Toyota Tundra. Fair Enough?
Earlier this year, GM admitted it was getting creamed on the coasts; the General promised to launch major marketing efforts to reclaim major metropolitan areas. Other than Chevy's recent tie-in with Rolling Stone magazine, we've seen little of what could be called bi-coastalistic marketing. Meanwhile, Toyota continues to target their new full-size Tundra pickup at the American heartland. Tomorrow, visitors to Minot's North Dakota State Fairgrounds will get a chance to put the Texas-built pickup through its paces as part of Toyoya's "Tundra, Prove it!" campaign. The high touch experience includes a limited slip diff demo, an "acceleration run" and a "braking zone" test with and without load. GM would be well-advised to watch its back.
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This is news? Toyota is advertising the Tundra. A more interesting article would have a compare and contrast with the Ford v. Honda/ToMoCo and Saturn v. Honda/ToMoCo head to heads with the Toyota v. Ford/Chevy head to head. Along with some sort of polling to suggest how many people have actually been swayed by the different ad campaigns. What makes me laugh the most is the tone of so many comments on this - they act as though the Big 3 have let their trucks go to crap, as they did their cars. Is the Tundra REALLY head and shoulders above Ford or Chevy across the board? No. Being a Chevy guy, it pains me to say this, but the new Tundra is a totally competitive full size pickup truck. I personally don't like the looks or the design of the interior, or the size for that matter (I recently downsized from a Silvy to a Colorado, and have yet to miss the larger payload cap, towing, or worse fuel economy)... but the Tundra is a solid full size entry. Is there anyone here, that honestly, in a side by side test, says that the Tundra "creams" the Silverado or F150? Has Megan Benoit done a review of the Tundra yet? She has by far the most scathing critiques I've ever read (if you can find some which give less slack, please let me know) and I'd like to hear what she has to say about the new Tundra. And as far as ToMoCo having the R&D to make the next Tundra better, yes, they do. But how much are they willing to invest in what everyone is sure is a dying market segment? With fuel prices at $3/gal and looking to hang out there for a while, is that really where the best investment in future product development lies? I'm relatively sure that if GM came out today and said "We're going to drop $5 billion into the next truck platform," it would be the next session of GM Deathwatch.
I find it endlessly hilarious that Toyota picked the exact displacement of 5.7L for their engine. Let's see, does anyone else make a 5.7...oh yes Chevy has for about the last 50 years, and it's the most versatile, and reliable small block V8 in the world. I guess imitation is flattery.
jp3209, dying segment or not, it will eventually level off because there will ALWAYS be people who need trucks for work and to make a living. The segment will also remain quite profitable. I look forward to GM making a statement that they will commit billions to their next-gen trucks. Considering they don't have the cash to do it, and considering Toyota will likely outmuscle them in terms of R & D for the next-gen Tundra, it will be a bit silly really. Steve_K, that's a ridiculous notion. Did you ever think that perhaps there is a *good* engineering reason for choosing a displacement of 5.7L? You can't "copy" a displacement. That's like saying Ford "copied" Nissan and Toyota with their 3.5L Duratec. Copying or imitating a displacement is like saying you're imitating the number 6.