (me, wife two kids (all over 30) & their SO's) and 2 80lb dogs and allllll our stuff comfortably on trips in our 2013 Limited with second row captains chairs Sequoia with 70% of the bags on the roof on numerous trips.

Everyone was comfortable, we got 15mpg in 2WD. If you got the second row bench there is an extra seat.

 

^

That's what I was thinking.

Also for storage you can cheaply add a hitch carrier (basket) for luggage / cargo if needed.

 

@e30cabrio you had me until

I very much prefer not needing external cargo solutions.

 

You can always add a rooftop cargo box as well if storage is a concern for the Sequoia or 4Runner. I will say though, my wife's vehicle is a Chrysler Pacifica minivan and with our 4 kids and dog that thing is fantastic. We haven't had any issues at all 40K miles in. I have a neighbor who purchased the Sienna Hybrid and she loves it, I also think for a minivan its pretty nice looking.

 

SI3K here.

Some thoughts:
I have two friends (both are SI4K) with a 2G Sequoia. They love it.
17-19 isn’t really that bad fully loaded. The AWD in the 2nd gen Sequoia is great. Captains chairs would require us to use of at least half the third row at all times. I would just have to embrace some kind of external cargo solution.

Are there 2nd gen Sequoias with leather that have a 2nd row bench? Would prefer leather due to kids and dog. Can always go Katzkin…

Two 5.7L vehicles. Lol. I know some people embrace it.

 

A van is great for a family. So useful.

other than Toyota, look at Mazda. Toyota and Mazda have always treated us very well and we have been happy with owning them.

 

I suppose we could have had the single 3rd row seat down & forced my Daughter to be uncomfortable and had no roof storage, if your kids are young that would be a solution.

 

Keep in mind, mini vans fit a lot of people but with all seats being used the cargo space in the back becomes small. You can always add a hitch and get a hitch basket. We have an odyssey and love that thing. We are a family of 5 tho so I have the flexibility to fold down seats and load it up.

 

Is the 2G Sequoia’s third row seats that small? Only young kids will fit comfortably?

 

This is part of why we wanted the captains. That center seat comes out FWIW.

 

No, it's not small at all.

It has a 2 seat and a single seat up/down configuration.

If you left the single-seat down, there is room for two people (with seatbelts) but they will be very close together.

With all three up, there is a seat between them & they have all the room needed.

 

I looked for months & got "lucky" finding this one 1800 miles away.

 

Yup, 2 & 1 seats!

 

It just occurred to me, that for a family of 5 with the second-row bench and 2 seats of the third row down which would give tons of space for things.

 

You are describing the Yukon XL as the perfect vehicle for your wife. Cargo space, Room for 7, available AWD, efficiency will exceed your Tundra easily in the current Gen Yukons. Hers must be older? We had a 21 suburban for several weeks ad averaged 19.2MPG mixed. Could get 22-24mpg on the highway loaded for vacation. Everything else will be a compromise. Next closest competitor that can do it all is the van, but it will have less cargo space and isn't sexy. It will be slightly more efficient depending on configuration. Wild card could be the need to tow. If you ever need to pull anything of substance, then the Yukon becomes the obvious choice.

 

Yeah, hers is a 2012. A producer I worked for out of state rented me a ‘20 Denali 6.2 a while back. It was nice and fun to drive but the proximity alert was buggy and extremely annoying. It would go off and buzz the driver’s seat randomly. Plus, at 20k miles that stupid thing was already starting to rattle and reveal its inferior quality. We’re both kind of done with non-Toyota vehicles, and I don’t trust the new full size domestics. Plus, we have my Tundra for towing.

At 36mpg, the hybrid AWD Sienna is substantially more efficient.

 

Im in the same boat. I’m trying to ditch my wife’s 2015 Yukon XL Denali. Electrical gremlins have begun to pop up one after another and I’m over it.

We are also looking for captain middle row and leather - leaning towards either 2018-2021 sequoia or a GX. Both are tough to find with captain second row and both will sacrifice cargo space for reliability but imo GM’s are made to last 100k miles and it shows.

 

Have a friend with a 2015 Yukon XL Denali. Trans has been serviced several times with the fluid de jour to fix the clunky nature of the 8 speed. Replaced the passenger side tailight for common LED board failure. Otherwise he's had decent luck with his. The 6.2 is a beast. He pulls his Mastercraft short distances with it. Routinely loads the seats and cargo area and gets 17 or so MPG mixed. He currently has 134k miles on his. A Seqouia XL (not a thing) could possibly do the same duties, but the MPG's would be much worse and it lacks power in comparison to the 6.2.

 

I’ve had to do both tail lights, the “magna-ride” shocks last 50-60k miles, and i have the issue where both cooling fans will run full bore without reason cooling the engine below operating temp and then keep running once you turn the car off. You have to pull the battery terminal to get them to shut off. GM stuff.

We’ve been told the fix is to replace the circuit board under the main fuse box. That part is nationally backordered with no ETA.

Thank god ours is one of the first 2015’s and it still has the 6 speed.

 

Oh yeah, throw in a passenger front Magna-ride replacement for him also. He's got a parts hookup that gets him stuff at cost an does mechanics work, so he's avoided some big $$ repairs. He's spent about $1000 total in repairs since he's owned it. Not bad.

 

We had to do a full AC replacement at 115k miles after the compressor seized. That was almost $2k.

 

Thanks again, but no. Thread specifies Toyota/Lexus only. We are fully aware that any other vehicle except a Suburban (or YXL or Exped Max) will be a decrease in cargo area. That is how much we want to get away from domestics.

The 6.2 is fun, but it is in no way necessary to pull a 3500-5000lb ski boat. Notice I did not list towing as a criterion for this potential other vehicle.

Once again. Non-Toyota/Lexus recommendations are irrelevant to the thread topic.