2007 Toyota Tundra SR5 from North America - Off Topic Comments

Now that we are on a tangent on minivans, one should ask; are we basing vehicle reliability on Carsurvey.org?

I have heard from many transmission shops, media, car dealers that sell cars (even GM dealers), and best of all, from friends and family who own vehicles. I have heard about Ford dropping more transmissions across the board (except maybe one Taurus I know of that had three engines, but the original transmission in 230k). My uncle got rid of his GM van (Montana) because it was a death trap! Look at all crash tests and you will find its fatal flaws. Not to mention that it is mediochre and poorly built. How could you possibly recommend I transport my loved ones in this hauler? I know of many Chrysler vans that have dropped many transmissions. In fact I do not know of many people whom have had trouble-free experiences with Chrysler van transmissions or electronics.

Yes, Honda had trouble on their Odyssey van, but I hear that it has been resolved on the newest model. Honda has extended the warranty to 7 years and 109,000 miles and will replace the transmission. My friends with domestic vehicles were forced into paying hundreds of dollars. Many problems with getting the problem fixed are due to poor communication on the part of the dealer, and to Honda not getting the message out about warranty coverage.

What did GM and Ford do to solve their problems? GM made a vehicle that is on Forbes list of 10 worst vehicles of the year and now they are no longer available.

Ford gave up and sold the last Freestars with a hefty discount to consumers, and quit building family sized vans.

From my own experience; we have a 1999 Honda Odyssey, and not a problem with its transmission yet, with well over 100k. Many like you on here say I should dump it and buy a new GM van? What, an Uplander? APPALLING! Puke! No Thank You!

00:14 While we have had a dodge, a couple Chevrolet products and several Fords. We did have the transmission go out on the dodge, but at least it was over 100,000. The Oldsmobile Silhouette tranny started going out around 90,000. My brother did drive it like he stole it, and burnt the tires off of it. So I guess that was coming. But our Fords we have never had any major problems out of.

I wonder if I can put my Trac Rac ladder rack on after sawing off the roof of the Odyssey and then mounting a frame hitch to make it into a truck. Why the talk about Taurus etc, on a full size truck review? I doubt most of the commenters even own a full size truck... I own a new car as well as a full size domestic truck, but have made zero comments on it as it is not this specific market segment. I am almost about to comment on my motorcycle, but perhaps its not at all relevant whatsoever as well.

The reason there are no more reviews for the freestar is because Ford decided to quit making them since they could not fix the ongoing issues with them. You have to love a company who does not know how to fix THEIR OWN products and claim that "quality is job 1". There is a reason why Ford is in the financial mess they are in.

I am going over to the car reviews as perhaps I might learn all about full size truck comparisons instead of on this Tundra truck review.

Hate to break it to you buddy, but you were not learning anything about the Tundra in the first place. Did you really think that anything on this thread was a real world analysis? No, just a bunch of domestic truck owners who want to bash the Tundra.

Reading about Odysseys, Cavaliers, Tauruses are not going to sway one to immediately rush out and just buy a new specific Tundra, Titan, Ford F Series, Silverado or Ram full size truck. If you have driven more than one new to share with us or at least within 2 years old to compare current features... any full size trucks that you have personally first hand driven and compared I would love to read your comments. I personally like seeing actual ownership experiences on the specific model being reviewed. If I were reading and may be seriously considering buying a 2007 Ferrari 360 Spyder for example I certainly would not want to be reading about a 2007 Tundra issues/comments just as the reverse is true on this review.

This thread seems to have been grossly fragmented and warped away from the original intent, which was to review a 2007 Tundra. So far, it seems that the largest majority of the arguments against it have little to do with the truck and more about whether you think Japanese or American vehicles are good or bad, which beneath it all boils down to a single argument as to whether you believe that buying American versus import brands is a good thing or a bad thing.

But to get back to the original intent of making this review, the discussions should be about this particular make and model and not about other full-sized trucks, cars, SUV's, or smaller more fuel efficient cars. Ultimately the decision lies with the consumer. Everyone has different reasons for liking a particular model and have different financial capabilities. So if gas becomes $5 a gallon and George the construction guy wants to buy a crew cab Dodge with a 6.0 liter Hemi that gets 10MPG, well that's really his decision and not those who feel that large trucks that get poor fuel economy are foolish. Trust me - I went to an electronics store this weekend and I saw plenty of people buying massive $8,000 flatscreen TVs even though some probably really shouldn't be. We're Americans and debt is what we do, so if someone wants to blow their income on gas and huge trucks or BMW's, then so be it. That's not my choice nor my business.

Anyhow, getting back to the Tundra, first of all, you can't deny that this truck has had some problems. It was reported that early versions of the 2007 model had camshaft issues. That sounds rather horrific until you actually read the report. When we're talking 'problems', the problem was on 20 trucks. The supplier of the cams had made a mistake in the casting process on a batch of these. The problem has since been corrected. Toyota sells around 130,000 Tundras a year and plans on selling 200,000 for this model. So 20 trucks out of 200,000 would be a minuscule percentage of the entire fleet. The reason this problem was made into such a media feast was because Toyota has by and large had a sterling track record for making reliable cars. Just like the kid in high school who got all A's, people are naturally inclined to seek out failure.

To conclude, I recently saw a GMC commercial that boasted 90 years of technical innovation. So standing back from a pure reasoning perspective, one would assume that 90 years of engineering, which is approximately 30 years before Toyota even existed would yield vastly superior trucks. But the question is are they? Toyota built and designed the Tundra in 3 years. The model has only been around since late 2000. So we're talking 7 years versus 90 years... yet the Tundra has a high degree of reliability and customer satisfaction. That isn't to say that they are perfect, but if you compare it to owners who have GM products, they do very well.

Anyhow, please stay on topic and stop dragging the whole import versus domestic argument through the weeds.

I would much rather own a very nice domestic full size truck vs. have to make over 500 plus excuses and or defensive comments as it now appears on this thread. Seems like that would becoming tiring after a while. Mine quietly performs every single day without qualm and without any negative comments.

Well, as far as full size trucks go, here's something you might want to know. My friend just bought a brand new F-150. He wanted a Tundra, but thought twice about spending the 'extra' money. The Ford is supposed to tow 10,000 pounds, so they say at the dealership. He made sure of this because he just bought a 7000 pound pull behind camper. He drove about 150 miles to pick it up, and barely made it home. I talked to him just today, and he said the Ford was screaming at about 3000 rpms and started to overheat. In the winter. What happens when he tries to actually go camping in the spring and summer? And he got EIGHT miles to the gallon, pulling on a major highway at about 60 mph. Ford tough. Yeah. Should have bought the Tundra.

But the thing is, this is NOT a review. Read the initial post -- it was written by somebody who "wanted to start up a discussion" on a vehicle he doesn't even own. This is the magnet page for pointless arguing about foreign v. domestic, with no actual review of any real vehicle.

21:09 not disputing the dealer, but I would have bought a new F250 16,400 lb tow rating... buying the Tundra would not give you any extra gain with a 10,800 tow rating. Tundra does not make anything bigger... I may upgrade to the F350 with my next boat 19,200 and if that doesn't work for you buy the Ford F450 with 24,000...I would rather have more reserve with my towing.

11:21 That's a very good analogy about the student who gets the 'A' screwing up. That's exactly why Toyota draws so much attention with every recall or problem. When Ford, who can be compared to the 'F' student for certain, finally makes a car that MIGHT be half decent, all of the 'domestic' owners come out of the woodwork and want to say how Ford is now ahead of Toyota, which obviously is wrong and makes no sense. Just because Ford may have temporarily gone up a notch with one or two models, and Toyota may have temporarily slipped with one or two, there is still a huge difference in quality between them; Toyota still makes the far better product.

My Uncle is a Toyota dealer and he drives a newer F-150.

13:40; The difference is that the Tundra is actually capable of towing at least as much as Toyota claims that it will.

What's worse is that he had a Dodge Ram that was supposed to be able to tow 9000 pounds, I believe. When he was looking into buying the 7000 lb. camper, he checked with Dodge first about his truck. It was also new, by the way. Dodge told him they didn't recommend that he tow the camper. Of course, he asked them why he couldn't with a truck that was rated for 9000, and they would only say that they wouldn't recommend it and mentioned something about the rear differential not being heavy duty. So he bought the Ford; they told him it would have no problems; obviously they were wrong. He is 3000 lbs. under capacity and the truck barely got him uphill and began to overheat.

Like I said before, what happens when he actually starts putting things in the camper for a trip and it's actually hot out in the spring or summer? Once again, he should have gone with the Tundra, which I'm sure he now knows.