2002 Toyota Tundra TRD 4X4 from North America - Comments

No major problems. The motor is a little noisy on cold starts if the temp. is in the 30s or below, but quiets down after it warms up.

The serpentine belt squeals a little if it's cold and moist outside, but will stop after the motor warms up. A shot of silicone spray seems to help quiet this. The back seat area is a little small and upright for adults, but fine for the kids.

I love the way this truck handles. It rides better than any American made truck I've have rode in and most cars for that matter. Even with the off road suspension, it rides like a dream. The small v8 is power-full and responsive. This is a quality built truck and I expect to get at least 200,000 miles out of it. When I tow my bass boat, I can hardly tell it's there. If I had to go out and buy an other truck today, it would be a Tundra.

It rides more smoothly than the American made trucks because its suspension is weak and flimsy. A truck with a springy suspension is useless for hauling anything. If it is a real truck meant for doing real work, it will ride roughly because the suspension will be re-enforced for doing work. I've seen Tacoma's and Tundra's hauling things in their beds that my accord could haul, and the back of the beds are nearly sagging to the ground. I once saw a Tundra try to pull a boat (that an S10 or Ranger could've pulled) out of Lake Cumberland and the engine sounded like it was going to cry or die, one or the other. If you think I'm lying, simply park your Toyota next to an F-150, Silverado, or RAM and lay down on the ground and take a look at what is attaching the wheels to your Toyota and compare that to what is attaching the wheels to the American made trucks. I think you'll be disappointed. If that isn't enough, try to load 700lbs or more in the bed and see if you don't have yourself a low-rider!

First, why should they ride like a dream compared to an american truck, when the design is based on our domestics???

Second, why most threads talk about a choppy ride? Why is the 4.7 V8 an overhead cam when common knowledge rejects this design for towing and severe use???

Why do they advertise generous HP, often outnumbering our domestic trucks, and are laconic about when it is available and at what RPM??? What about their historical cloning of our designs and technologies??? Did you know that Toyota was a textile company and that their first production car was a 1936 Chrysler Airflow clone, with a GM engine replica???

21:48 Well, whatever Toyota's first vehicle was, they surpassed the domestics in every possible aspect of build and design practices DECADES ago.

The GM Silverado has far better handling and ride if you have compared the newest full sizes. I have test driven both. New Tundras can go faster light to light in stock form. I have done light mods and new Borla aftermarket exhaust to further increase GM's performance however. Better handling, ride, comfort, room and warranty outsold the Tundra in our home.

Not sure what people mean when they say the Tundra can't haul or be used as a work truck. My Dad is a general contractor, has the first generation Tundra, which is even smaller than the current generation. He uses it for everything he used his older F-250 for, not to mention haul his boat and 25 foot camper. We used it for a weekend to haul rocks. Just loaded the bed as far as it would go and took off. The truck never sagged or nothing.

The ride is better because the suspension is better refined. It also rides better because the engine runs smoother and is more responsive. What's more, the truck has 220,000 miles and going strong. Knock it if you want, but it does the job well, and has so far been incredibly reliable.

I have not owned a Tundra. I did test drive a new 2008 just to see how they felt. Nothing about the truck impresses me. The styling is ugly, the ride is pretty harsh and choppy and the interior looks like a 20-year-old Yugo compared to an F-150.

We do have friends who bought the earlier, really flimsy Tundras and they have had suspension, steering, brake and engine issues before 50,000 miles. Although the new larger Tundra copies a lot more from our excellent domestic designs, they are still no match for a real truck like a Silverado, F-150 or Ram.

13:23 first generation truck comments are fine, but test 2008-09's, drive them all and compare. Also depends on applications... I have carried up to a ton in my domestic and tow heavily... even if I only utilize a portion of its capabilities, it's not strained to the maximum. I am also impressed with MPG of newest models, even the V8's.

Your dad bought a 3/4 ton Ford F-250 most likely to tow the 25 ft camper. The Tundra is 1/2 ton... I would have bought a new domestic 3/4 ton again as well.

17:30 A REAL truck huh?? Like a Ford? There's a Ford lot close to my home that's offering what amounts to a "buy one get one free" (on TRUCKS!) offer. Wow. NOBODY must be buying those pieces of crap.

This whole domestic/import debate has gotten downright funny since Toyota HAS been wiping the floor with them for years, and now the domestics are a week away from bankruptcy.

The comments by Ford and GM fans sure have gotten desperate and funny. Glad to see the Dodge dealership nearest my house closed down and reopened as a Honda dealership. At least now there'll hopefully be less broken down Chryslers on the road in my town.

Of course, the garages will suffer due to lack of business once the Honda's start selling and nobody has to bring them in for the first quarter million miles. I get a kick out of this stuff.

You couldn't sell me a Ford, Dodge, or GM car or truck for $100 right now, which is about all they're worth in the first place.

With only Tundras available as contractor service vehicles, most companies would soon go under. No company can AFFORD the constant repairs required by flimsy Japanese vehicles under real work conditions.

Our two companies have used vans and trucks from the Big Three since the late 80's. It is not at all uncommon to get 300,000 miles out of these vehicles, especially the Ford Rangers. Some of the service fleet vehicles are 1993 models or earlier. That is not possible with all the engine, brake, suspension and frame issues Tundras have.

This is about full size trucks, and the fact remains that for over 20 years the number one selling vehicle in America has been Ford F Series not cars. In addition, over 7 times more Ford F Series have been sold than Tundra recently.

If you want to buy a little Honda truck, that's fine. But its not even in this category. If you are looking at production figures lately, and with the high price of gas, the small economy cars are up. But if you look at $, there's a lot of us that have spent on one vehicle 2 to 2 1/2 times what a single little car amounts to.

I would rather see the actual limitations discussed on small trucks on a large truck review. Save a few bucks on the pump being cheap and not being able to have the utility of a full size truck is false economy.

I'd also not like to drop my rear and transmission with undersized, limited tow safety. Why do people buy full size trucks when gas is higher this year? Most likely over applications and Honda trucks on car frames are not applicable. Car analogies do not work on a full size truck review either.

"This is about full size trucks, and the fact remains that for over 20 years the number one selling vehicle in America has been Ford F Series not cars. In addition, over 7 times more Ford F Series have been sold than Tundra recently"

I love fun with stats, you can change them to fit your point of view. What you seem to have left out in your statement is that the Ford F-series includes more than one class of truck, even the commercial trucks fall under this heading. Perhaps you can find a direct comparsion of the # of F-150's to Tundra's sold and try to filter out the fleet contract vehicles, as they tend to skew the data.

13:12... so lets review 3/4 ton trucks, either gas or diesel, that Toyota can offer. It's not getting exotic here. 1/2 ton Tundras sales are small and even less lately. The best way is to test drive them. Cover the nameplate and compare function and utility... unless your criteria for buying a full size truck differs.

13:12... 2007 Tundra sales volume were 196,555. Ford F-150 were 690,589 in 2007. There are those that also buy F-250 models that I would not consider commercial customers that have a lot of good applications for 3/4 ton pickups. I cannot own a new 1 ton with the deed restrictions in my specific community, but fortunately can have a new 3/4 ton.

The funny part is, regardless of how many F-150's Ford has sold, they're still garbage when compared to any Toyota truck.

Here's Ford's latest scam... buy a $35,000 truck, and get a Ford Focus for free! The problem is, they put about a $14,000 mark-up on the truck, and Focus is worth about $8000 really. So... they sell you TWO pieces of junk instead of just one, make $6000.

Of course, people smart enough to not fall for this are buying Toyota's anyway...