20th Sep 2007, 00:57

16:55;

I don't know why, but that was really funny. Just a side note. Finally some truthful comical relief.

20th Sep 2007, 10:29

19:49 within reach? last year Ford F Series alone sold 7 times more than Tundra... very limited comparison as well. I would never be able to tow my boat with a Tundra yet a Ford or GM can easily do so. Maybe you should compare to cars...

20th Sep 2007, 15:54

I worked construction for a little while, and I never remember seeing a Tundra at any of the builder supplies we went to. The only thing I remember seeing were huge Ford Diesels and Chevys.

20th Sep 2007, 19:33

As someone who has been buying vehicles for well over 50 years, all I can say is that the Tundra is an incredibly well built vehicle.

I agree with one of the previous posters that there is no way that Ford and GM should have let Toyota catch up with them so quickly. I don't know if it is a statement about the ineptness of Ford and GM or a statement about how good Toyota is.

As someone who has always wanted to buy domestic where possible, it took quite a bit to have me buy a Tundra. But, after a great deal of research, it became evident to me that the Tundra was at least the equal of Ford and GM, if not better than Ford and GM.

Also, rather surprisingly, I found that the Toyota dealers seemed more interested in selling me a Tundra than Ford and GM dealers were in selling me their product. Probably the reason that I haven't bought a Toyota in the past was because I found Toyota dealers very difficult to deal with. However, this time, I found more than one Toyota dealer who was easy to deal with.

I am convinced that Toyota went out of their way to listen to pickup buyers when they designed the new Tundra. While I found both the Ford F150 and the GMC Sierra to be nice vehicles, I found even more nice things about the Tundra.

I can't decide whether the post about a Tundra being a Camry with a pickup bed was in jest or was serious. However, all I could think of was that if the bed were big enough, I could probably haul three or four Camrys with my Tundra. Equating a Tundra to a Camry has to be a joke, unless you are equating the quality.

21st Sep 2007, 06:23

I don't know if it is true, but I a guessing that the Ford and GM, etc is cheaper than the Toyota? Here in the UK, we do not have any of the pick ups mentions - but in relation to the cars, Ford and Vauxhall (GM) are definately 'build 'em cheap, pile them high' and you get what you pay for. I am guessing this is the same with pick ups in the USA. The Toyota is probably better made, but the domestics will give you a better deal upon purchase and probably not be so well looked after. The domestics will do the job, but the Toyota will do it just that little bit better.

21st Sep 2007, 07:31

19:33 Well spoken. A lot of past domestic truck owners are now realizing that the Tundra is more than a match for a comparably sized Ford or Chevy truck, and the sales numbers reflect it, with Tundra sales always gaining momentum while the others lose it.

I know a few people with new Tundra's that have been their first Toyota's, and they're extremely impressed. A good friend of mine just traded an '06 Ram (with the V-6) because he'll soon be buying a large camper and the Ram wouldn't tow it. So, he looked at F-150's, Silverado's, and Tundra's. He's had Chevy trucks before and had bad luck, as well as saying he wouldn't buy the Silverado based on looks alone, commenting about the big, gaudy plastic grille on it. He ended up deciding on the Tundra, but in the end didn't want to spend the money for it, so by default he bought the F-150. Now he wishes he'd spent a little more and gotten the better truck.

I think that's where a lot of these F-150 sales come from. People end up just 'settling' for a Ford instead of buying what they really want. Sometimes I don't blame them. If you aren't planning on keeping it very long, the Ford will do, but for those of us who like to keep and drive a reliable vehicle for many years after it's paid off, Toyota is the only choice that makes sense. Now my friend looks at every Tundra he sees, wishing he had bought one instead.

21st Sep 2007, 11:30

A guy at work had proudly bought a Toyota Tundra, and you're so right -- I just can't decide which aspect of it is the most superior to domestics.

Could it be that the Toyota has to be downshifted two gears to get up a hill, and even then it wheezes like an asthmatic sucking air? Although it is pretty cool how the whole body shakes, including the stick shift, just idling, as though the engine is missing.

It's also pretty great that the cab is so small and cramped that it's nearly impossible to fold yourself into it. I suppose that midgets would find that superior.

After being subjected to that thing a few times, I really can't understand all the hype over the Toyota Tundra! Whatever you guys see in it, more power to you, but you couldn't give me one of those rattle-traps!

21st Sep 2007, 12:03

Well, there have been a lot of comments about farming and construction sites, but I have another one to add -- mining. Underground mines are a very tough environment, and vehicles are beat HARD! And I don't mean driving through a mud puddle out on grandma's farm for an hour each weekend and telling everybody how you push it to the "X-treem." They have to constantly climb steep grades with slippery, loose rock, get slammed into rock walls, drive through 2-foot pools of the thickest mud, carry miners and heavy equipment. Guys are tough on these vehicles, they're constantly filthy, slammed into gear, over-revved, driven over rocks, overloaded, never maintained, the drive trains are constantly submerged in mud and water, day after day. When a truck goes into the mines, it is sent there to die, and nobody takes care of it whatsoever.

There are a few old Toyotas left in the mines, based on the old Land Cruiser that were turned into utility vehicles. These are impressive machines, with extremely heavy leaf springs front and back, full time 4-wheel drive, and all metal bodies, although equipment subcontractors built them and there isn't much left from the original Toyota. But they are old and mostly worn out now, and were not replaced with modern soft, fluffy Toyotas.

You know what's being used in the tough environment of the mines? Ford F-350 and F-250 diesel pickups, and Excursions, and Dodge 2500 and 3500 diesel pickups. You NEVER see a Toyota, and only rarely a Chevy. In fact, at one mine they were still using their first Excursion while they had trashed four Suburbans during the same time frame. I think that tells you which vehicles can take the worst abuse and keep performing their job.