Toyota has made its mark in the automotive world and has turned The Big Three into The Big Four, stretching Detroit clear to Tokyo to expand the storied trio into a quartet. The Japanese automaker did that primarily on the strength of its car lines. With the emergence of the 2007 Toyota Tundra 4x4 Dual Cab, however, Toyota has now served notice on Detroit’s truck world that it is also in the big-truck business.
They have also added luxury and panache to the mix. They have learned from their success in adding sweet design cues and lavish adornments to their car lines. After 72 years of building conservative, functional, plain-Jane trucks, Toyota is now in the stylish-truck business as well.
Design and flair aside, one thing you can say about Tundra is: it is one BIG truck. Another thing you can say about the Tundra is that it IS an American truck. That’s right, American, as the Tundra is built in San Antonio, Texas.
How big is the Texas Tundra? My test vehicle weighed in at a robust 5,220 pounds. It measured longhorn wide at 79.9 inches, Hemisfair Tower of the Americas high at 76.2 inches and Rio Grande long at 228.7 inches. The inside bed length of the short bed is 78.7 inches at a depth of 22.2 inches and a width of 66.4 inches.
Inside is also Texas-sized with a huge and roomy cabin that provides 40.2 inches of headroom in row one and 38.7 in row two, 42.5 inches of leg room in front with 34.7 behind and a cavernous 66.6 inches of shoulder room up front and 65.7 in the second cab.
Tundra is about more than size, however. It is also about power. American power …Texas power. The behemoth is propelled by a mighty 5.7-liter V-8 engine linked to 6-speed automatic transmission. The system blasts out 381hp and 401 lbs.-ft. of torque, to bestow a towing capacity of 10,200 lbs. A plant that size in a vehicle that large can only garner an EPA rating of 14mpg in the city and 18mpg on the highway, and my seven days of testing on highways, rough roads, job sites and tiny Pennsylvania boroughs yielded only 16.6mpg, but this Lone Star Toyota thundered with enough brawn to explode from zero-to-60mph in a sprintlike 6.6 seconds – a very formidable time for a 2.6-ton Godzilla. I also completed a quarter-mile test run in 15-flat, and the 5.7-liter showed excellent acceleration in passing gear on the highway. There’s also certainly enough torque and muscle to pull out tree stumps, or haul boulders.
On slalom tests and on pavement, Tundra has a stable center of gravity, good response and balance and a reasonable amount of yaw on quick turns. Its switch-on-the-fly 4WD provides better than average off-road and jobsite hole-and-puddle capabilities, and the multi-leaf trapezoidal rear suspension, Bilstein monotube shocks and special-tuned springs smooth out most highway imperfections.
What Toyota understands about today’s American truck market is that we Yanks like power, and also want our work trucks to double as luxury or family cars. A work truck with roominess, strength and style, Tundra offers enough room to take five workers and yourself to a job site, or to take the entire family to the lake for a vacation. It can tow a 28-foot boat with ease, and even has a rear camera connected to a front screen up above the dash. This system is great for backing up and excellent for lining up your trailer hitch.
Toyota also understands that sound and comfort are the ways to Americans’ hearts and wallets. My Blue Streak Metallic Tundra was outfitted with an awesome sound system, an $1160 option that included a 10-speaker JBL sound system with subwoofer, 440-watt amp and Bluetooth capability. Standard interior features include 8-way power driver seats, dual-zone climate control, power windows, door locks and mirrors and very comfortable seating throughout.
Toyota continues to focus on safety, and while the Tundra had not yet been crash-tested as this was written, the rugged ride is well-equipped with standard safety features including side-impact airbags for the front seats and side curtains to protect the front and rear seats. The curtains are designed to deploy in the event of a rollover to protect occupants and prevent their ejection. There are also driver and front passenger advanced air bags, seat side air bags and roll-sensing curtain airbag, and there is a cut-off switch so the bags won’t deploy when off-roading. Tundra also comes with TSTAR safety power-assist 4-wheel disc ABS brakes, electronic brakeforce distribution and traction control and tire pressure monitoring system.
Tundra is aggressively base priced at $31,490 and my bells-and-whistles edition came in at $37,007 (running boards, heated mirrors, back-up camera, premium sound system, 18-inch alloy wheels and interior upgrades, etc.).
Toyota calls it “the single most important product in its history.” That might be a stretch, but I wouldn’t put anything beyond the scope of this Texas-sized truck.
Visit www.CarlisleEvents.com for more on the automotive hobby.
Mike Blake, former editor of KIT CAR magazine, joined Carlisle Events as senior automotive journalist in 2004. He's been a "car guy" since the 1960s and has been writing professionally for about 30 years.
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