2006 Toyota Tundra SR5 from North America - Off Topic Comments

<<Good luck in the long term!!! With the mounting recalls and toy-like quality of your rice burner, you better dump it while you can... no wonder Toyota offers only a fraction of the warranty GM does!!!>>

Good luck having that wonderful GM warranty honored. Just read the reviews on this site about how GM dealers "respect" their customers and warranty claims. But I guess the benefit of owning a GM vehicle is that you get to hear "they all do that" with each service visit.

13:01. It is wonderful. I now own 2 new 2007 GM's. No more imports.

Comment 20:26 really got a laugh out of me.

Some years back I bought a little flimsy Japanese car. It had 80,000 miles on it, but had never been in an accident or abused in any way. It pulled terribly to the left, so I assumed it just needed an alignment. I took it to my alignment shop and was informed that it had what the service manager referred to as the "Japanese flimsies". He explained that Japanese car companies cut corners so drastically that even the FRAME MEMBERS were too weak to hold the weight of the car for more than a few thousand miles without bending. My front frame rail had literally TWISTED, allowing the front wheel to sag out of alignment. I was advised that I'd have to have a frame shop repair.

Being worried that the rest of the car would fall apart soon, I ran as fast as I could to Ford and traded for a solid, reliable Mustang. A few months after getting the Mustang, I hit a 6-inch high curb head-on while dodging another car. I was doing 50mph at the time. I hit very hard with the right front wheel. I took the car in to have it checked out, as the jolt was so severe it knocked my glasses off, but was told it was not even knocked out of alignment!! Had I still been driving my "Japanese Flimsy" I would have left most of the front frame and suspension lying on the road. To say the Tundra is "better" because it is built very cheaply is LAUGHABLE!!

I've driven both a Tundra and an F-150. There is NO comparison. The F-150 is far more solid, flexes much less on rugged terrain and can handle both rough terrain and heavy loads much better than the lighter, flimsier Tundra. It also will last much longer without having to have the brakes, steering, front suspension and transmission repaired.

11:34 and 22:02: Wrong, and wrong again.

Whatever you may buy, other than a Toyota, will break off road before my Tacoma will if you try to follow me. I have proven this to many people with Rangers, Blazers, S-10's (watching an S-10 trying to follow a Toyota over rough terrain is hilarious), Dakota's, and other full size trucks from the Big three. I've embarrassed them all.

The only ones that can follow me and not get stuck or break are other Toyota's and Jeeps. I've jumped a stock Toyota truck (completely airborne) more than once, and nothing bends or breaks. Doesn't even go out of alignment. Try that in your Ford.

<<Some years back I bought a little flimsy Japanese car. It had 80,000 miles on it, but had never been in an accident or abused in any way. It pulled terribly to the left, so I assumed it just needed an alignment. I took it to my alignment shop and was informed that it had what the service manager referred to as the "Japanese flimsies". He explained that Japanese car companies cut corners so drastically that even the FRAME MEMBERS were too weak to hold the weight of the car for more than a few thousand miles without bending. My front frame rail had literally TWISTED, allowing the front wheel to sag out of alignment. I was advised that I'd have to have a frame shop repair.>

Your mechanic saw you coming and said whatever he thought would get the most money out of you.

I've owned over 30 imports from Japan and Korea and NEVER have I experienced what you described, and I've beaten the hell out of a lot of them.

You OBVIOUSLY bought a car that had previous frame damage and you simply won't admit that, unlike most people, you didn't have the car properly inspected before buying it. ANY car buying website will tell you the #1 thing to look for is a car that pulls as that indicates frame damage caused by a severe accident.

Face it, you bought a car that was in a bad accident and the seller saw you coming.

To comment 18:03. NO I DID NOT buy a used Japanese car that had been wrecked. I bought an INCREDIBLY WELL CARED FOR car from someone I KNEW. It had NEVER BEEN IN AN ACCIDENT. It had also never been abused.

The SAME service facility who advised me that my Japanese import's frame had sagged simply from the weight of the car was the SAME shop that examined my Mustang after striking the curb with it hard enough to knock my glasses off, and they told me "Everything is FINE, it is NOT EVEN OUT OF ALIGNMENT" and DID NOT EVEN CHARGE ME FOR CHECKING IT.

I've done business with this shop for 15 years because IT IS HONEST. In addition, they DID NOT try to repair my Japanese car, because they COULDN'T. They told me it would require a frame shop and THEY DID NOT REFER ME TO ONE. So the idea they were out to fleece me is as much bull as saying Japanese cars are better built than domestics!!

In addition to my experience, my brother's son skidded against a curb on a tight corner on a rain'slicked road at about 20mph in his Japanese Mitsubishi and WIPED OUT THE ENTIRE FRONT SUSPENSION. He was ALSO told "Japanese cars use very flimsy materials in their frames", so NO, I DO NOT think my experience is an exception.

Japanese car owners try to gloss over and make excuses for their cars VERY OBVIOUS weaknesses. Rather than keep pouring money down a rat hole, both my brother and I wised up and bought solidly built domestics. Their frames don't sag from their OWN WEIGH after 80,000 miles or crumple like tinfoil at a 20mph curb impact.

No Japanese company uses frame components of a proper size. Look at ANY domestic and you will find that all frame and sub-frame members are nearly twice as large and far better reinforced than import vehicle frames. And YES, the Japanese car's frame components WILL sag of the car's own weight after a few years.

18:45 You are completely incorrect. It is exactly the opposite of how you think it is. If you put any other make of truck next to a Toyota and abuse them off road or haul with them, the other truck will sag noticeably where the bed meets the cab. The Toyota will not.

Friends and I used to get them airborne off road and come down hard. They DO NOT sag, or twist like a Ranger, an S-10, or ANYTHING else would under the same treatment year after year.

There is no truth whatsoever to saying that a Japanese car's frame will sag under it's own weight. This doesn't happen, ever. And for you guys that think that a Toyota's truck's frame is not as strong as a domestic's, you are wrong, too.

Now of course, I'm not talking about putting a Tacoma next to an F-350, we're talking trucks comparable in size. A Tundra's frame is at least as well made as an F-150. In fact, I see many F-150's on the road that sag noticeably between the bed and cab, and it doesn't look like it's from a lot of heavy hauling either, according to the good condition of the bed.

I have yet to see ONE Toyota truck of any size that rides down the road looking like that. And I've been in some that were bounced to hell and back for much of their lives off road. They still don't sag.

Fully boxed frame doesn't mean anything. Why not make it twice as thick and fill it with cement, too? Will that help?

21:50 Do you actually think anyone out here will believe that a THOUSAND pounds sitting on, or even near, the tailgate of an F-150 (as if half a ton wouldn't fold the tailgate like a paper towel) is only going to make it drop 3 inches?