How Safe is the 2026 Toyota Sequoia?

What Car Shoppers Need to Know

• The Toyota Sequoia earns the highest ratings in two of three Insurance Institute for Highway Safety crash tests.
• It falls short in other IIHS evaluations.
• The Sequoia compares favorably to mainstream rivals, but luxury-brand full-size SUVs rate higher.

If you’re shopping for a full-size SUV like the Toyota Sequoia, there’s a good chance you have a big brood to haul. If that’s the case, there’s a good chance you’re more concerned with safety than the average car buyer. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a leading crash-test organization, annually performs hundreds of tests of popular vehicles; the current-generation Toyota Sequoia, which dates to 2023, had mixed results in its latest round of testing.

Related: What’s New on the 2026 Toyota Sequoia?

Sequoia Crash-Test Scores

IIHS subjects vehicles to three different crash tests, as well as evaluations of how well their headlights illuminate dark roads and how effectively their forward collision warning systems prevent or mitigate crashes. Vehicles are rated on a scale in each test: good, acceptable, marginal or poor.

Crashworthiness

The Sequoia earned the highest rating, good, in the small overlap frontal crash and side impact tests. The former evaluation simulates a common type of collision in which the vehicle leaves the road and hits a fixed object like a tree or utility pole. In it, the subject vehicle is accelerated to 40 mph and strikes a rigid barrier that covers 25% of its total width. The side impact test simulates a T-boning by a large SUV; in it, the subject vehicle is stationary and is struck broadside by a 4,200-pound sled traveling at 37 mph.

The Sequoia struggled in the moderate overlap frontal crash test, earning a marginal rating. Updated in 2022, the moderate overlap test has been a common stumbling block. For this test, the subject vehicle is again accelerated to 40 mph, this time striking a barrier that covers 40% of its total width and has a face constructed of deformable aluminum honeycomb. The resultant forces are similar to those in an offset head-on collision in which both vehicles are traveling just below 40 mph. Originally conducted with just a single crash-test dummy in the vehicle, the test was updated to include a second dummy in the seat behind the driver in 2024.

Crash Avoidance and Mitigation

The IIHS headlight evaluation measures how well the vehicle’s headlights illuminate dark roads on straightaways as well as in gentle and sharp curves in both directions. Here, the Toyota bookended the scoring rubric. The standard headlights earned the lowest possible rating, poor, while the upgraded LED lights that are optional on the Limited and standard on higher trim levels scored the highest possible good rating.

The Sequoia also earned a good score in the pedestrian avoidance evaluation, which measures a vehicle’s ability to detect and avoid pedestrians that are both crossing the road in front of the vehicle and walking parallel to the direction of travel on the shoulder. In tests of how well the system avoids or minimizes the severity of collisions with other vehicles, the Sequoia earned a marginal rating.

Versus Competitors

Basic physics dictates that while large SUVs perform well in collisions with other vehicles, they suffer in crashes with stationary objects. That’s because their greater mass means there’s more force to dissipate and without a smaller vehicle to absorb it that task lies solely on the SUV.

The Sequoia’s only direct competitor to outperform it in IIHS crash tests is the Nissan Armada, which scored a good rating in the moderate overlap test. The mechanically related Infiniti QX80 and Armada both earned Top Safety Pick honors, IIHS’ runner-up occupant protection award. For more — and more affordable — three-row Top Safety Pick and Top Safety Pick+ choices, look at slightly smaller three-row SUVs like the Hyundai Palisade, Mazda CX-90 and Nissan Pathfinder.

Check out how the Sequoia did versus the competition below. Note that G stands for Good, A means Acceptable, M is Marginal and P means Poor.

IIHS Large SUV Crash-Test Ratings

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