2007 Toyota Tundra SR5 from North America - Off Topic Comments

"NUMBER of recalls, and # of affected vehicles are two different things. Toyota is still the best."

Regarding # of affected vehicles, Toyota recalled more vehicles then it sold in 2005. That's not good for an auto maker many of you proclaim is infallible. Certainly the American automakers are not infallible either, but I have not seen anybody make that claim.

At the end of the day, it is still Toyota having massive engine failures and doing public mea-culpas as the precarious myth of their quality is shattered. I feel sorry for anybody who has a late model Toyota, including a number of friends of mine who have lost thousands of dollars watching in astonishment, as the Toyota's they had been convinced were beyond reproach, self destructed before their eyes.

Bottom line is this: All you Ford and Chevy people can just keep right pulling out the very few and rare occurrences of Toyotas having problems, and believe that somehow, some way that your GM or Ford is better.

You can let your old-fashioned patriotism get in the way of facts all day long, which is ironic since your cars and trucks are mostly made in Mexico, Canada, and Korea, or assembled in some economically crumbling rust belt state using Chinese, Mexican, Brazilian, and yes - even Indian produced parts.

Meanwhile, none of you have even come close to convincing me that anything Ford or GM makes is anything close to being a product that I would personally trust to get me to work day in day out without problems. They are still what they have always been, which are cheaply manufactured, disposable products designed by penny-pincher bean counters in Detroit. Remember - the mantra of Detroit has been "planned obsolescence", meaning the idea of your car wearing out prematurely is a planned part of the program.

I'll keep right on driving my Toyota truck made in California with 65% domestically produced parts and assembled by American workers.

I also firmly believe in free trade and the ability to choose a superior, well engineered product. So with that said, adios amigos... Time to go to work and drive my Tacoma that gives me ZERO trouble year in, year out.

I may be wrong, but a Tacoma owner with a 200,000 mile vehicle may not be able to afford a loaded Silverado F250 Series to even comment with first hand ownership.

I am not able to comment on a Tacoma, only a Tundra I test drove and then bought a fully loaded Silverado to date with zero repairs... oil changes and filters only. Great truck and I highly recommend one.

Motor Trend admitted that if they had chosen the Tundra as winner mayhem would arise!! WWIII. Didn't Motor Trend also say the Malibu was car of the year '97? Ford Aerostar '93? Thunderbird '02? My point exactly!

Thank you 10:53.

I TRULY get a kick over how many people have 'friends' and 'neighbors' with all these bad Toyota's. LOL. That way, if you ask them specific info. about the 'bad Toyota', and they know nothing, it is because it was their 'neighbor's car.

Boy, I'll tell you, almost everyone with a bad Toyota shows up here. I have yet to meet one dissatisfied Toyota owner in REALITY, where I can actually talk to yet another of the millions of we Toyota owners that never have problems, but these guys online, where no proof is possible, have got me convinced (that was called sarcasm).

Sure, the Ranger is awesome. Must be why Ford's decided to stop making it. Ha ha. There's enough material here for a good comedy album for someone.

Toyota beats the hell out of Ford and Chevy every day with every car they make, and all of their small trucks, so the only hope these Ford owners have to cling to is F-150 sales. It's not even a good truck, it just sells a lot. Wait till Toyota pulls the rug out from under them on that one too.

10:53.

I can believe your Toyota lasted as long as you say - some do. But, I could also give the exact same kind of testament regarding my domestic trucks/vehicles that have lasted just as long, and in some cases quite a bit longer than the mileage your Toyota is at, and I am not even implying that your Toyota is necessarily going to die any time soon.

But the fact remains, the domestic trucks can undeniably haul more than Toyota, given their much tougher construction. The cast iron engines are in the trucks for a reason. GM has both aluminum and cast iron versions of their series III V8's, so they could just as easily put an aluminum engine in their trucks, as a cast iron. Yet they (wisely) choose to put a cast iron engine in, because cast iron, as a metal, is clearly a tougher than aluminum, capable of withstanding higher loads, for longer periods of time, at more extreme temperatures than aluminum. I challenge anybody to provide scientific evidence to the contrary.

In terms of durability of the end product (i.e. the assembled engine), we could argue all day about who's truck lasts longer, but at the end of the day, the domestic trucks can rack up the high miles as well as anyone, and based on what I have seen better. Achieving better than 200K+ miles on all of my domestic trucks/vehicles with very little or no problems is evidence enough of that for me.

"I may be wrong, but a Tacoma owner with a 200,000 mile vehicle may not be able to afford a loaded Silverado F250 Series to even comment with first hand ownership."

Yes, you are incorrect at least in my case. I own a Tacoma with well over 200k and make over 6 figures for my income. Enough to easily buy a fully loaded Chevy Silverado with all the trimmings or even a BMW or Mercedes. Yet I drive a 12 year old small econo-truck with lots of miles on it why? Perhaps it has something to do with intelligent financial fortitude.

I got my truck for a number of reasons. For one I knew it would be top-notch quality and last for years with few if any problems. So far that part has been quite true and even now the fit, finish, and appearance of the truck has held up very nicely. If you knew nothing about model years, you'd think I still had a somewhat new truck. I also got my truck in particular because the engine is well laid out: the plugs are all in a row and not hidden under some useless plastic shroud. Things are easy to get to and allow me to do all the work myself, which is another money saving advantage.

My truck cost me $10k out the door. A fully loaded Silverado is over 40k, or approximately 4 times the cost of a small Tacoma. Yes, they are totally different trucks, but when talking money, there is a massive difference. While I'm sure there are a few 'lucky' Silverado owners out there who got one of the 'good' ones, I seriously doubt equivalent aged Silverados are holding up as well as my Tacoma, meaning the vast majority of their owners have probably already bought another 40k Silverado. So let's do the math: 10k versus 80k.

Lastly, my truck gets around 30MPG. A loaded Silverado might get 17-20MPG, but more than likely between 14-17MPG. Gas is over $3 a gallon where I live. I drive 50 miles each way and that costs me roughly $50 a week. A fully loaded Silverado driving the same distance would cost double that, if not more.

If you look at it this way, it isn't really a surprise that the average US citizen has -0.08 in savings. When I see these construction workers driving full-sized Silverados with a trailer full of toys behind them, it isn't a surprise to me that our country is in such serious debt.

We live in a country that is filled with people that think they HAVE to drive the absolute most expensive car their incomes can support, when in reality if people simply drove something adequate and economical, they might be surprised at just how much they can save. I plan on retiring young. I would never be able to do so buying a big plastic fully loaded truck every 5 years.

There's your answer.

20:01 Well, it's kind of hard for GM to screw up a cast iron block, so that's what they use. The block isn't the reason their engines are substandard, it's all the other shoddily assembled, cheap parts.

Toyota has the talent and the technology to make an engine with an aluminum block run much farther and longer than GM can with an iron one. And the Toyota will get you better gas mileage and not wear out the suspension in the front end because of the pointless extra weight of a cast iron block.

Argue it all you want to, the proof is in the fact that these Toyota's with the alum. blocks will outlast a GM every time under the same treatment.

You can't fairly compare the Silverado, Dodge Ram, or Ford F Series with the Tundra. For those of you old enough to remember the Chevy El Camino and the Ford Ranchero; these were vehicles which were basically passenger cars with a box on the rear. They were not built for heavy payloads or serious hauling. Such is the case with the Tundra... a glorified Camry with a box grafted onto the rear... in no way is the Tundra to be considered a serious truck. Back to the drawing board, Toyota!

18:33 small trucks in your comment... but this is a larger truck and the domestics dominate the market with more capability and a warranty. A Tundra could not begin to pull, or do the work that I do on a daily basis (both at work and recreation on weekend). I am glad you clarified that issue.

Plain and simple: The Tundra has only been out since what 99 or 2000? And people are getting frantic and wetting their pants? Sitting here saying their domestic truck is the best when they had all these years to make it light years a head of Toyota but now it is within a ten foot pole? To me it looks like GM and Ford have walked all over the map in desperation to do anything but build a great product, or make any innovations. Funny how GM and Ford teamed up to build a transmission. Must mean they are allies in some kind of foreign war, which the domestic truck guys do not see for some reason...?

16:55;

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

Once again, you can't say that the Tundra is not a real work truck. I can't tell you how many new Tundras I see being used in fleet service around here for construction crews and landscaping services.

Here's the thing. Toyota will keep right on improving on the Tundra until it will eventually far surpass the Domestic trucks. They have an ample supply of cash and capital and resources to do so. Meanwhile Ford and GM are just trying to stay alive and out of the quagmire they've gotten themselves into with union.

What it boils down to is that Ford and Chevy will keep right on puking out poorly manufactured, cheap trucks while Toyota keeps improving and innovating. In less than 10 years they went from the T-100, to the first Tundra, and now the 2nd Tundra that in many people's opinion is now as good, and probably better than the domestic competition. Come the 3rd generation of then Tundra and I can guarantee that the Tundra will be leaving both Ford and Chevy behind for good just like they did with the Camry when Ford was still building Ford Exploders and Tauruses that blew head gaskets.

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...

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.