Re: CR Rates New Tundra V8 4x4 Reliability Well Below Average
Consumer Reports' testers are a bunch of old women as far as I can tell. In a previous career I sold BMW's at a dealership that also sold Toyota and Lexus. Consumer Reports hates BMW's, hates just about everything about them. The Consumer Reports testers with few exceptions do not understand the purpose of say a sport sedan, or sports car. I once read a review that criticized (I believe the M Roadster) for being too loud, and having acceleration that hurt the tester's neck or some such nonsense.
Consumer Reports also does not understand trucks. They never have, and probably never will. Any truck that rides like a car and requires no driver competency to use (Honda Ridgeline) is great to them. Real trucks that can do actual work, or go places they probably shouldn't, like most 1/2 tons 3/4 tons and 1 tons, are despised by CR.
As someone mentioned their target car for excellence is a Buick/Avalon. Soft, quiet, unobtrusive, easy to use even for morons that can barely understand a touch tone phone. Just like a good dishwasher, or toaster. Think of a good appliance, apply it's virtues to a vehicle, and you can predict what CR will like. These are of course all subjective.
For the quantitative part (reliability, durability) I am curious to see what vehicle systems were causing issues. CR does a reasonably good job of compiling this info and presenting it. I am not too surprised that the first year reliability for the 5.7L/six speed has been well below average. The release was very ambitious, new motor, new transmission, new truck, new plant, new tooling. Too many variables to control for quality, even for a company known for high quality.
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