The American light vehicle market is a unique beast in the world. Nowhere else on the planet will you find so many full-size pickup trucks in use and representing such a large proportion of total vehicle sales. Through October, 2015, Americans bought 1.78 million fullsize trucks, 12.3 percent of the year-to-date total. It’s also the only market segment where the three Detroit based automakers have remained utterly dominant despite challenges from Japan. As the world’s largest automaker, Toyota looked at the profit margins that Ford, GM and Chrysler were pulling in on those trucks and it’s been trying to capture a piece of that pie for more than two decades with surprisingly limited success. In 2013, Toyota gave the Tundra pickup a major makeover and it’s better than ever – but is it good enough?
Up until the early 1990s, the pickup truck segment accounted for a lot of vehicles and healthy profits, but it was nonetheless pretty unexciting. The trucks had long lifecycles with only infrequent updates and they weren’t particularly sophisticated. Ford and GM dominated the market with Dodge trucks a distant third. But then the 1993 introduction of a radically redesigned Ram pickup from Dodge upset the apple cart and it’s been an incredibly heated competition ever since. Instead of a decade or more between refreshes, these trucks now get major updates every four to five years and are packed with as much technology as any car.
Around the same time that Ram debuted, Toyota tentatively stepped into the market with the original T100. While Toyota fans stepping up from compact pickups liked it, the T100 was never particularly successful. It was smaller than the domestic trucks with lower payload and towing capability. Eventually, the T100 morphed into the Tundra around the turn of the century with a second-generation Tundra arriving in 2008. Despite growing bigger and more powerful, it was still found lacking by most American truck buyers.
The latest edition that arrived two years ago as a major refresh on the same basic 2008 platform. Each successive iteration of Toyota’s big pickup has taken on more of the style typical of the market leaders – big, bold chrome grilles and more sculpted sheet metal that screams tough truck. The crisply creased lines and prominent wheel arches now look right at home at the annual Texas truck rodeo.
Not so very long ago, big trucks with anything but a big V8 were mostly only the low-ball work trucks operated by fleets like the local parks department. Thus, Toyota designed the current-generation Tundra with only a pair of V8s displacing 4.6 and 5.7-liters. The four-wheel-drive double-cab I drove was powered by the larger V8 with its 381-horsepower and 401 lb.-ft. of torque. While those early T100s were generally considered a bit weak, this truck’s performance was more than adequate even with an empty weight of 5,500-pounds. For reference, that’s about 700-pounds more than the aluminum-bodied Ford F-150 SuperCab with a 3.5-liter EcoBoost V6.
I didn’t do any towing or hauling with the Tundra, but comparing the spec sheets of the Tundra and its domestic-branded competitors, the payload and towing numbers are all in the same ballpark. Based on the standardized SAE J2807 towing tests, this particular Tundra is listed as having a 10,000-pound pulling capacity and a maximum payload of 1,620-pounds.
What I did do was drive it around for a week, much as most personal-use truck buyers would do when not hauling their boat to the lake or an Airstream on a summer road trip. While the raw specs of the Tundra are competitive with the market leaders, it definitely falls behind the Ford, GM and Ram trucks I’ve driven in the past year when it comes to vehicle dynamics.
When the roads are actually smooth, the Tundra is fine. However, many of the roads around southeast Michigan look nominally smooth but actually have a degree of unevenness that ranges from regularly spaced expansion gaps and frost heaves to what feels like sinusoidal waves. Driving on this pavement with nothing in the bed, yields a mild heaving from the chassis that is relatively low in amplitude but quickly becomes quite uncomfortable. This truck definitely needs some work from the engineers at Toyota’s Ann Arbor tech center on tuning the frequencies of the springs and dampers. The steering effort is a bit on the light side but not too objectionable and the brake pedal feel was good.
In the cab, the materials of the latest Tundra have definitely been upgraded relative to earlier editions. The fit and finish was up to traditional Toyota standards and significantly better than when I looked at an example early in the lifecycle of this current generation. Unfortunately, the seats are decidedly flat and almost utterly devoid of lateral support. The same goes for the rear seats although those can also fold up to reveal enclosed storage bins that can accommodate tools, beach gear or anything you don’t want to leave out in the open. There’s also plenty of storage space up front with deep bin between the seats that’s large enough to swallow a laptop.
Relative to its competition, the Tundra is decidedly lacking in power ports, something that is increasingly important to anyone planning to use a vehicle like this as a work truck. Only one USB port was available along with two 12-volt ports, one each in the front and back seats. Driver assist features are also limited trailer sway control, parking assist sensors, blindspot monitor with cross-traffic alert and rear camera. While these are certainly important in a vehicle of this size and should be standard, Ford in particular has really jumped ahead of the field with features like adaptive cruise control, trailer backup assist and lane departure warning.
The 4×4 5.7-liter Tundra has an EPA rating of just 13 mpg city, 17 mpg highway and 15 mpg combined with my week of driving matching that combined number. That’s shy of the V8-powered Chevy Silverado, 2.7-liter EcoBoost F-150 and especially the 3.0-liter diesel-powered Ram I’ve driven in the past 12 months. At $43,825 as tested, the Tundra is a solid truck in many ways and certainly the best so far of its lineage, but frankly I can’t recommend it over any of the domestic brand competitors.
Click here for full specifications of the 2016 Toyota Tundra
