Thanks to decades of tireless work, Japanese automakers have come to dominate many vehicle segments around the world. When it comes to efficient, reliable, affordable transportation, products from brands like Nissan, Honda and especially Toyota top the charts.
From compact sedans to family four-doors, economical crossovers to fuel-sipping hybrids, Japanese car companies deliver the goods year in and year out. But in the North American market there’s one segment they’ve failed to take over, and not for lack of trying. The full-size truck market remains something of a mystery to these East-Asian firms.
The Ford F-Series and Ram family plus the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra twins dominate the large-pickup market, with hundreds of thousands of each sold every turn of the calendar. Competing with these rivals is the Toyota Tundra, a rough-and-ready rig that’s been around in its current form for ages.
Dating back to around 2007, the Tundra is, in automotive terms, positively ancient. A normal product-update cycle includes a refresh at around three-years of age and a total redesign at about six. This Toyota is a full dozen years old! No longer can car companies keep vehicles around for ages, not even full-size trucks.
Compared to its major rivals, Tundra is the most geriatric truck around. The Silverado and Ram half-ton models were just redesigned for 2019, the Nissan Titan around 2016. Even Ford’s F-150, which has sprouted a few gray hairs at this point, only dates back to 2015.
It there’s an upside to all this, it’s that Toyota has had plenty of time to iron out any issues with this truck. While it’s not the most capable, feature-laden, efficient or comfortable model on the market today, Tundra is likely the most reliable full-size pickup you can buy, and for a lot of customers, that’s the top priority.
Proving this point, one customer in Louisiana put more than a million miles on his 2007 model, all with minimal problems. It still has the original engine and transmission!
You may not realize it, but the Tundra is built in America. It was largely designed in Newport Beach, California, partly engineered in Ann Arbor, Michigan and it’s screwed together down in San Antonio, Texas. The Lonestar State is also home to Toyota’s U.S. headquarters, which is in Plano.