The Setup
The last Big Three-man standing wears a cowboy hat and boots and puffs a smoke. He's a he - there's no anti-chauvinist equivocating here - and he's as tough as he is weathered and beaten. But not beaten down. Not yet. He drives a Chevy Silverado or GMC Sierra, a Ford F-150 or a Dodge Ram. There are some 2 million sold per year, whether the way they're used matches that cowboy image or not. Two big Japanese-brand models would kill for that image and struggle to sell 200,000 big pickups per year between themselves.



Drive the new Tundra and you can't keep the John Ford western image out of your head, mostly because Toyota fosters it. The Tundra is Texas-built and the product of both Japanese and American designers, engineers and marketing mavens who have immersed themselves in ten gallon-hat culture. Drive it unaware of its badges, if you could, and you'd think you're driving the next Dodge Ram. Its long, massive hood qualifies for Nimitz-class aircraft carrier status. Its interior has the space of a Dallas-to-Houston drive, with storage bins that could stow an entire Scion dealership inventory. Interior handles and switchgear and stuff feels as if designed for Andre the Giant, someone bigger than you no matter who you are.



The only thing that might keep you from thinking of the '07 Tundra as an American pickup truck is your own nationalistic prejudice.

The Stakes
Number One. General Motors has sold more cars annually worldwide than anyone else, since 1931. Before the New Year, Toyota announced plans to build 9.4 million cars and light trucks in 2007. GM doesn't make such projections, but analysts predict GM will build about 9.2 million in '07. Toyota sold 112,484 Tundras in 2005 and hopes to sell about 200,000 in '07. If the new Tundra isn't a hit, Toyota won't pass GM quite so easily.



The Competition
Chevrolet Silverado/GMC Sierra: All new for 2007 and the best in the business, Motor Trend's Truck of the Year.

Ford F-Series: Market leader (thanks largely to GM's splitting its pickups into two divisions), with declining sales as its new-for 2004 F-150 ages. Ford has moved its replacement up to the 2009 model year (late '08 introduction). The '97 F-150 design served as the basis for the also-ran last-generation Tundra.



Dodge Ram: Also due for a 2009 replacement. The Ram has long been the most affected by fashion trends of the Big Three trucks, so it potentially has the most to lose to the new Tundra.

Nissan Titan: Will be all-new for 2010. Nissan has sold about 85,000 annually of its V-8-only pickup since its model year '04 introduction, roughly one-tenth of Ford F-150 sales. Not a contender so much as a way of keeping the few remaining Frontier buyers in the Nissan fold when they progress to a fullsize pickup. The next model will be available in a low-priced V-6 version.

The Irrefutable Laws of Physics
Despite extensive use of lightweight materials like an aluminum driveshaft in the new Tundra, it's a big, heavy beast. The upside is that towing capacity is up to 10,800 pounds (versus 7200 pounds max in the '06 Tundra). The downside is that an '07 Access Cab with the optional 5.7-liter iForce V-8 weighs about 560 to 575 pounds more than an '06 Double Cab with the 4.7-liter V-8. So while the new Tundra's arrival is depicted as the Second Coming in some circles, it doesn't defy its mass with revolutionary ride, handling or comfort.



The Drive
A 4.0-liter V-6 and a 4.7-liter V-8 are the only carryover pieces that make it into the 2007 Toyota Tundra. Three out of every five buyers will spring for the 5.7-liter iForce, its maker predicts, and that was the only engine available for our initial test drive.

The first thing you'll notice inside the Tundra is that it doesn't quite look like the inside of the Tundra. Photographs make the dashboard look top-quality, and more modern than the Chevy Silverado interior with its fake woodgrain (GM offers two distinct interiors in its new trucks. In the flesh, the Tundra's satin-nickel-style driver's cockpit trim falls on the cheesy side and the switchgear feels cheap. It's less harmonious with the black piano-style center dash trim than it looks in these photos. Toyota did take advantage of the expansive real estate inside the Tundra, and so there are plenty of nooks and crannys and cupholders, and the center console is large enough to carry clipboards and laptops.



American pickup trucks come in so many versions, they could constitute their own divisions (as GMC does). Engine choice, bed-length choice, cab configuration and option ranges are so wide that sticker prices typically cover a range from about $18,000 to $50,000. Toyota has gone that route with the new Tundra. It's available as a Regular Cab two-door with no rear-seat, four-door double-cab with front-hinged rear quarter doors that open to 80 degrees, or the full four-door CrewMax, with a reclining and sliding rear seat. The regular and double cabs come with a standard 78.7-inch bed or a 97.6-inch long-bed and the CrewMax is available only with a 66.7-inch short bed. All beds are 22.2-inches deep, have standard easy-lift/easy-lower tailgates and are offered with an optional Deck Rail system. And the Double Cab with the 97.6-inch bed has a whopper of a 164.6-inch wheelbase.



The V-6 and 4.7-liter V-8 come with a standard five-speed automatic, already one more gear than the 5.3-liter Silverado/Sierra. The iForce 5.7, optional on all configurations, gets a super-smooth six-speed automatic. You can buy a Tundra with rollup windows and without carpeting, but you can't buy one with a manual gearbox. Trim levels are DX, SR5 and Limited. TRD off-road and V-8 towing packages are available. A nav system with rear-view camera is optional, and if you want to treat your work crew to extra-comfy coffee breaks, there's a rear-seat entertainment system for the CrewMax with a nine-inch wide-screen LCD monitor, DVD player, two sets of headphones and a remote control.



If cabin quality falls short of expectations, what's under the hood exceeds them. Horsepower is 381 and torque is 401 pound-feet for Toyota's first aluminum truck V-8. That's better than the Silverado/Sierra's big V-8, which is an iron-block 6.0-liter rated 367-horsepower and 375 pound-feet. (The premium-priced Sierra Denali's aluminum 6.2 V-8 trumps the Toyota iForce at 400 horsepower and 415 pound-feet.) The Tundra 5.7-liter's 4x2 fuel economy, at 16/20 mpg is better than the Silverado/Sierra's 15/19 mpg, but if you add 4WD, Tundra's EPA drops to 14/18 mpg, while the 4x4 system doesn't hurt the Silverado/Sierra ratings.



A CrewMax Limited with rear-wheel-dive and the 5.7-liter engine provided our first taste of the new Tundra. There's more evidence of the cost-cutting interior between the front bucket seats, where the gearshift, with its plastic-chrome wrap feels flimsy. And with its roomy, tall and upright driver's seat, this monster truck could use power-adjustable pedals, but they're not available. That's an acceptable omission only if Toyota plans to sell it only to brawny construction workers.

The 5.7-liter iForce combined with a short first gear in its six-speed automatic makes for satisfyingly quick launches, though. While the 5.7 has a quiet idle, it produces a loud rumble under full throttle. The quickness plateaus, smoothly, just past the midrange. Meanwhile, the engine's noise competes with significant wind noise. It's not annoyingly high, but more than expected from a Toyota. Of course, most Toyotas don't have big truck side mirrors.

The 4x2 CrewMax exhibited some jounce over crummy roads; nothing unexpected from a big, unladen pickup, and a deficit we've noted even regarding the 2007 Chevy Silverado Truck of the Year. The CrewMax was equipped with 275/55R20s on 20-inch alloy wheels, and in this form the rack-and-pinion steering feels slow and rather numb. Everybody likes ridiculously big wheels these days, but here the Laws of Physics intervene. Jump out of a CrewMax and into a 4x2 Regular Cab with the 5.7 and 18-inch wheels and you'll find the steering has much crisper turn-in and better feel and feedback. Smaller wheels and tires comprise the only variable that could explain this difference.



What's more, the Regular Cab 5.7 is the hot rod of the lineup, the Tundra to buy if your other Toyota is a V-6-powered Camry SE. Keeping in mind that this is a big, tall, heavy vehicle, its handling is no better than any other big truck.

All Tundras have control arms and low-pressure gas shocks in front, with a 1.4-inch diameter anti-roll bar and a live rear axle with leaf springs and nitrogen gas shocks, plus four-wheel antilock brakes, electronic braking distribution, brake assist, traction control and vehicle stability control. Four-wheel-drive automatically gets you active traction control.



Apart from being bereft of adjustable pedals, the new Tundra cannot be faulted for its level of standard safety and stability equipment and optional convenience, sport and luxury equipment. It's a big, all-American truck, as much so as any Chevy, Ford or Dodge.

The Conclusion
What follows, then, is a comforting revelation. For years, GM, Ford and Chrysler have deserved criticism for improving their cars and trucks without making them good enough. They tend to target "current models" and then the benchmarked foreign automaker trumps them by getting a much-improved, all-new model on the market about the same time. They were chasing the last Camry without thinking about how much better the new Camry would be.



Toyota does the same thing. That's the revelation. The second-generation Tundra is finally in the hunt, just as the new Saturn Aura is a credible competitor for the new Camry.

Is it as good, or better, than the class-leading Chevy Silverado? An early drive, without the chance to compare them side-by-side indicates that Toyota has been chasing the last Silverado (and the current Ford F-150 and Dodge Ram, which each have less than two more years of shelf-life).

Finally, the Tundra is big enough to run in this pack. Toyota designers have gone out of their way to make the truck look even a bit bigger than its competition. The new V-8 is as smooth and powerful as the best of its competitors. The ride and handling is, for the most part, competitive. The interior falls short - perhaps the last thing over which you'd expect Toyota to stumble. It's a relief to find that Toyota is human, that it didn't perfectly pull off the threat of a serious, big truck for a segment that the Big Three still own. It will be an even greater relief to the Big Three.

For all of its ballyhooed product prescience—its apparent ability to build the right vehicle for every automotive segment on the planet—no one would argue that when it comes to full-size American pickup trucks, Toyota is down to its third strike.

To carry that all-American baseball metaphor one further, the Japanese juggernaut might be the New York Yankees of the car world, but on big trucks the company is facing a 3-2 count, with two outs, in the bottom of ninth.

Not surprisingly, with the all-new 2007 Tundra, Toyota has reached down deep, taken a solid cut and connected for a base hit. Time and the marketplace will tell whether the truck is a mere single or a surprise in-the-park game-winning homer. Our guess is it’ll slide in as a solid second bagger—second to competition coming from General Motors’ all-new 2007 Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups that went on sale in October (“Pull-Ahead Program,” Nov. 6, 2006), but a clear favorite over Nissan’s Titan and the Dodge Ram. How the Tundra does against the aging mom-and-apple-pie Ford F-150 will determine how big Toyota’s win will be—and most likely whether the company will claim the title of world’s largest automaker in 2007.

GM, with its new trucks, might be the only automaker that needn’t panic about Toyota’s onslaught on this last bastion of the American market; Ford’s four-year-old F-150, Dodge’s niche Ram and Nissan’s Titan—formerly the lone Japanese full-size pickup—will spend the coming year with the Texas- and Indiana-built Tundra closing quickly in the rearview mirror.

Though Toyota is the new kid on the big-truck block, the company is no stranger to the truck business. Toyota introduced its first trucks to U.S. buyers some 40 years ago, starting with the Land Cruiser-based FJ45 pickup that sold in the U.S. for just one year. It was followed by the 85-hp half-ton 1964 Stout. Though hardly a sales success, Stout taught Toyota the lessons it needed to develop the HiLux, the truck credited with establishing Toyota’s small-truck credentials in the U.S.


It wasn’t until 1993, however, that Toyota turned its sights on the large-truck segment, taking its first shot with the T100 pickup. Though considerably larger than Toyota’s compact pickups, it remained a V6-powered baby beside the trucks offered by the Big Three brethren. Shot No. 2 came in 1999 with the introduction of the Tundra, Toyota’s near full-size pickup. Powered by a torquey 4.7-liter V8, the U.S.-manufactured Tundra won critical acclaim, but not American hearts. Attempts to “get bigger” with the 2004 Double Cab proved a mere stopgap until the true full- size truck could be developed.

So how good is Tundra this time around? Start where it counts, under the hood, where every Tundra buyer has the option of installing a 5.7-liter, 381-hp, 401-lb-ft V8 hooked to a six-speed automatic transmission. That tops GM’s bread-and-butter 6.0-liter V8 by 14 hp and 26 lb-ft (though the GMC Sierra Denali’s 6.2-liter V8 is more powerful); it isn’t even worth talking about how far the other competitors are behind. Toyota also carries over its 4.7-liter, 271-hp, 313-lb-ft V8 and 4.0-liter 236-hp, 266-lb-ft V6, each with a five-speed automatic transmission. The trucks are offered in two- or four-wheel drive, with a rear automatic limited-slip differential as standard equipment. A Toyota Racing Development off-road package is available for those who think they need it.

In our test driving of 5.7-liter models, we never lacked power, whether off the line or at highway passing speed. The rack-and-pinion steering is spot-on and centered, while the suspension smooths out most road imperfections without much of the rebound and skate typical of pickups.

We remember how past Tundras tended to flex over even modestly rough terrain—especially the Access Cab models—so we deliberately took the new truck into some tough off-road trails to test its moxie. For ’07, the all-new frame is fully boxed for the front half of the truck, with heavily reinforced “C” channel frame bits for the rear to help reduce low-frequency vibrations and smooth out the ride. Toyota didn’t get into percentages of improvement in stiffness, but it’s safe to say this truck is now a rock in the ruts. Ride is enhanced with rear shocks mounted outside the rear leaf springs (à la Ford F-150), and the rear spring rate is tuned to provide a level ride height with or without a load. The turning radius is drastically reduced, and stopping power is solid from the four-wheel disc brakes, which are touted as biggest and thickest in the class. Standard wheel size is 18 inches; 20s are optional.


Want to tow or haul? Tundra can be set up to pull up to 10,800 pounds or carry up to a full ton of cargo in its 22.2-inch deep bed. We towed a 9500-pound trailer on interstates, back roads and city streets in horse country in and around Louisville, Kentucky. While we wouldn’t call it effortless, it wasn’t quite the pain in the hitch we thought it would be.

Toyota tossed in plenty of the standard and optional features we’ve come to expect in trucks—extra power outlets, leather seats, navigation system, rear-seat entertainment—you get the idea. But it’s the unexpected stuff—12-volt outlets that stay powered for up to two hours after the truck is shut off, an extra upper glovebox big enough to hold a Thermos, a center console rigged for holding hanging file folders, dual-zone and bi-level climate control adjustable for upper and lower temperature, not just side-to-side, and reclining and sliding second-row seating (CrewMax only)—that gives Tundra an extra edge.

Tundra’s integrated styling sets it apart from most of the competition, but from our vantage point, the Titan and Ram are still more aggressive and distinctive. Designers said they made a decision to increase the size of panel gaps to make the truck appear bolder; we’ll let you decide on that one.

Tundra comes in 31 possible configurations, from Regular Cab short bed (66.7 inch) rear-wheel drive to the fully maxed 4x4 CrewMax with a long bed (97.6 inch) and TRD off-road package. The most rollicking package is the Regular Cab short bed rwd model fitted with the big V8—we couldn’t help but smile as we laid down row after row of fresh rubber. Now that’s truckin’ fun.

The Tundra goes on sale in February, and the company is gearing up to sell 200,000 of the trucks annually, with capability of additional production if necessary. If Tundra meets those projections, Toyota will easily overtake Ford for second place in all U.S. vehicle sales in 2007 (even though Ford sells three times as many pickups) and become the world’s largest automaker. No matter how you’re scoring it, that’s a win for Toyota.