Toyota Tundra OWNERS: Rate your truck!

bamatundra

Have you ever sat in the backseat of a Tundra? The only lacking is legroom. If the driver or passenger moves the seat up, it is quite comfortable.

Let me stand up on my soapbox: I have been in the back seat of a 70's model Corolla across country. While I will say that I was not completely comfortable I was not complaining.

The Tundra has a much larger rear seat than the Corolla I rode in. In the Corolla, I had to duck to clear the headliner. In the Tundra, this is not a problem. The legroom while not huge, is adequate.

I suggest that you ride in the back of a Tundra while your wife or a salesman drives and make the decision yourself.

2drive

The bottom line as to why Big Three truck owners are so upset about the Tundra is that Toyota puts a V8 into their midsized truck and markets it against full sized trucks. (Unlike Dodge that puts two V8's into their midsized truck and markets it against compact trucks). It's as simple as that!

2drive

By the way, this is what Four Wheeler has to say about the Tundra size: "There are those who will tell you the Tundra is not really full sized, maybe not, but it's not a compact truck either."

rwellbaum2

I don't understand why you'd be upset by the Tundra's size. If you think you have a better truck, why would you need to attack someone's vehicle choice. I haven't heard of any Tacoma owners upset about the Dakota and I've yet to see any Tundra owner posting bashes in a Ford, Chevy or Dodge topic. Seems the insecurity problem rests mainly with the domestic owners.

dogster

When I sat in a Silverado, I didn't think it had more back seat room, maybe even less, but it did have a larger horizontal seat pad. And by the way, TruckRMe - how can you compare? The 52 Chevy truck you say you drive doesn't even have a back seat. And if you're in SC I doubt you see many vehicle with rust. Matter of fact, last fall when I was deer hunting in SC, the rural mail delivery people were using their own vehicles. Guess what. They were Toyota Tacomas! Good luck on this one now!

ratboy3

In the perfect world there would be no bad things. But it sure would be nice to here negatives from the people who actually drive a Tundra.

I can't say anything about the other trucks because I don't drive them. I can't make an intelligent analysis of them by just watching them on the road. I also don't have time to hang out at repair shops and count how many what trucks are getting whatever fixed! Besides the few I have been in are good trucks. I just prefer the Tundra.

Have a great day!

superjim2000

"There are those who will
tell you the Tundra is not really full sized, maybe
not, but it's not a compact truck either."

If it isnt full size and it isnt compact it must be midsize.

2drive

rwellbaum2-

Regarding Tundra bashing: I think it's a call for "truth in advertising", or could it be that Toyota is envious of the capabilities of the full sized trucks when compared with the Tundra?

dogster

Hey, the Tundra will do just about anything the other full size 1/2 tons will do, but won't break doing it. On my last 700 mile trip towing my 4800 lb. cuddy cabin boat with 1000 lbs. of gear and people, up 4500 ft. mountains, 6% grades, in 110 to 120 degree heat my Tundra performed flawlessly. And no one else towing could keep up with me on the "interstate hills" (that's mountains to East Coasters).

2drive

superjim2000:

The historical definition of the midsized vehicle was a smaller than full sized vehicle that was essentially capable of performing the desired functions of the full sized vehicle, but with the minimum acceptable compromises in room, comfort, performance and capacity.

I think that does describe the Tundra.

mrmilkytou

your comments about your "TOY"ota Tundra outpulling everybody else on them "interstate hills" surprised me a little.

I do not know a lot about your Tundra's advertised torque or HP. I am curious as to what gears you have and if you got more than 8 mpg towing???

I have owned GMC's or Chevy's for the past 15 years or so. I also work em' everyday as I am in construction and carry heavy loads.

I have no use for a 1/2 ton with a small V8, or an import with a fancy DOHC engine that will be expensive to maintain.

I'll keep my tried and proven single cam, push rod V8. I have 7.4 liters of GM iron under my 3/4 ton's hood. It makes 290 hp and over 400 lbs of torque. With 3:73 gears I get 12-13 mpg around town and almost 15 mpg on the highway. If I tow my boat( 6100 lbs. ) I don't even notice it.

I would venture a guess, if I towed my boat to your state and we went up a hill together, my heavier truck and heavier boat would leave yours in the dust. I would also say that whoever you tow with has an improperly matched truck compared to yours.

What I mean is that you probably have 4:10 or 4:56 or 4:90 gears instead of say 3:55's or 3:73's. You may be running a 5 speed as compared to a 4 spd. auto.

Match up your Tundra to a equally equipped GM, Ford or Dodge and then see how you do with all things being equal.

I'll bet you don't outpull them then.

Let me know when you are supposed to have a timing belt done and how much $$$$$$ it's gonna cost!!!

Last GMC I owned went 14 years and 247,000 miles without anything more than oil changes and one set of valve seals. Sold it for half of what I paid for it new. It also had no rust whatsoever and I live in CT.

good luck with the "TOY"ota, hopefully your truck lasts towing and doesn't let you down.

The Milk Man

tundra_guy

I have a nice black 4x4 Tundra Limited Access Cab.I'm not a stop light madman but anyone know what the acceleration numbers are for the 4x4? It did feel good to leave a new Silverado Z71 in the dust.

arkie6

I've seen Tundra acceleration times posted of 7.8 seconds 0-60 for the 4x2 and 8.1 seconds 0-60 for the 4x4. Can't recall the source, but I think it was one of the automobile magazines.

jambo

Your 3/4 ton truck has the same engine as the 1/2 ton that tundra was rated against. How can a heavy truck with the same old style engine as the 1/2 ton be any faster, do you get out and push? The maint on the tundra engine is no diffrent in fact i bet to replace a push rod in your gm would cost twice what it would take to replace (if needed) a time chain on the tundra. 1/2 ton 3/4 ton? not much big time diffrence. That tundra and boat above will out run you anytime anywhere.

arkie6

Just a point of clarification in your post #511: mrmilkytou said that he had a 7.4L engine (454 ci), not the 5.3L found in the GM 1/2 tons. And the Tundra uses a belt to drive the cams, with a recommended replacement interval of 90,000 miles.
I'm just curious why mrmilkytou with his GM 3/4 ton even posted in a topic titled Tundra owners rate your truck anyway. What's the point? Does he think that his truck is somehow an extension of his manhood, so to make up for his shortcomings he has to get the biggest thing on the road? If he needs 3/4 ton for work or pleasure, then fine, but the Tundra was not designed to compete in that small segment of the truck market. Toyota was shooting for the meat of the pickup truck market - the personal use 1/2 ton pickup. And they seem to have hit their mark and hit a nerve with the loyal Chevy owners. How else do you explain their pointless posts in the Tundra topics?

vocus

I am soooo glad someone finally brought that up. Maybe they will now listen.

tundra_guy

We all buy extended cab trucks for different reasons. When you're out for a drive, how many times do you see an extended cab truck with a bunch of people packed in the back seat? As for myself, I use mine for a lot of different reasons,such as camping and fishing gear or maybe I want to lay the seat back for a quick nap. My wife likes to use it for groceries etc. I'm not the least bit concerned about what someone thinks about a short ride in the back seat. As for the gentleman who made the stupid statement about the Tundra blowing head-gaskets and rusting out is kind of like saying all Chevy trucks blow up from side impact collisions and you'll die a fiery death.P.S. We have one teenager who likes the back seat of the Tundra.

tundra_guy

Thank you arkie6 for the acceleration times on the 4x4:-)

bamatundra

I got this from the May '00 issue of Motor
Trend. They did a comparison of "full size"
pickups. They rated the biggest, baddest Chevy
Silverado 1500 with the 5.3 L V8 and the 4.1
gears(which by the way is only rated to tow
8000lbs).

They also rated the biggest F150 with the 5.4L V8
and the Dodge 1500 with 5.9L against the Tundra
Access Cab V8.

"And the winner is... Which to Pick? In terms of
overall performance and sophistication - on road
and off - we have to say Tundra."

Here are some facts:

4/10/00 Toyota Tundra is Consumer Reports Top Pick
for Full Sized Pickup in 2000!
http://www.consumerreports.org/news/autos/Reports/toppick.htm

3/3/00 Toyota's New Millennium Truck
http://truckworld.com/Truck-Tests/Toyota-Tundra/tundra.html

1/9/00 4-Wheel & Off-Road Magazine 4x4 Truck of
the Year!

12/22/99 Motor Trend Magazine announces the 2000
Toyota Tundra as the Truck of the Year!
http://www.motortrend.com/

5/4/00 Toyota vehicles dominate this year's
quality survey rankings by J.D. Power

http://www.jdpa.com/studies/winners.asp?StudyID=410&CatID=1

bamatundra

Some big3 owners have gotten rude responses from Tundra owners because Tundra owners have a hard time understanding why Big3 owners feel the need to come to a Tundra owners topic and post bashes.

Go to any Chevy topics. Do you see Tundra owners there bashing Chevies? I don't think so.

I will state some facts that I think should be self-evident:

1. Toyota Tundra owners bought Toyotas because they thought that they were the best truck for THEIR purposes. This means that they evaluated Chevy, Ford, Dodge, etc. and decided that for THEIR purposes they were not as good. This has nothing to do with whether Big3 owners are happy with their purchases.

2. If Chevy, Ford, Dodge, etc. owners want to read only good things about their trucks and how they are hugely better than Toyotas - they should go to their own respective topics.

3. Tundra owners were aware when they bought their trucks that they were slightly smaller than Big3 trucks, but when they weighed this fact still decided that the Tundra was better overall. If Big3 owners do not agree with this assessment - tough.

4. There are obviously a lot of Big3 owners very upset with not only Toyota Tundra trucks, but their owners. I am not sure why. It is not necessary to come to a Tundra topic and tell Tundra owners what a poor decision they made. You can do this in another topic if you choose.

yuppster

This is probably the same kind of ridicule when the Accord and Camry were introduced. Not much laughter from the big 3 these days about thoses cars. Since this truck fit a perfect niche, not to big, not to small can handle a 1/2 ton and tow 5,000lb plus with no sweat.

cliffy1

...that domestic owners are so threatened by the Tundra. Meredith even had to freeze the Tundra topic to put an end to the pointless drivel certain participants want to spew.

Take a look at the car and SUV topics some time. They just don't get into these "mine is better than yours" discussions. They just have civil discussions about the pros and cons of the vehicle in question. That is the intent of the Town Hall (I think) but these big 3 truck guys just can't resist the bashing. I agree that it somehow threatens their manhood to think anybody would disagree with their consumer choices.

The real bummer about this is that it ends reasonable discussions about the Tundra. This is a fantastic truck for what it was designed for. Even if I didn't sell them, I would own one.

meredith

For Purposes of Efficiency....

this topic is being "frozen." Please continue these discussions in Topic 2057
Toyota Tundra OWNERS: Rate Your Truck! - II. Thanks!

Front Porch Philosopher
SUV, Pickups, & Aftermarket and Accessories Host