TOYOTA TUNDRA STILL SIMPLE AND RELIABLE
Pickup maintains decent performance and reliability, but it’s in need of a makeover
When it comes to full-size pickups, it’s no secret American iron rules the roost. It’s a vicious game of one-upmanship out there, and while Ford, General Motors and Ram duke it out on the front lines with new product and fresh technologies, we have the Toyota Tundra that hasn’t seen a full refresh since its 2007 introduction.
For 2018, Toyota sends the Tundra out to battle once again, this time with a new face featuring standard LED running lights, some new standard safety kit, and a fresh TRD (Toyota Racing Development) Sport package that amounts to an off-road-lite upgrade, adding TRD -tuned Bilstein shocks,
TRD front and rear anti-sway bars and some tough-guy visuals. The package also includes LED headlamps, auto-dimming mirror, navigation, garage-door opener and backup sensors. Is it enough to keep the old girl in the game?
Well, in reality, the Tundra has never really been “in the game” if you look at sales figures. For 2016 in the U.S., the top selling Ford F-series found more than 820,000 buyers, compared to the Tundra’s 115,000. Still, that’s a lot of profitable metal for Toyota.
The TRD Sport Package adds $5,900 to the bottom line of this 4x4 Tundra CrewMax SR5 that runs $47,990. Back-seat room is positively cavernous although, unlike most competitors, the Tundra’s bed length is limited to 5.5-feet when opting for the crew cab.
Power comes from Toyota’s tried and true 5.7-litre DOHC V8, making 381 horsepower and 401 pound-feet of torque. It’s mated to a six-speed automatic transmission, and overall, this is a smooth and generally punchy drivetrain, although it’s worst in class when looking at fuel economy. Natural Resources Canada has this truck pegged at 18.0 L/100 km city, 14.2 highway, and 16.3 combined — rather abysmal figures if you’re looking at the Ford F-150 4x4 2.7-L EcoBoost or a Ram 1500 4x4 EcoDiesel, which claim 11.3 combined and 10.8 combined respectively.
The Tundra also suffers from a stiff, jostling ride, especially with its beefed-up suspension bits. The cabin is relatively noisy, too. Jump into any of the American competitors and the experience will be comparatively limo-like.
Still, on the road the 2018 Tundra TRD Sport feels tight, tough and bulletproof. It’s a proven piece whose reliability is reflected in its historically high resale value.
Visually, the Tundra is aging well, and this TRD Sport looks refreshingly understated, i.e. not big-rig cartoonish. The package adds colour-keyed body bits, a fake hood scoop (in addition to the regular fake scoop), 20-inch alloy wheels with black accents, LED headlamps and a mesh grille with body-color surround.
The Tundra’s interior is showing its age. There’s lots of hard plastic, the switchgear looks dated, and the seven-inch infotainment touch screen is a creaky old thing. And how quaint: a real twist key. On the plus side, the controls are logical, there’s a giant bin between the seats and everything looks very well screwed together. There’s a charming simplicity here, what with the fabric seats, big rotary knobs for the HVAC, analog gauges and a general sense you could go at this thing with a baseball bat, hose out the debris and it would just shrug off the abuse and keep on truckin’.
Every 2018 Tundra gets Toyota’s Safety- Sense P as standard, and this includes auto high beam, adaptive cruise control, a nagging lane-departure warning and a pre-collision system with pedestrian detection that gives audio and visual alerts to warn the driver of a possible accident, followed by automated braking.
With the Tundra’s respected off-road acumen, I suspect this TRD Sport would have really showed its mettle had I had a chance to bash some boonies. But in my care, the TRD performed a somewhat less glamorous task: taking a pile of wood and old carpeting to the dump … er, transfer station.
So is there much to recommend this aging warhorse? Well, yes. It’s competitively priced, brags legendary reliability, it’s refreshingly simple and has proven high resale value. Plus its beefy off-road capability will be a big draw for some. Indeed, the Toyota Tundra does have a loyal fan base, but that said, a completely new Tundra probably can’t come soon enough.