Motor Trend (MT) has named the Tundra their Truck of the Year. Yes, "The new Toyota Tundra is now ready to take on any American-made pickup truck– on all levels." To get the gong, an aspiring pickup had to be new or redesigned in the 12 months before Jan. 1, 2008. So the only "American-made pickup trucks" that qualified were the heavy-duty versions of the Silverado, Sierra and F-series. Hang on; how come the new Tundra, introduced as an '07 model, qualifies? It's about as much as mystery as why MT considers "significance" one of their three judging criteria. Anyway, in their official reveal, MT spends a paragraph sloughing off the Tundra's well-publicized recalls and quality problems. "Our guess is many of these stories spread like wildfire, given the lightning-rod effect this new truck is having with enthusiasts and the speed with which an Internet item can travel." And of the latest recall for a soft joint in the rear driveshaft, they add, "(EDITOR'S NOTE: Testing, judging, and story for the February 2008 issue of Motor Trend were completed and printed before the latest safety recall involving 15,600 2007 Tundras to correct a potential driveshaft issue)" It's amazing how much spin a generous advertising budget can buy.
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It’s not really ‘spin’ as much as it is lack of competition. As you said, MT has a very strict set of eligibility requirements with regards to launch timing. When you add that to the fact that there are only about 12 actual trucks on the market, each year there’s really only a handful of trucks ‘competing’ for this award.
Every single ‘major’ new truck wins the Truck of the Year. When the new Ram came out, it won. When the new F150 came out, it won. I’m pretty sure when the new Sliverado/Sierra came out, it won too. Now it’s the Tundra’s turn.
Since the launch of every flagship truck from the major manufactures has been staggered for the past few years, it’s always one brand new truck that beats out a bunch of old ones. This award is probably the most pointless award in the history of car magazine awards
Thats the problem with all the “Mode of Transportation of the Year” awards. The release timing.
Of course, if the recalls are anything to go by, at least we know that the Tundra is on the same reliability level as the domestic makes.
I jest, I jest…
I see the Tundra as the new poeser truck. Looks big and bad, but not really all that much truck. I believe I read somewhere that a new “Heavy Duty” model will be released with bigger fender flares and step side set up, but same engine.
Say what you will about the Domestic makes (I’ll most likely agree), but we can make a hell of a pickup truck.
The Tundra is to the F150 and Silverado, as is the Malibu to the Camry and Accord. It may be nice but it won’t over many sales from the current market leaders.
I may be wrong on this, and if I am, somebody please call me on it. I believe the new Tundra was officially released after the first of the year in 2007. I remember reading in the 2007 Four Wheeler Magazine Pick-up Truck of the Year article that the editors would have loved to include a new Tundra, but it didn’t meet the availability standards to be included in the test due to its release date. The only testers were the Silverado, Sierra, and Avalanche. The GMT-900 won.
Perhaps the same standards kept the Tundra from the Motor Trend testing last year. If a reader has a 2007 Tundra that he bought in late 2006, please correct me.
The Tundra has the frame of a pre PN96 F150. It not only isn’t fully boxed, it isn’t boxed. That truck would shake to bits at Ford’s Arizona Proving Grounds.
Quality is apparently not a factor in xOTY competitions. Since most of the time they are just-introed vehicles that is probably understandable.
In this case though, there was evidence-aplenty of problems due a hurried design [or just lack of understanding real truck requirements] prior to the actual awarding.
Hey Toyota – unlike your other markets, US people really beat the crap out of full size trucks.
I expect my consulting fee in the mail next week.
These OTY competitions never include last-year’s winner. I think that if a model does well and wins an award one year, it should hold its title until dethroned by a superior newer model.
Its still a better choice than the “truck” that won this “coveted” award in 2006. Maybe.
In this case though, there was evidence-aplenty of problems due a hurried design [or just lack of understanding real truck requirements] prior to the actual awarding.
If you think Toyota lacks understanding about what makes a real truck, I would with respect, invite you to check out the TOPGEAR videos on YouTube where the guys destroy a Toyota PU. I would say with all sincerity that there is not a Ford, GM or Dodge PU ‘heavy duty’ or not on this planet that could take the abuse that this Toyota HiLux took, Period.
Meh…who cares.
Remember how many awards the 2000 Focus won? Yeah, TONS. And remember how many recalls it had? Thats right, 10+.
And Ford didn’t even have an excuse because the Focus was as reliable as the sunrise in Europe, but somehow they screwed it up.
As for the Tundra…I don’t know…I haven’t driven it or any of the other trucks. But I would have liked to see the GM twins win. The new Super Duty is just hideous and the Tundra…well, I hate the interior.
“If you think Toyota lacks understanding about what makes a real truck, I would with respect, invite you to check out the TOPGEAR videos on YouTube where the guys destroy a Toyota PU. I would say with all sincerity that there is not a Ford, GM or Dodge PU ‘heavy duty’ or not on this planet that could take the abuse that this Toyota HiLux took, Period.”
I agree 100%
N85523
I was at a small auto show mid-January this year and there was one Tundra on display. It got a whole bunch of attention because nobody had ever seen one before in person. I remember talking to one of the Toyota guys who told me about his training in preparation to sell the truck, and I remember him mentioning that they still weren’t sure what the pricing would be for the new Tundra.
If quality was a factor in these awards the D2.8 would have been blanked for a couple decades.
Sherman Lin-You may want to look at Frank’s monthly sales charts. Everyone else is down for the year, Tundra way up. Yes there are incentive, but that is true of the D2.8 also. It’s winning buyers, I doubt GM, Ford and Dodge are as relaxed about it as you are.
Just a thought.
Previous MT COTY winners include the 74 mustang and the renault alliance so let’s not read into the award too awful much. What is curious is why it took Toyota (and even Honda/Nissan) so long to get into the big truck game and now they are here fuel prices threaten to shrink the market anyway. I’d like to see Hyundai sell pickups here. They make buses and semi tractors in Korea for sale everywhere but here. Hyundai knows how to build these vehicles and could give them all a run for their money.
And being the new kid on the block they would get the MT TOTY award by default.
I suppose on the bright side you don’t have to worry about the Tundra going up in flames as it sits in your garage ala the F150 at the moment…and Toyota actually recalls things when a problem is discovered instead of ignoring it for 10 years.
In this case though, there was evidence-aplenty of problems due a hurried design [or just lack of understanding real truck requirements] prior to the actual awarding.
Hey Toyota – unlike your other markets, US people really beat the crap out of full size trucks.
Correct me if I am wrong but isnt the Tundra designed and built in Texas by a bunch of Americans working for Toyota?
WHen you consider Toyota build a brand new plant for a brand new pickup, I think that they are doing just fine. Detroit has been using the same basic pickups for years with periodical updates. Makes it easier to control recalls/defects. Toyota will get these things cleared up and they will be OK. It is not important if they meet their sales goal in a down market where everyone is losing pickup sales this year. THey have Detroit running scared..because Toyota built the Tacoma into the industry leader [Like the Camry, Corolla, etc] and they will do it with the Tundra. Just give them some time. Amazing how people forget who Toyota really is. Even after a 30+ year track record of success.
Lets see all kinds of recalls a goofy look and now sales are down?
And we wonder why real truck people think of them as a P.O.S
Great looking vehicle, toyota will handle the recalls and move solidly into that market in a few years. After all, if the dullards at GM can do it, how hard can it be?
It’s another truck for suburbanites to drive to Home Depot, only it is less capable than the domestics, and sucks as much if not more gas.
It has it’s market, but I’ve yet to see one that is actually used as a work truck.
troonbop:
Great looking vehicle, toyota will handle the recalls and move solidly into that market in a few years. After all, if the dullards at GM can do it, how hard can it be?
Let’s criticize GM where it is deserved. Full-size trucks is not the segment to do it in.
Mikey-Who’s truck sales are down? November Tundra up 40 something percent GM down.
Keep in mind the 2WD Tundra scored very well in CR.
Also, the old GMT800 platform had 4wd drivetrain issues through it’s whole run that were never addressed. Be interesting to see if they were addressed in the GMT900 (usually show up in CR in year 2 or 3).
Don’t be surprised if (when?) the Tundra issues are gone pretty fast. Toyota deals with stuff, GM doesn’t.
Lets also not forget that segment leader Ford will have an all new F150 next year. Unlike the Focus—I expect the F150 to be better than its already solid predecessor.
Bunter1 :
Who’s truck sales are down? November Tundra up 40 something percent GM down.
True, Tundra is up over last year’s sales – but let’s level the playing field a bit. Comparing Tundra’s sales this year (for a new, highly promoted model) against the smaller, lame-duck model from the previous year is a bit misleading. And don’t forget, if you sell 2 this year and 4 next year, your sales are up 100%. Just quoting percentages can be misleading.
Silverado and F-series still outsell the Tundra by a factor of three or four every month. The decline in their sales is due to economics and fuel economy, not Tundra’s impact on their market. The only reason their percentages look so bad is that they sold much better in previous years.
What is really hurting the Big 2.8 is the loss of profits from these former cash full size pickups. They need to cut the price at the same time as they are losing sales.
Its still a better choice than the “truck” that won this “coveted” award in 2006. Maybe.
Deleted my comment, my memory was faulty and I had the 2006 confused with the 2007. Now that I’ve got the right truck in mind, I whole-heartedly agree.
These “OTY” awards will continue to be irrelevant for as long as they require contenders to be all-new or heavily revised for that model year.
Without qualifying the back-patting fluff with a reminder that, oh, say, a 3-Series or G37 is still a better drive than a CTS (MT’s ’08 COTY), these awards amount to a “Most Improved” trophy at best, or a blatant PR circus at worst.
I think it’s funny how people criticize the Tundra for not being a “heavy duty work truck”.
As if every that buys a domestic truck uses it for work duty. Yes, there are posers who drive them too.
But think it out…a kid gets a Corolla as a 1st car, moves up to Camry, then an Avalon. He’s had Toyota products for years, enjoyed every one of them. Now he wants a truck–you think he should go elsewhere after being a loyal Toyota customer?
The Japanese carmakers have made larger and larger cars to keep their customers in the fold. It’s only logical to cover the large truck segment too.
Customer satisfaction and loyalty is the name of the game. Funny how those who would never own a Japanese-named product are the very 1st to criticize them.
I’m not surprise. It seems like through out the years the big 2.8, their truck line up has gone down hill. It seem like they have run out of ideas to make their truck better. Toyota on the other hand started out at the bottom, but it seems like each year they improve drastically. I’ll never thought I see the day that toyota truck line-up would out do the big 2.8.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWjTbiYo3x0&feature=related
Disclaimer: Ford is behind this, and the GM truck has an offroad package, so it’s probably not a fair comparison. Still, how damning is this for the Tundra.
thetopdog:
“It’s not really ’spin’ as much as it is lack of competition.”
LOL!
and the criticisms of MT for this choice seems to be ITSELF full of spin!
I once read that Motor Trend demands a bunch of perks from Car/Truck of the Year winners, like the free use of several vehicles for a year. That sounded much like a beauty contest judge requiring Miss Utopia to sleep with him when she wins the pageant.
Does anyone know if MT does get some “gratuities” from Car/Truck of the Year honorees?
The only other “new” trucks for the time in question were the Super Duty versions of GM and Ford’s pickup truck lines.
Besides the published criteria, there is also a question of which vehicle will provide MT with the most cubic yards of advertising dollars. Toyota is all over that game with the Tundra launch. They are spending crazy amounts of advertising and promotion money on Tundra because … they can! Toyota is swimming in cash and is laying down plenty of it to promote their new truck.
Many uninformed people will interpret the MT Truck of the Year award to mean that Tundra is a better truck than a Silverado or F150. In fact, however, winning that award makes no such claim. Smoke and mirrors.
That said, I could care less about a few recalls. As a buyer I care a lot about things which hit my pocket book after the warranty expires and which by rights shouldn’t have gone wrong, but if the company discovers an oops and fixes it on their dime, no big deal.
The one person I know who bought a new Tundra is absolutely thrilled with it.
Hi Frank-I was primarily responding to the claim the Tundra sales were down
Definately understand what you are saying, it is far easier to see big percentage increases over a model that is a small seller. I think we will see the same thing with Malibu retail this year.
That said, the Tundra’s increase had to come out of somebodys hide. Yes economics is part, probably most of the drop for Ford and GM, but part of it is Toyota.
Also, look at the sales per dealership, Tundra is right in there, and Toyota is concentrated in urban areas with little representation in rural areas where PUs rule the earth.
I think the D2.8 would be very foolish to discount this truck.
Thanks for your thoughts.
Merry Christmas,
Bunter
Seeing the equality between the TOTY offerings, it’s possible that MT was attempting to offset choosing the domestic CTS as COTY.
Phew, atlast someone who sees the worth of the big TUNDRA. Nice work MOTOR TREND.
Fine, they make a good small truck. But I thought we were talking about the Tundra.
“If you think Toyota lacks understanding about what makes a real truck, I would with respect, invite you to check out the TOPGEAR videos on YouTube where the guys destroy a Toyota PU. I would say with all sincerity that there is not a Ford, GM or Dodge PU ‘heavy duty’ or not on this planet that could take the abuse that this Toyota HiLux took, Period.”
I agree 100%
Good for Toyota, the Tundra is a huge step forward. The Tundra is a good truck.
By the amount of Tundra hate on this and many other boards it is legit and have the domestics very worried.
I have seen them as work trucks but some contractor’s can’t use them because of the unionized job sites won’t allow them.