[johndvm]

I find it hard to accept that some of these negative Tundra threads are for real. I think some of the displaced ford employees must be spending time at this site. (If bored they are certainly welcome to come over to my place to help with my weekly major repair on my Superduty.) Too bad because otherwise this is a great forum. Hats off to Toyota for building a better product!

 

[bbfirebird]

I don't think anyone here really HATES the Tundra, but there seem to be two dominant groups of people here:

One group seems to think the Tundra is the most innovative, revolutionary pickup ever built. Some even think Toyota can do no wrong, to the extent that they think people coming here with problems (piston slap being the most obvious example) are paid employees by GM or Ford trying to ruin the Tundra's sales. Personally, I think a few (NOT all) of the people in this category are so blindly loyal to the Tundra and Toyota that it borders on arrogance and/or ignorance, which is largely what fuels the debates about this truck.

The other group (myself included) doesn't necessarily dislike the Tundra, but they don't believe it is as revolutionary as people claim it is. They might also think that the reliability/quality gap between auto manufacturers isn't what it used to be- either that Toyota quality has dropped in recent years, or domestic quality has risen, or a little bit of both.

Personally, I don't see the Tundra as an extremely innovative or "class leading" pickup. I do believe it's a very nice truck, and quite capable. But while it has the largest towing capacity of 1/2 ton trucks, it doesn't have the largest payload capacity. Yes, it can do 0-60 and the 1/4 mile faster than any other truck, but so what? We are talking about trucks here, not sports cars. 0-60 times are great to brag about and to sell magazines, but really have little bearing in the real world of stop-and-go driving and highway cruising. Probably my biggest problem with the Tundra is how expensive it has become. It seems that comparably equipped Tundras are $2-3k more expensive than rival brands, before the obligatory incentives and low financing rates other brands are willing to give.

Personally, I think the Honda Ridgeline was more "revolutionary" than the Tundra. Not to say it's better- I don't think that at all. But Honda did re-think how the pickup truck can be used, by adding a water-tight trunk that can double as a cooler for tailgating, giving it independent rear suspension, and other things. However the lack of a V8 engine really only makes it good for daily driving with occasional trips to Home Depot on the weekends, not any real hauling, towing, or work duty. But thats not my point. My point is that the Ridgeline incorporated that "outside of the box" thinking that you need to create a vehicle that is more "revolutionary" than simply "improved". The Tundra took the traditional truck format and added more power. So while it's one of the most capable pickups available, it is not in a class by itself, and it is not THAT innovative.

 

[hinkleid]

I looked at the Honda Ridgeline before buying my first Tundra. Strange, felt like an accord with a bed. I did at the time have an Accord, which I traded for a 4Runner. Now, if Honda were to build a real truck and get a real truck out, I would probably be all over it.

I have never bought a new American car only an 05 Accord, an 05 4Runner, and 05 Tundra, and recently an 07 Tundra.

I can tell you though, that the overall impression of a Toyota dealership has become more smug in the last 2 years. Gives you the impression that you are buying into a club. If they are even worse in a couple years come time to trade, I may look into the American brands.

Then there is that resale value. It is just that now, foreign cars and trucks are a more dependable buy, and keep their value better.

True, you may get a better deal now, but with American makers dropping prices so much it devalues those with used trading in. Secondly, if say a Chevy loses its value more quickly, then what difference does it make with the deal now if you get more on the backend with trade on Toyota or sell down the road.

I do love the 07 Tundra though!

 

[laytonj1]

Yes, it can do 0-60 and the 1/4 mile faster than any other truck, but so what? We are talking about trucks here, not sports cars. 0-60 times are great to brag about and to sell magazines, but really have little bearing in the real world of stop-and-go driving and highway cruising.

Faster 1/4 times are the side benefit of have a much more powerful and capable engine. Trying to get up to hwy speed on a uphill onramp while loaded with cargo or towing is about as real world as it gets.

Jim

 

[paulphilly]

I don't think anyone here really HATES the Tundra, but there seem to be two dominant groups of people here:

One group seems to think the Tundra is the most innovative, revolutionary pickup ever built. Some even think Toyota can do no wrong, to the extent that they think people coming here with problems (piston slap being the most obvious example) are paid employees by GM or Ford trying to ruin the Tundra's sales. Personally, I think a few (NOT all) of the people in this category are so blindly loyal to the Tundra and Toyota that it borders on arrogance and/or ignorance, which is largely what fuels the debates about this truck.

The other group (myself included) doesn't necessarily dislike the Tundra, but they don't believe it is as revolutionary as people claim it is. They might also think that the reliability/quality gap between auto manufacturers isn't what it used to be- either that Toyota quality has dropped in recent years, or domestic quality has risen, or a little bit of both.

Personally, I don't see the Tundra as an extremely innovative or "class leading" pickup. I do believe it's a very nice truck, and quite capable. But while it has the largest towing capacity of 1/2 ton trucks, it doesn't have the largest payload capacity. Yes, it can do 0-60 and the 1/4 mile faster than any other truck, but so what? We are talking about trucks here, not sports cars. 0-60 times are great to brag about and to sell magazines, but really have little bearing in the real world of stop-and-go driving and highway cruising. Probably my biggest problem with the Tundra is how expensive it has become. It seems that comparably equipped Tundras are $2-3k more expensive than rival brands, before the obligatory incentives and low financing rates other brands are willing to give.

Personally, I think the Honda Ridgeline was more "revolutionary" than the Tundra. Not to say it's better- I don't think that at all. But Honda did re-think how the pickup truck can be used, by adding a water-tight trunk that can double as a cooler for tailgating, giving it independent rear suspension, and other things. However the lack of a V8 engine really only makes it good for daily driving with occasional trips to Home Depot on the weekends, not any real hauling, towing, or work duty. But thats not my point. My point is that the Ridgeline incorporated that "outside of the box" thinking that you need to create a vehicle that is more "revolutionary" than simply "improved". The Tundra took the traditional truck format and added more power. So while it's one of the most capable pickups available, it is not in a class by itself, and it is not THAT innovative.

I agree with some of your post and respectfully disagree with other parts. At the end of the day, the Tundra is simply a truck...nothing more, nothing less. But, I feel that it meets/exceeds the competition in just about every category. Why? I trade quite frequently and in the past 4 years I have owned a F150, Dodge Ram, Caddy Escalade, and Nissan Titan. As of today, none of these vehicles come close to the refinement, quality, and capability of my Tundra. Now, granted the payload is a few hundred pounds less than that of the Chevy (not sure about Ford, Dodge, Nissan), but 1500+lbs of payload is probably more than enough for the majority of 1/2 ton owners.

I definately am not blindly loyal as I buy what I like (see post above). But, I can tell you that I was very dissapointed with the vehicles listed above and the poor build quality/capabilities they provided....I would need several pages to list problems/issues that I had with those vehicles (especially the Ford, Nissan, and Chevy "caddy escalade").

When looking at the 07' Tundra, it has more power, towing ability, 6speed tranny, more safety features, reliability, and resale value. The build quality is much better than those vehicles previously mentioned and while the vehicle was made by human hands and not perfect, I know that (statistically speaking) the Tundra will keep me on the road and headache free compared to the competition. Would I buy one of the other trucks on the market? Yes, if they offered the same capabilities/options as the Tundra with its proven reliability. Are the other competitors there yet? No, but hopefully the new Tundra will make them build better trucks as we all know that the truck is the most important line in an automakers arsonal. Until then, the current Tundra is without a doubt the "class leading" pickup available and the best pickup 1/2 ever offered to the public.

 

[mainliner]

I don't think anyone here really HATES the Tundra, but there seem to be two dominant groups of people here:

One group seems to think the Tundra is the most innovative, revolutionary pickup ever built. Some even think Toyota can do no wrong, to the extent that they think people coming here with problems (piston slap being the most obvious example) are paid employees by GM or Ford trying to ruin the Tundra's sales. Personally, I think a few (NOT all) of the people in this category are so blindly loyal to the Tundra and Toyota that it borders on arrogance and/or ignorance, which is largely what fuels the debates about this truck.

The other group (myself included) doesn't necessarily dislike the Tundra, but they don't believe it is as revolutionary as people claim it is. They might also think that the reliability/quality gap between auto manufacturers isn't what it used to be- either that Toyota quality has dropped in recent years, or domestic quality has risen, or a little bit of both.

Personally, I don't see the Tundra as an extremely innovative or "class leading" pickup. I do believe it's a very nice truck, and quite capable. But while it has the largest towing capacity of 1/2 ton trucks, it doesn't have the largest payload capacity. Yes, it can do 0-60 and the 1/4 mile faster than any other truck, but so what? We are talking about trucks here, not sports cars. 0-60 times are great to brag about and to sell magazines, but really have little bearing in the real world of stop-and-go driving and highway cruising. Probably my biggest problem with the Tundra is how expensive it has become. It seems that comparably equipped Tundras are $2-3k more expensive than rival brands, before the obligatory incentives and low financing rates other brands are willing to give.

Personally, I think the Honda Ridgeline was more "revolutionary" than the Tundra. Not to say it's better- I don't think that at all. But Honda did re-think how the pickup truck can be used, by adding a water-tight trunk that can double as a cooler for tailgating, giving it independent rear suspension, and other things. However the lack of a V8 engine really only makes it good for daily driving with occasional trips to Home Depot on the weekends, not any real hauling, towing, or work duty. But thats not my point. My point is that the Ridgeline incorporated that "outside of the box" thinking that you need to create a vehicle that is more "revolutionary" than simply "improved". The Tundra took the traditional truck format and added more power. So while it's one of the most capable pickups available, it is not in a class by itself, and it is not THAT innovative.

is is great to be thinking outside the box, but is the ridgeline selling all that well, with it's outside the box thinking and design?

when you have the class leader in the segment, you can gamble and think outside the box and I do not see any of the big three doing that. But when your trying to increase sales numbers, it might be too big of a gamble to design outside the box completely.

they made the first generation tundra a little smaller in size and less powered then the domestics and the truck did not sell the number they were looking for. so they addressed things that many thought were lacking with the first generation tundra with the new tundra.

look at some of the threads containing complaints, "tailgate rattle". Had a lot of post and a few very unhappy with toyota and their tundra, turns out it was the hitch they had installed. The piston slap, maybe a few have a major problem, but most likely it is like toyota says it is, in that it is normal sound on some engines.

a lot of people posting love the truck, but a lot of people hate the truck and toyota and are hoping they fail on this truck. you can not blame someone for loving their truck and I do not see how that makes them blindly in love with toyota.

there have not been any real problems with the new tundra so far, from what I am reading.

why does that bother you so much that you have such disdain for someone who buy s a truck and loves it?

 

[mln]

[NO_ADS]

I don't think anyone here really HATES the Tundra, but there seem to be two dominant groups of people here:

One group seems to think the Tundra is the most innovative, revolutionary pickup ever built. Some even think Toyota can do no wrong, to the extent that they think people coming here with problems (piston slap being the most obvious example) are paid employees by GM or Ford trying to ruin the Tundra's sales. Personally, I think a few (NOT all) of the people in this category are so blindly loyal to the Tundra and Toyota that it borders on arrogance and/or ignorance, which is largely what fuels the debates about this truck.

The other group (myself included) doesn't necessarily dislike the Tundra, but they don't believe it is as revolutionary as people claim it is. They might also think that the reliability/quality gap between auto manufacturers isn't what it used to be- either that Toyota quality has dropped in recent years, or domestic quality has risen, or a little bit of both.

Personally, I don't see the Tundra as an extremely innovative or "class leading" pickup. I do believe it's a very nice truck, and quite capable. But while it has the largest towing capacity of 1/2 ton trucks, it doesn't have the largest payload capacity. Yes, it can do 0-60 and the 1/4 mile faster than any other truck, but so what? We are talking about trucks here, not sports cars. 0-60 times are great to brag about and to sell magazines, but really have little bearing in the real world of stop-and-go driving and highway cruising. Probably my biggest problem with the Tundra is how expensive it has become. It seems that comparably equipped Tundras are $2-3k more expensive than rival brands, before the obligatory incentives and low financing rates other brands are willing to give.

[/NO_ADS]

You hit the nail on the head. There are many here who couldn't give an objective unbiased response if their life depended on it. Others, like myself believe that there is NO perfect truck to all people no matter who builds it.

 

[mainliner]

[no_ads]

[/no_ads]

You hit the nail on the head. There are many here who couldn't give an objective unbiased response if their life depended on it. Others, like myself believe that there is NO perfect truck to all people no matter who builds it.

No manufacturer makes a perfect product, not even toyota. yours could be a lemon, but that is hard to say. mln, were you ever able to get your dealer to have a toyota tech come in and look at your truck? Did you call tms and get a case started on it?

 

[mln]

Yes, I have a case number. I could care less if it blows up now. Then I'll get a new engine.

I don't think I would call mine a lemon. I don't like what I hear in the mornings and my personal opinion is it's not normal. My transmission thinks it is installed in a sports car instead of a truck, I have an occasional dash squeak, and a tail gate rattle. I wouldn't say that makes it a lemon. There are some other aspects of my truck I don't like but nothing that would be used in a lemon law suite.

 

[laytonj1]

You hit the nail on the head. There are many here who couldn't give an objective unbiased response if their life depended on it. Others, like myself believe that there is NO perfect truck to all people no matter who builds it.

The fact that I have never had a single problem (knock on wood) with any of my Toyotas would leave me to believe that Toyota does make a near perfect product because that has been my experience with them. The fact that you feel otherwise is because you are having problems with yours which would be a biased response.
I notice the folks who like to claim that us happy Tundra owners are blind faithful are the ones who either do not own a 07 Tundra or are having problems with theirs.... real or imagined...
Jim

 

[mainliner]

Yes, I have a case number. I could care less if it blows up now. Then I'll get a new engine.

I don't think I would call mine a lemon. I don't like what I hear in the mornings and my personal opinion is it's not normal. My transmission thinks it is installed in a sports car instead of a truck, I have an occasional dash squeak, and a tail gate rattle. I wouldn't say that makes it a lemon. There are some other aspects of my truck I don't like but nothing that would be used in a lemon law suite.

thought the tailgate thing got fixed or figured out and it was the hitch rattling?

Is your dealer going to fix the dash rattle?

Do you hate the truck at this point or are your just unhappy with these things and if the rattle was fixed in your dash, would you be happy with the purchase, or are you at a point that your over the truck? I know the engine noise thing you are not happy with? Just curious?

Also, you can start using your signature file as your daily blog. LOL

 

[TUNDRA1000]

All I can say is look at all the 1/2 ton trucks out there. Test drive them over and over. That's what I did. There is a ton of BS on this site. DO NOT BELIEVE
EVERYTHING YOU READ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


The tundra was the nicest riding, quiet, comfortable, powerful, and overall best truck I tested. Not only did it out spec all the other trucks, toyota gave me an amazing deal on my 2002 tundra trade in. GM and Ford trucks with similar options were about 3,000 dollars more because they were trying to screw me on the trade in.

I will say, the 1/2 ton market is VERY competitive, lots of great trucks. Do
your homework.

It must be a miracle or I'm just the luckiest guy in the world, because my tundra has none of these magical problems a select few keep talking about over and over and over again. Talk about ignorance, calling an ALEDGED noise piston slap with absolutely NO proof. Its probably just a noisy fuel injector if anything.

The point that they bring it up all the time, reveals there true agenda .

 

[firetruck41]

[NO_ADS]

[/NO_ADS]... There are many here who couldn't give an objective unbiased response if their life depended on it...

Then it wouldn't be an opinion would it.. and we could have one post with all the specs of all the trucks and close down the forum.
Your opinion is subjective and biased, as is mine. Facts are facts, opinions are not.

 

[Shaneshot]

I'll add one more to the group. I was originally drawn to this site with a quirk in my '02 Access Cab. I read over several logs with similar problems. Not because I didn't like the truck, but I wanted to hear from other owners in the real world.

I think we have some similar posts here now as well, not because they don't like the truck- they want to see what others are experiencing and what happened.

I may have started a whirlwind with the MPG in the 5.7l thread. It wasn't because I didn't like the truck or the mileage was horrible. I wanted to see if others were having the same experience as mine and if it changed once some miles were put on it. Some of that turned into a negative.

It is only a truck, but there is a voice in it that somehow calls to you from outside, saying "drive me, think of an excuse for an erand and lets go"

 

[mln]

1- thought the tailgate thing got fixed or figured out and it was the hitch rattling?

2- Is your dealer going to fix the dash rattle?

3- Do you hate the truck at this point or are your just unhappy with these things and if the rattle was fixed in your dash, would you be happy with the purchase, or are you at a point that your over the truck? I know the engine noise thing you are not happy with? Just curious?

1- I have a tailgate rattle still. I did have a hitch rattling as well. I fixed the hitch. Honestly I haven't really thought about the TG rattle lately. It's been raining or cold so I've had the windows up. I'll have them look at it come oil change time.

2- The dash rattle has become infrequent. It seems to do it mostly when it stays in the 30s which will be a memory in a couple weeks. I'm going to wait until the noise is consistant before I have the dash ripped apart. Past experience says it may come back noisier than it went in.

3- Do I hate my truck as a whole? No. Are there things that I don't like about it? Yes. Am I satisfied with Toyota's over the phone answer to the engine noise I hear? No. I'm now of the opinion that it is piston slap. I think it makes a hell of a lot of racquet for an engine with 2200 miles on it. Even fully warm it's not what I would call a quiet engine.

Would I buy it again? Probably not with the 5.7L, I'd wait for the diesel. Would I be happy if Toyota fixed the irritants, yes. Could I be just as happy with any other brand truck? probably. Am I over it, I'm not sure what you mean? I don't get all mushy over vehicles if that is what you mean. They are just a necessity in my life.

 

[mln]

Talk about ignorance, calling an ALEDGED noise piston slap with absolutely NO proof. Its probably just a noisy fuel injector if anything.

The point that they bring it up all the time, reveals there true agenda .

Since you brought it up. I can assure you I know what injectors sound like. Yes, I can hear mine and they sound normal to me, that is not what I'm talking about. Do you even know what piston slap is without googling? If you think I'll pull my engine and break out my micrometers to prove anything to you would be a mistake. There are people who try to claim they are mechanically inclined when they wouldn't know the business end of a torque wrench if they were hit in the head with it. Are you one of them?

Since you baited me into this conversation again would you mind telling me what my true agenda is?

 

[CLG]

In my honest opinion who cares how innovative it is or isnt. In the end its a tool to get the job done and if it can do it and have the same reliability Toyota has had in the past than its a great truck period. Dont get me wrong I bet alot of people would be more happy in a ridgeline than a true 1/2 more comfy and refined but...its not made to do the tough jobs. My only beef with the tundra (and only reason I dont own one yet) is because for me its a bit of a tweener overkill for alot of 1/2 ton buyers and cant do what the HD's can. The X factor is Toyota reliability.

 

[bbfirebird]

It must be a miracle or I'm just the luckiest guy in the world, because my tundra has none of these magical problems a select few keep talking about over and over and over again. Talk about ignorance, calling an ALEDGED noise piston slap with absolutely NO proof. Its probably just a noisy fuel injector if anything.

The point that they bring it up all the time, reveals there true agenda.

I just checked the "piston slap" poll, and so far, 26 out of 115 people (22%)have some noticable "abnormal" noise that their engine makes at startup. While the poll isn't scientific by any means, this does lead me to believe it is not an ALLEGED noise at all, and that there MIGHT actually be an issue with these motors. Whether it is just a normal, harmless trait of these motors or an actual problem remains to be seen. But no one here has an agenda. The vast majority here (myself included) are Tundra owners, yet you seem to think that those of us who don't call the 07 Tundra PERFECT are actually hoping that something major goes wrong with these trucks just so we can say "I told you so". This isn't the case at all, and it's just ridiculous. All we're trying to do is help out current owners and potential buyers by trying to figure out what problems may exist with the truck so we can find a way to correct them. If you call this ignorance, and think your outlook of "the Tundra is absolutely flawless and will never give me problems" is a more realistic outlook, then you just need to look up "ignorant" in the dictionary. Would you rather us only post topics like "my 07 Tundra can walk on water"? That way all of us Tundra owners can just sit around and give each other pats on the back for owning a truck

 

[laytonj1]

All we're trying to do is help out current owners and potential buyers by trying to figure out what problems may exist with the truck so we can find a way to correct them.

Now that's funny!!

Jim