Nice review of the 3rd Gen Tundra by Regular Car Reviews

Hopefully this is helpful, and reflects the views of the V8 faithful.


https://youtu.be/20fYVO_aZ0U

 

Thats a good looking truck. I like that color.

 

Yeah Lunar Rock is growing on me.

I also enjoyed the mockery of the "I need muh V8 harble garble rabble rabble rabble" crowd.

 

This YouTuber always makes me belly chuckle. His videos are pretty hilarious.

 

It was pretty funny for the first few minutes. Then I started to get the impression that this guy really likes the smell of his own farts. One can only take so much self-satisfied “ok boomer” drivel. I turned if off after watching him ooh and ahh over all the cameras. Aww, look at the middle aged fellow giddy over technology. Ok boomer indeed. Lol.

There are legit reasons for preferring the previous drivetrain, and not everyone who does so fits our stunning and brave reviewer’s caricature of a flag-clutching boomer.

Example: I’m a millennial who prefers the 5.7. I don’t prefer it because it’s a v8 per se, but because it was an extremely long running, proven drivetrain. I want to stay away from the dealer and come home from every remote, no-cell-service, backcountry trip I take my family on. Extreme reliability is criterion #1 and eclipses all others. I also want ease of self-maintenance and no fuss. I daily it because dailying it is still cheaper than owning two vehicles for myself, even though I only get 16mpg combined. I also currently don’t ever need to tow more than 8k lbs.

The more I think about the 3rd gen, the more it seems Toyota’s aim was to give us a vastly improved (read: more comfortable and smooth) daily driver. Yeah, it’s more powerful, but only marginally more capable (still trailing Ford and GM crew cab 4x4 trucks by significant margins in payload). It’s like they gave us all the power and low end torque so we could have a more confident feeling for our daily driving, not for any actual work. Unless you want to tow. But not 12k lbs. That number is only for show. Achieving their ride comfort target—the altar upon which a truly meaningful increase in payload was sacrificed—means that we should probably only tow like 8k. More would be pushing it. Wait a minute, this sounds awfully similar to the 2nd gen Tundra that came out in 2007…

One can’t necessarily blame Toyota. Last time they debuted a truck out in front of the pack that was geared for work, what did it earn them? Less than stellar sales, and everyone else caught up to their numbers fairly quickly. Sooooo, I guess I get it. I was really hoping this thing would be the full size equivalent to Toyota’s 1 ton Hilux—unkillable, go anywhere, gobs of payload with a bump in fuel economy of course. Well, we got the power and sort of got the fuel economy, but we still run out of payload almost as fast as we did in 2007.

While half tons have become comfortable, daily driven jacks-of-all-trades (masters-of-none) that can barely keep up with EPA regs, let alone with the “I want to have my cake and eat it too” market demands, HD gassers are still running good old v8s. I mean, Ford’s 7.3 pushrod port-injected v8 debuted in <checks notes> 2020. Those dang boomers are at it again! When will they ever learn?

 

They run V8's because they are significantly less scrutinized about MPG's by the EPA or the owners because they are meant for work, not daily driving. The V8's in the HD's are significantly less complex than the ones in the 1/2 tons, its not just the TTV6's that are complex.

Any V8 that would have come out in the Tundra would have been all the things you didnt want from a truck. If you weigh the options for a half ton truck, the TTV6 just makes more sense at this point in time.

I am not sure why you were waiting for Toyota to come up with your equivalent to a 1 ton Hilux when there a 3 great HD options with iron block pushrod V8's available and have been for years. Its just the whole we hate

 

Looks like you forgot to finish your thought there, lol. Probably something about members on this forum generally being domestic-averse. Total surprise, right?

Fully agreed about HD trucks and their v8s. But I chose the 5.7 for extreme reliability, which it offers regardless of complexity (hoping this continues with the 3rd gen, but if there isn’t an HDPP when I decide I’m in the market, then yeah, I’m probably hopping to a gasser HD). Plus, the 2nd gen Tundra is a full size truck that drives more like a midsize. The 4wd system is fantastic. I appreciate the lack of tech. It’s ridiculously easy to self maintain. It’s the best compromise on all of my criteria out there. As my kids grow and we get heavier on our camping trips, I’m getting saltier about the payload.

I chose against an HD truck in Sept ‘20 because they are even worse to daily (again, trying not to drive, insure, and maintain two vehicles) and far worse on trails due to its wheelbase, turning radius, and weight. Ford and GM offer 1-ton-capable half tons in crew cab 4x4 configurations. Not sure why Toyota didn’t bring this aspect of the Tundra up to a competitive standard.