Yea, I almost did the first time I got to the bottom of a steep decline

Call me posh, but an upgraded headunit would be amazing. The fact we have to resort to aftermarket parts for this in 2021 is ridiculous. I think the electronics overall, including sound etc needs a major overhaul.

An upgraded interior. Panoramic, upgraded head unit (and I have a 21) real remote state, heated steering wheel, Bluetooth that is audible when making calls, inside noise cabin much mess, and a layout that doesn’t look like a carbon fiber mosh mosh.

Exterior, that automotive press is fine. I expect a better engine that will handle an 8 speed auto.

I want the pro so all off-road goodies there obviously

I was going to post up a whole list, but basically I just want a Toyota Bronco with a fixed roof.

Good idea! How about a Toyota Defender?

That could be cool too, though I prefer the off-road attributes of the Bronco. The Defender doesn't seem to be very impressive, it has such a limited wheel travel, it looks like a skateboard on the trails.

I do like that it has a fixed roof though.

2021 has leds in both and the infotainment Rocks!!

Lots of things, but after seeing Toyota play their usual games with the TRD Pro trim limitations again on the 23' Sequoia I doubt most will happen. Toyota continues to try and force people into their limited trim if they want tech features, while offering no packages to get more options on the TRD pro trims. Meanwhile Ford/GM/Ram/Jeep have clearly shown that people still want tech/comforts in their off-roaders.

• Heated steering wheel (possible)
• Pano-roof (unlikely in the TRD Pro, just like the 23' Sequoia it will be a 1990's baby sunroof)
• HUD (unlikely in the TRD Pro, just like the 23' Sequoia)
• More power, at least 350hp to compete with other offerings, but not a hybrid if it does to the cargo area what it did to the 23' Sequoia by wasting a foot of floor height and not being able to remove the third row seats
• 360 HD cameras that compete with the much better resolution and features/views others are using
• aux switches built in
• rear view mirror that uses a rear camera for it's display
• front and rear lockers (unlikely)
• digital dashboard where you can control more than just the center info
• large center infotainment display that doesn't look like someone just slapped an iPad onto the dash.
• linkage rear suspension for more articulation and better ride
• electronic disconnect sway bar up front
• computer controlled on the fly shock valve damping (unlikely)

I ended up in a pickup in 20' because there was no way I was paying $50k for the underpowered and low tech TRD Pro 4runner. Having driven that truck for a couple years now I can say that the biggest features I like off road and overall are the HUD, HD 360 cameras, heated steering wheel (I'd take it over heated seats anyday), power, rear view mirror camera. That said I'd still rather be in an SUV with interior cargo space instead of pickup bed where all the gear is exposed. If I could get a bronco at MSRP I'd already have one, if you put the features and power of my pickup into a 4-runner I couldn't sell it fast enough to buy the 4-runner. Heck the pickup has 420hp, and 460ft/lbs torque and still gets the same fuel mileage as a 4-runner.

Pricing will be the interesting part, aside the loss of cargo and non-removable 3rd row seats (a deal breaker in my opinion) the 23' Sequoia TRD Pro has a ton of power, lots of features for $66k. With the current underpowered and under featured TRD Pro 4 runner already costing $53k, you have to wonder how much they can/will update it and still keep a price gap to the Sequoia version. I'd be surprised if they push it's price near $60k, but you never know if there's one thing car companies have learned in the last 2 years it's that people will pay a lot more than MSRP for cars.

The HUD is amazing, not only do you get to pretty much constantly keep your eyes on the road, but you can get 4wd wheel slip etc. info, driving directions, etc. I thought it was a gimmick to start but after having one for a couple years, it would be hard to buy one without it. Heating steering wheel was the same, thought it was silly, but after having one I'd take it over heated seats anyday. Rear view camera in the mirror I thought it was silly, but it allows a much wider/clearer view of traffic behind you basically eliminating your blind spots. Those 3 things are also the most commented on features when other people drive it, along with the power.

If they do a hybrid and lose a foot of floor height in the cargo area like they did to the 23' Sequoia with non-removable third row seats I won't buy one. This has to be the dumbest idea I've seen a car company do in awhile. Let's take one of the largest SUV's...... that people only buy because they need to move a lot of stuff or people, and reduce the cargo space in the rear by 25%.....but we'll give you a flexy shelf you can use to make it flat and market it as a feature!

My Wants from my 2021 to 2023

Turn signal extended blink ( 3 blinks) after push.
Adjustable rear ride height.
Roof rack Runner strips on roof .
5 speed only ? Seriously ?

Cruise below 25 mph.
Self closing Rear hatch.
Steering wheel lower setting on tilt .

Better MPG for sure

i'm on board the an EV version. Not sure how effective solar is, but wonder if you had solar on the roof and hood, how long u could go while overlanding before you have to stop in civilization

Solar cells are not efficient enough to keep up with even partial power demands of a full size, full weight EV, that is unobtainium.

Solar vehicle - Wikipedia

Not very far. Ford tried an EV a few years ago that had full solar molded into every body panel, a full day in the desert sun only gained them like 3% charge and it added thousands of dollars to the vehicle price.

I've also looking into generators for backcountry use, not really feasible, but if i owned an EV I might have one for emergency uses. However it depends a lot on how much you want to drive in the backcountry. Let's say you're in a Moab like place only doing a couple trails a day, they are all near each other and you burn through 1/4 tank a day, at night you could make most of that back up. However if you are using 1/2, 3/4 tank a day, it's not really feasible.

It's pretty easy to do the math, for example a tesla 3 standard has a 60kwh battery, and it's range is 270 miles combined driving. You can figure anywhere from 10-15% of a generator rating is used up in with inefficiencies. For example the "real" max output of a honda 2200 generator is about 1.8kwh sustained ran at full throttle.

Which means running full throttle a honda 2200 generator would take ~33 hours to recharge an empty tesla 3. At full throttle that generator uses a gallon of fuel every 3 hours, so to refill the tesla once, you need to carry ~11 gallons of fuel.

Meaning that you're getting ~8 miles of driving range every hour the generator runs or ~ 24 MPG of generator fuel.

Now for me the overall efficiency isn't bad, it's the charging time needed, for example 11 gallons of fuel isn't bad to double your driving range, most off road vehicles even efficient SUV's are not able to do that. It's the lost time to charge. If I'm in the backcountry carrying say 15 gallons of fuel to double my driving range, sure I need to find a gas station every second tank, but when I do, it only takes 10 minutes to have another 2 tanks of fuel and be on my way.

Now you can go crazy and get something like a Honda 7000 generator, that will charge much faster, but it's $5k and weighs 300lbs. It will charge ~3x faster, with similar fuel use. So now you can recharge a tesla 3 in say 10-11 hours with about the same 11 gal of fuel used.

However, the other problem is that's a little cute Tesla 3, The ford F150 Lighting has a 98 kwh, or for the extended range has a 130 kwh battery to get 300 miles of range. So you have to more than double all of those charge times and fuel used in generator for a full sized pickup EV.

So now to get your F150 lightning to double its range with a 2200 kwh generator, it's going to take probably 70 hours running full capacity and use maybe 25 gallons of fuel. Even the 7000 watt version will need about the same fuel and still 24 hours to charge.

Great writeup, don't forget, any of the tests of the Jeep 4xe in EV mode only, doing real offroad, depleted the batteries 3 - 4 times faster then the range you will get onroad, and if it's cold, even less.

This is what I'd like to see on the 6th Gen...
On every trim level:

Remote Start
Remote Connect FREE, or at least on option
Button on remote for Auto Down and Up for rear hatch window
Auto Headlights
Wireless Car Play/Android Auto
Keep straightforward physical control buttons


Standard on all Premium trims:
Auto/Dual Zone Climate Control
Power Fold side mirrors
Rain Sensing Wipers
Multi Terrain Monitor, with a better freaking camera
Parking sensors
Wireless Phone Charger
Memory Seats

Standard on OR, ORP and Pro:

Front Locker
Give KDSS an electronic disconnect button to bypass the current 12 MPH speed sensing disconnect

Things to NOT do:

Do not put in a Lane Centering control that physically takes control of the steering wheel!
Do NOT put in the stupid thing that kills the motor when you stop
Do NOT bury things in the infotainment menus! Keep physical buttons for the off road controls (ATRAC, Crawl, MTS, etc), Climate Control, and stereo Volume and Tuning
And last but not least, do NOT ax the Power rear hatch window like you did on the Sequoia!