2007 Toyota Tundra SR5 from North America - All Comments

So step up to a F250... check them all and then buy one.

18:19 Yeah, as if Ford and Chevy willingly issue recalls, or even handle them properly.

It's my experience that they deny that there even IS a problem until they get sued by everybody. And by the way, the camshaft issue had nothing to do with Toyota. It was the manufacturer of the camshaft at fault, and it's long since been remedied. Also, the number of affected vehicles was WAY less than you guys are making it out to be.

I'd be curious to know how many vehicles were subject to the lemon laws throughout the country, Ford's and Toyota's. I have no doubt that, as usual, Ford has a ridiculous number of them and Toyota has very few. I'll write back with the numbers to prove it when I find them.

There must be some people out there who haven't bothered to check JD Powers lately, or they'd know that Lincoln, Cadillac, Buick, and Mercury are rated higher in quality than Honda or Toyota, including Acura. They would also know that Ford and Chevy, although rated slightly below Toyota and Honda quality, meet or exceed the quality of Toyotas and Hondas built in US plants.

The perceived quality gap is gone, people. This leaves me wondering why anyone would pay the $5,000 markup for a Toyota to achieve extra quality that isn't there anymore...

Sorry to burst the fantasy that any circa 1985 domestic truck still on the road must have been rebuilt 3 times, but my 1985 Dodge Ram has 260,000 miles on the original 318. It finally needed a timing chain at 250,000 miles, but I guess that's better than replacing the timing belt on a Toyota every 50,000 miles.

6:52.

Why isn't Toyota naming the camshaft "supplier?"

If Toyota was so free of guilt, wouldn't naming the supplier be a way of publicly vindicating them? Certainly if it was an American supplier, they would name them immediately, just like they instinctively blame all of their design/engineering problems of their vehicles on the workers that assemble them, if they were built in the USA. But that is just a cop out, because Toyota's quality problems are world-wide, not just in the US.

Why would you take Toyota at their word and assume they are telling the truth about there even being a supplier? Toyota is notorious for lying. They lied trying to cover up for the sludge problem in their engines by blaming the problem on their customers. They lied about the emissions systems components to allow their vehicles to be sold in the US, and got caught. They lie about the horsepower ratings of their cars and just got caught about it. They lie about the MPG ratings of the Prius and got caught. Their arrogance and bold in-your-face lying is mind boggling, yet you take their word as Gospel.

My guess is there is no supplier, and Toyota botched the camshafts up all by themselves. Their track record gives me no reason to think they will tell the truth about anything. If there was a supplier, Toyota would immediately want to name them, to get themselves off the hook. Yet whether they have a supplier or not, it is still Toyota's responsibility to verify the quality of the vehicles they put out. Why do you make excuses for them? If this were an American company having this problem, I bet you would be crucifying them.

It is still very early in the production of the new Tundra. We'll see how many camshafts really go bad in the coming months/years. You will be a very busy guy having to make excuses for Toyota then.

I'll stick to domestic trucks. They have 100+ years experience and a PROVEN track record of reliability behind them, not a myth that is becoming more and more discredited every day.

09:39, Yeah, Ford and Chevy are still beneath Honda and Toyota, right where they'll stay. And I guess you forgot to mention Lexus, which has taken the top spot for 13 years running, only now sharing it with Buick, for the first time. And since I can buy a Corolla for thousands less than a Buick, and get twice the gas mileage and twice the miles out of it, I'll stay with Toyota. Thanks for proving my point, from a Toyota owner's perspective.

And since when do Lincoln's and Cadillac's cost less than Toyota's? Get your facts straight. Of course, they'll show you that Toyota is clearly still the best buy, so I doubt you'll admit it.

If you think a 32FT trailer weighs 12,000 pounds, you're dreamin'! Most trailers empty weigh maybe a ton at best. Simply guessing a number to build up your truck's strength does not work. When you borrow a fertilizer buggy loaded with fertilizer, they weigh it to know how much to charge you; and when you take a load of tobacco to a warehouse, they also weigh that to know how much to pay you. These numbers are precise measurements and are not arbitrary. Yours however, seems to be.

If that Tundra is a 99-06 model, I'd like to see that thing stop a 12,000 pound trailer, unless it has its own brakes. Tuck 'n' roll, because you're not stopping that thing. If the Tundra's front brake rotors were notorious for warping with no load on them, I could only imagine 12,000 lbs pushing on them.

Oh yeah, wow 3,500 pounds behind a Toyota Tacoma I4? Ooooh my, how does it do it? That's less weight than what my father has sat in my Chevy's bed, yet you were pulling it on a trailer. It's miraculous! I imagine that S-10 I saw on West KY70 a month back was pulling more than that when it had a fertilizer buggy attached to the back of it. I also imagine that if 3,500 pounds is impressive for a Tacoma, then 10,000 pounds of fertilizer is impressive for an 80's model Ranger with a 2.9L V6 to pull up steep hills, as my brother-in-law has done with his father's truck years ago. (His father still has the truck.)

I would also be impressed to see a Tacoma pull 3,500 pounds; it's a rare thing to see. But I'm not impressed to see a Ranger pull that load, mainly because the frame rails of a Ranger are as thick as any 1/2 ton pickup's, where a Tacoma's are paper thin. The S-10 also had thick frame rails like a 1/2 ton pickup, but unfortunately the Colorado's are thinner like a Tacoma's. I guess they wussied it up a little to save on gas and to give it a supple ride. LOL!

So what are these agricultural loads in California that these Toyota's are pulling? 500 lbs of carrots or tomatoes? It doesn't matter to me what food is grown in California; compressed tobacco bails are much heavier and tobacco is Kentucky's main crop and you never see Toyota's hauling tobacco bails because they can't handle the extreme weight. Unless these Toyota's are hauling 3,800 pounds of vegetables in their bed, put me down as unimpressed.

12:12 Domestic trucks have a 'proven' track record of being junk; I know, I've owned too many, until I wised up and bought a Toyota.

Do you know anything at all about assembly plants? I guess Toyota has it's own steel mill on site and pours casts or machines their own camshafts now?

If every Tundra on the road were to blow up because of a bad camshaft, Toyota would still be ahead of GM and Ford for recalls and major malfunctions. Why do you think it is that you can buy parts so cheap for a Chevy 350, and they practically sell them at K-mart? They make so many because the demand is so high for parts, because that junk engine breaks constantly.

And to the person who is impressed with 260,000 on their Dodge; so what? Every Toyota on the road is capable of doing that, it's to be expected when you buy one. Big deal, if it's even true.

Do you anti-Toyota people ever read the endless list of major problems that Ford and Chevy have had in the last... let's say 20 years, even though they've always been junk? You guys put Toyota's issues under a microscope, almost always completely exaggerate the numbers. A list of Ford's major problems in the last 20 years would be a MUCH, MUCH, thicker book than Toyota's for the last 20. But you won't admit that knowing it is without question completely true. If you think it's not, you're just plain old WRONG.

The difference is, you THINK your Ford's are as good as a Toyota, but I KNOW that Toyota puts them to shame when you're talking about overall quality of the product.

16:05, are you disputing the fact that Buick is rated No. 1 in initial quality? Are you disputing that Cadillac, Lincoln, and Mercury are rated above Toyota, Acura and Honda in initial quality? Are you disputing the fact that Buick, Lincoln, Mercury, and Cadillac continue to be rated higher in quality than Toyota, Honda, and Acura even after the cars are three years old? Are you disputing the fact that Ford and Chevy meets or exceeds the quality of Toyota and Honda built in the US?

You can try to twist and obscure these facts any way you like, but it only shows your blind loyalty to Japan and indicates the bias and unreliability of your comments. In other words, you are what you accuse the die-hard domestic loyalists of being. Except now the domestic loyalists are fully justified in their loyalty, as domestics are as good as or better than Japanese cars.

Sorry it hurts you so much to see that Toyota and Honda have slipped, and were just a flash in the pan not qualified to occupy the top slots. It's not an attack on your personal beliefs, it's just the way it is.

The top corners of the 2007 tundra tailgate outside sheetmetal are not attached to anything. You can see right inside. This is not a good design. Also the tailgate is higher than the bed when the tailgate is in the down position. This puts more weight on the tailgate when hauling a long load such as lumber longer than the bed and tailgate. My tailgate came apart in the corners after hauling lumber as described above.

It was a good half ton load of 8 to 10-foot long lumber. My dealer replaced the tailgate at no charge, thankfully, with an identical one except without the bead sealer that the original one had. Not sure of the purpose of the bead sealer. Check your corners and you will see gaps in the top corners. I've had many pickups and used this same method of hauling long loads without any damage. I do have the toyota bedliner in it. This is advertised as a working man's truck and that is all that I was using it for. This is my only complaint with the 2007 tundra.

"And to the person who is impressed with 260,000 on their Dodge; so what? Every Toyota on the road is capable of doing that, it's to be expected when you buy one. Big deal, if it's even true."

Does that include the Toyota 4Runners that people are complaining about on this site that blew head gaskets between 75,000 and 120,000 miles? Funny how you say every Toyota will routinely go 260,000 and yet they only reached 1/3 to 1/2 the mileage of the Dodge. Please explain.

"Do you know anything at all about assembly plants? I guess Toyota has it's own steel mill on site and pours casts or machines their own camshafts now?"

Just keep making excuses for Toyota. The fact remains that other manufacturers are not having this problem, but Toyota is. Whether they have a supplier or not, is that any excuse? I guess if any car has a problem now, we should not hold the manufacturer accountable, just blame it on any suppliers they might have used. Would you be that forgiving to a domestic brand?

By the way, not everybody is as clueless as you think they are. I have a masters degree in engineering, and a large amount of professional experience is in Industrial Engineering, so I know a little bit about manufacturing. Clearly, there are separate facilities where components are manufactured/cast and where they are finally assembled. I do not know, nor ever claimed to know, every single aspect of how Toyota conducts their operations, and neither do you. But, it is a well known fact that Toyota casts its own engines, so it is not unreasonable to assume that they might just cast their own camshafts as well. That is not far fetched.

I ask you again, why won't Toyota name their supplier (if there is one)? Could it be that, if the problem is a metallurgy problem, as Toyota claims, then it could potentially effect camshafts from other model Toyota's, not just the Tundra. Naturally, that is assuming Toyota is telling the truth about it even being a metallurgy problem. But it could also be (and my guess is this may very likely be the case) a mechanical design problem, wherein the metal is fine, but not engineered in the proper proportions to withstand the loads it is subjected to. There is a lot more than just a foul up in alloying the metal of the camshafts that can cause them to fail. Toyota has been having major mechanical issues across its product line (engine sludge, suspension component failures, brake system design flaws), so they do not inspire confidence.

Speaking from experience, I know for a fact that I can buy a domestic truck, as I have done several times, and have it give me several hundred thousand miles of trouble free driving. And, as an added bonus, I can do real work with it. Yet the people I know who have Toyota trucks all have problems with them. Every single person I know who has ever had compact Toyota trucks, including both four and six cylinder models, has had head gasket failures.

So far, I have only known two people who have had Tundra's, because they are still relatively new. The first person I know bought his Tundra new, and then almost immediately it started making loud upper engine valve train noises. You always knew when he was coming down the road; you could hear that pile of pot metal coming a block away. That truck was sold within two years, and replaced by another Ford, which is the type of truck the person had owned previously - I guess the grass isn't always greener... Then, the second person I know who has a Tundra (and so far still has it), is fortunately not having engine problems, but has to take it back to the dealership constantly for suspension problems.

With all of these problems I see everybody around me having with Toyota's, while I have never had a problem with any of my domestic vehicles, what is my opinion of Toyota supposed to be? I have not even mentioned (nor do I care to because I am sick of writing all of this, and we are talking about trucks anyway), all of the disastrous problems I have seen with Toyota cars. I have had to personally pick up the pieces, both financially, and with my repair labor, on several of them. Based on my direct real world observations, I just think this myth of Toyota's being superior, or even good vehicles for that matter, is absolutely preposterous, and I simply cannot believe so many people are so enamored in it.

10:51 Well, I guess all it takes to knock GM out of the top sales spot is a 'flash in the pan' then. Actually, your description is the way YOU think it is, but not in reality. I guess the Accord and Camry, which have been beating the life out of GM, Ford, and everyone else for years, are flashes in the pan too?

I would not be using anything from JD Power as a yard stick in terms of comparing quality. There's a pretty important word in that report, and that word would be "Initial". In other words, it has nothing to do with long-term reliability and longevity.

All I can say is that if anyone thinks anything Buick makes comes even remotely close to being on par with Lexus, then they're only fooling themselves. Buick is STILL using old-fashioned 4 speed automatics, while Lexus is producing 8 an speed.

The fact of the matter is that Buick still produces an old-fashioned, outdated, incredibly boringly styled econo-sedan that in no way will have the same long-term reliability or longevity of anything Lexus produces. Even you who used the JD power reports as "proof" fully realize this.

In regards to Tacomas... again, Ford and Chevy lost that contest. Obviously neither company can compete with Toyota because Toyota makes a better, more solid, more capable truck. Again - the Ranger will be no more. Get it? No more small trucks from Ford. GM barely makes a scratch in that market either, and I'd be real surprised if they don't discontinue their small trucks as well. I think that just about validates the argument that Ford and GM built inferior small trucks for years. So I guess the only small trucks left to do either real or as you call it "Playing in the mud" will be Toyota and Nissan.

Also - why don't you come and check out the farming situation in CA? You obviously have no idea what you're talking about, because despite what you think, there are way more farmers and huge farms here doing more farm work than anywhere in KY or the Southeast for that matter. There are literally hundreds of miles of nothing but farmland out here. They use trucks for serious work. Fords, Chevys, and Toyotas.

Also - if we're going to have a recall contest, the facts still remain that GM and Ford have had many times the number of recalls over either Toyota or Nissan. We can single out all the technicalities all day long, but the simple fact that GM and Ford again take the cake for defective products, I think the argument can be summed up with that single fact.

Lastly, these little comparisons keep being made about "how my truck will haul a 2 story house up a wall" and so forth, as if to say that by owning a domestic truck, that automatically makes it beefier and stronger than any import. About a year ago, I went to a Chevy dealership and looked and some brand new Silverados. The interior of the truck was very nice and comfortable. But I'm a mechanically minded person, so I'm more concerned about the business end of the truck.

First of all, the whole engine was covered in a rubbermaid plastic shield. Secondly, there was a lot of welding splatter on the frame.

The hardware used in many places was already rusting. The frame towards the bed was somewhat thin looking for a full-sized truck. The handles were flimsy and felt like they flexed as I opened the doors.

Bottom line- the truck was a big full sized truck built like an econocar. I think all these comments about those "puny" toyota trucks are ironic since many of the domestics are pretty much fluff and looks versus actual heavy duty. At least the new Tundra has a real frame and modern engine.

I could have very likely attained that mileage 260,000 miles plus on my new Acura in time, but would suspect at least 6-8 transmission replacements with that mileage level. Not bad for a $34,000 car.

I read mileage on motors, and they can be rebuilt many times and still be the original drivetrain. It gets expensive; I lost a/c, electronic problems.

My father use to rave years ago about his great VW beetle with high mileage, but he was in the dealer constantly with struts, clutch adjustments, no heat on and on, but he was a diehard keeping the car. It would be cheaper and a lot nicer to buy something decent instead of an old rust bucket. I never keep them over 50,000 miles, and yet my last imports were the worst cars I ever owned. No more imports...