I was on the hunt for the perfect family road trip vehicle to compliment my sporty M3. It started back in 2018, when we took a family road trip to the Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Zion, Mesa Verde, and Canyon Lands. We took our Honda Odyssey minivan, which did great. However, I kept seeing side roads branching off into the wilderness. Roads I knew the Odyssey couldn’t handle. The minivan was a good first attempt at the perfect family road trip vehicle, but couldn’t do the trails we wanted. On the (long) drive home, I mentally game-planned our next road trip. It would again be out west. But this time, it’d be in a vehicle capable of taking us up those wild roads that we’d bypassed in the minivan.
Perfect Family Road Trip Vehicle 2nd Attempt: GX470
The first offroad vehicle I bought was a 2004 Lexus GX470. It was a fabulous truck that seated 8 and had great off-road potential. Our family initially loved it and I was excited to take it off road. However, after a few months, I realized it had two weaknesses. First, the legroom in the third row was seriously lacking. When our oldest climbed back there, his knees were in his chin. And our kids were only getting taller and longer. Second, the storage behind the back seat was virtually nil. There was maybe 8 inches between the seats and the rear door. I realized we needed something a little bigger.
I started the search and soon realized that there were only a few options: Chevy Suburban (or GMC equivalent), Ford Expedition/Excursion, and Toyota Sequoia. Just coming from the Lexus, I leaned Toyota. After checking out the 2007 and earlier generation, I saw that it’s 3rd row seating was pretty much the same as the GX470’s.
Perfect Family Road Trip Vehicle Winner: Toyota Sequoia
I next climbed into the back of a 2008 model and know I was home. It was big, beefy, and had plenty of room. Urban legend has it that Toyota sent their head SUV engineer to America to live with a family in Texas that drove a Suburban to take notes on how they used their vehicle, and when he came home, they designed the 2008+ Sequoia. I’m not sure if that’s true, but it sure could be. There is gobs of room and cup holders galore. The 3rd row legroom is awesome and is easily comfortable for adults.
After a bit of searching, I found a nice 2008 Platinum model for sale a couple hours away. The price was right, the miles were high (which I was fine with), and the condition was excellent. We made the trip and came home with the Sequoia, the perfect family road trip vehicle.
Stats:
- Year: 2008
- Make: Toyota
- Model: Sequoia
- Trim Level: Platinum
- Engine: 5.7L V8 32V DOHC
- Horsepower: 381 hp at 5600 rpm
- Torque: 401 ft-bls @3600 rpm
- Transmission: 6-speed Shiftable Automatic
- Drive Type: 4-wheel drive
- EPA Mileage Est (City/Hwy): 13/18 mpg
- Mileage: 187,000
- Where purchased: private seller(clean title)
- Purchase Price: $13,000
Wheels and Tires
I had plans to take this beast off road on our next trip. Not crazy rock crawling or seriously dangerous trails, but on fire roads and mountain trails that would occasionally require four wheel drive. The first thing we did was get some legit tires that could cruise on the highway and yet still handle trails. We settled on Michelin LTX A/T2’s, size 275/65/20. They didn’t look quite as tough as BFG KO2’s (what I had on the Lexus), but their on-road handling is great and they have great off-road, snow, and mud performance as well. Coming in at just over 34 inches in diameter, I had to do some slight fender-liner heat gun work to get them to fit without rubbing.
I also added some black wheels for cosmetic reasons. I like the look of black wheels on a white truck. I also reasoned that I could keep the stock wheels, sensors and (almost new) tires as a second set. Granted, this reasoning was more rationalization for getting new wheels, but it worked.
Exterior Graphics and Decals
We then decided to go all out with decorating the exterior. I drew up some graphics on the iPad and Mandy cut them out on her Silhouette. It was pretty easy to get the decals cut once I had the design done.
After the mountains and “Adventure Awaits” text were in place, we turned our attention to the rear of the vehicle. We decided to add a National Park logo for each park we visited. We had big plans for our next road trip, so there were a lot of logos. There were custom logos that I designed and we cut out in vinyl. (By the way, you can download our National Park decal logs here).
Packing and Gear Setup
The middle row has two captains chairs with a center console. For road trips, we remove the center console and found the perfect cooler to fit in between the seats. It keeps our food cold and we just stock up on ice every couple of days while on the road. For storage, the space behind the rear seats held all of our backpacks and normal vacation gear, and we added a hitch carrier for all of our camping gear. Unlike the van, which sagged with the weight off all our gear and hitch carrier, the Sequoia handles it with ease.
The Sequoia was the perfect family road trip vehicle. We cruised comfortable down the highway and were able to enjoy some fun trails in places like Arches, Moab, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Death Valley, Joshua Tree, Redwoods, Glacier, Badlands and Custer State Park. You can read about those stops and some of the awesome hikes we did.
Trevor
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