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First Spin: 2023 Toyota Sequoia
2023 Toyota Sequoia Platinum
One of the most old-school SUVs on the market is about to get a lot less old-school. It’s been a long time coming, but late this summer an all-new, third-generation version of Toyota’s full-size SUV is slated to go on sale. The Toyota Sequoia is redesigned from the ground up for 2023, finally doing away with its 2008-vintage platform and adopting new body-on-frame architecture that’s shared with Toyota’s redesigned-for-2022 Tundra full-size pickup truck.
What’s New For 2023: Toyota
Toyota’s PR department has been especially busy for the past three weeks or so, issuing a steady flow of press releases on the updates to its product line for the 2023 model year. With the release of info on several models today—most notably the Corolla compact car and the Corolla Cross subcompact crossover SUV—we now have a fairly comprehensive picture of Toyota’s complete model lineup for 2023. Check out the model-by-model details below!
First Look: 2023 Lexus RX
2023 Lexus RX 500h F Sport Performance
Tonight, Lexus took the wraps off its all-new 2023 RX crossover SUV. Long the Lexus brand’s best-selling model, the RX kicks off its fifth generation with a fairly ambitious, from-the-ground-up redesign. It’s built on the new GA-K global platform and introduces an evolution of Lexus’s “spindle-grille” design language that results in a burlier front-end appearance. Four new 4-cylinder powertrains will be offered, three of which are gas-electric hybrids (including a forthcoming plug-in-hybrid model). New features include the Lexus Interface Multimedia System, an expanded Lexus Safety System+ 3.0 suite of safety features, available Digital Key smartphone-app access and starting, and two additional trim levels.
2018 Jaguar XF Sportbrake
Note: The following story was excerpted from the April 2021 issue of Collectible Automobile magazine.
New-car buyers continue snapping up SUVs of all sizes, while increasingly snubbing traditional cars. It’s a bit puzzling, then, that the most SUV-like of car styles, the station wagon, has fallen out of favor even more than sedans. Jaguar entered this rapidly shrinking space with the striking and athletic 2018 XF Sportbrake. But after three model years Sportbrake remained largely invisible and didn’t return to American showrooms for 2021.
1975-77 Oldsmobile Omega F-85
Note: The following story was excerpted from the April 2021 issue of Collectible Automobile magazine.
Oldsmobile’s first compact was the 1961 F-85. Midyear, the line added a deluxe coupe called Cutlass. In 1964 the F-85 grew into a true intermediate, with the Cutlass gaining fans as a sporty premium series. By 1973 it had become the car the public associated with midsized Oldsmobiles and the increasingly marginalized F-85 was gone.
First Spin: 2023 Subaru Solterra
2023 Subaru Solterra
The stereotypical Subaru owner is an outdoorsy nature lover who’s at least a bit more environmentally conscious than the average American consumer, so it seems inevitable that Subaru would eventually enter the electric-vehicle market. And now it has. The 2023 Solterra is Subaru’s first pure EV: a two-row, five-passenger compact crossover SUV that is built on a platform shared with Toyota’s new bZ4X pure-electric SUV.
2022 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe
There’s no moss growing under the feet of Jeep engineers and product planners these days. About a year ago, the brand introduced its first plug-in-hybrid vehicle: the Wrangler 4xe. Approximately 30,000 units found buyers last year, which Jeep says makes the Wrangler 4xe (pronounced “four by e”) America’s best-selling plug-in hybrid. Last summer, the fifth generation of Jeep’s Grand Cherokee debuted with the all-new 2021 Grand Cherokee L—the first Grand Cherokee with three rows of seats. Late last year, a redesign of the traditional two-row, five-passenger Grand Cherokee was introduced on a shorter version of the L’s all-new unibody platform. That’s all history now—along with the equally new Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer full-size SUVs—and Jeep’s engineers are on to their next act: the 2022 Grand Cherokee 4xe. It’s an intriguing mix-and-match that combines the Wrangler 4xe’s powerful plug-in-hybrid powertrain with the redesigned Grand Cherokee.
First Look: 2023 Toyota GR Corolla
2023 Toyota GR Corolla
Today Toyota unveiled a rally-inspired high-performance version of its Corolla compact car—the 2023 GR Corolla—at an event in Long Beach, California. When it arrives later this year, the GR Corolla will be available in a base Core model. A limited-production Circuit Edition will join it in 2023, and it will be available for the 2023 model year only. The GR branding is used globally to identify Toyota’s sports cars—the letters stand for Gazoo Racing, which is Toyota’s in-house motorsports operation.
First Spin: 2023 Mazda CX-50
2023 Mazda CX-50
Is one of the unexpected long-term side effects of COVID-19 the public’s increased interest in outdoor activities like camping, hiking, and kayaking? The timing could be a coincidence, but it’s clear that car companies are introducing an ever-increasing array of off-road-focused SUVs—or at least off-road-flavored SUVs—to meet the market’s embrace of these more adventurous lifestyles. Even well-established outdoorsy brands like Subaru are getting more outdoorsy.
2020 Toyota Supra
Note: The following story was excerpted from the February 2021 issue of Collectible Automobile magazine.
Toyota’s sport-coupe history traces back to the 1967 2000GT, a handbuilt legend that sold only 62 copies in America. Then four generations of increasingly capable Supras were available in the States between 1979 and 1998. Reports of Supra’s return surfaced way back in 2012 when Toyota and BMW announced they would jointly develop a sports vehicle. Toyota’s result of the collaboration was indeed a renewed Supra that came out for 2020 and continues with some important changes for its second season.
