Should I get a Tundra

[GatorFL]

I'm on my 3rd 5th-gen Limited. They have been great cars but the design is a little aged at this point. Looks like the new Tundra has similar performance but a much nicer interior, especially in the 1794 version. What do you guys think the pros and cons are of flipping out of my 5th gen into a new Tundra?

Specs I am considering:

Tundra 4x4 1794 in white/tan
5' bed
TRD offroad package
TRD steps
Tonneau cover

 

[Whippersnapper02]

I like the new Tundra but wouldn't buy the first year since it's still new.

 

[Gamma Ray]

The brand new twin turbo V6? Nooooooooooo. They're having problems with the turbos.

If you were talking about the previous year V8 then OK.

 

[rdruss]

I say DO IT!! And keep us posted on your experience. When you say new Tundra performance about same as 5th Gen, I don't think so. I think you will be impressed with Tundra performance.

 

[RobS10]

If you're talking about replacing an SUV with a pickup, you're totally changing type of vehicles. If the purpose is to just get something more up to date than a 5th Gen 4Runner, wait for the Gen 6 4Rs to come out, or get a Sequoia if you don't want to wait as long. Either way, you're taking on the dreaded Early Adopter risk of problems, as the Tundras have shown.

 

[enyce]

Good choice but would hold off 'till next year's model.

 

[MNT_GOAT]

The brand new twin turbo V6? Nooooooooooo. They're having problems with the turbos.

If you were talking about the previous year V8 then OK.

This isn’t true. It’s been a waste gate actuation issue and would be a non-issue if the replacement parts weren’t so hard to get due to supply issues. It’s been completely overblown online. Even with Toyotas, always wait at least six months to purchase new models so they can work out the bugs like we’re seeing with the tundra right now.

 

[RAVL 2016]

I like the new Tundra and almost bought the old one. Toyota will get the quality right but like any new vehicle design you might give it a model year. I kept my 4runner (2016 SR5 premium) and we got a 2020 Ram 1500. Gorgeous truck, quality after a year and half is flawless. You might check one out. Good luck!

 

[Garanto]

Tundra's are like bitcoin. They appreciate in value as soon as you forget you have one. I'd say yes, but your going to need a check that bounces like a trampoline.

 

[manofsteele2003]

Wow, I would never of thought quality and Ram would ever make it into the same sentence.

As for the New Tundra, we have a 17 Limited and love it, I am not sold on the new one. I think it looks hideous (except the interior) and no V8 option.

 

[Joewildlife]

I'm excited to see the twin turbo V6/10 speed powertrain on the Tundra.
Like Ford has been doing for years.
Ford F-150 has impressive performance and fuel mileage. But the F-150 issued to me at work has all kinds of electrical gremlins. I'm really hoping the Tundra will turn out to be as efficient and high performing as the F-150 but with the legendary Toyota quality.

My own 2006 Tundra is pretty much parked because I recently purchased a 2012 4Runner as a daily driver. I prefer to drive the 4Runner. I don't see going back to a pickup as a daily driver.

Yeah, you might wait a year or two to buy the Tundra but isn't the engine a tried and true engine from Lexus, NOT a whole new thing for Toyota?

 

[Mark4runnar]

I was at the daytona 500 last weekend...Toyota had a huge presence as a sponsor, and they had all models of the tundra on display.It seems to look better in the Toyota adv. The grill is ginormous and I guess that will look after you get used to it. The interior is a major upgrade and the panoramic sunroof is a winner.
The Tundra was the workhorse of the event.........there was at least 100 of them pulling trams to transport the 130,000 race fans, so I am sure they fixed the mechanical issues which many have pointed out are troublesome for US built Toyota's (TX in built).
At one point they had about 50 on the track itself as part of the kickoff. So if you can't get your hands on one I am sure there will be 150 of them put into the dealer system this week - that should help?
At least they are not burning in the Atlantic like those German cars--- bummer.
To be fair it was a bit of a shock to me......"the great American race" - pace car was a TRD Camry? I expected track-hawk or hellcat, or if a toyota the Supra?
It was a fun event- packed with people that love cars, trucks and just having a good time in Florida.

 

[BlackWorksInc]

The brand new twin turbo V6? Nooooooooooo. They're having problems with the turbos.

If you were talking about the previous year V8 then OK.

This isn’t true. It’s been a waste gate actuation issue and would be a non-issue if the replacement parts weren’t so hard to get due to supply issues. It’s been completely overblown online. Even with Toyotas, always wait at least six months to purchase new models so they can work out the bugs like we’re seeing with the tundra right now.

Honestly... the V35A-FTS with the AWR10L65 transmission seems to be kind of a dud. I haven't been too impressed with how Toyota programmed the shift logic and engine logic, it feels like the Tacoma all over again. If you floor it, the transmission needs to drop a few gears before it starts spooling up the turbos (why do you need to drop gears if you're already at a standstill?), which makes the turbo lag feel way worse than it actually is (honestly it's not bad, feels on par with many other modern vehicles, but the way the vehicle chooses to shift before it spools them up exaggerates it); also it feels like it hunts too much like the Tacoma. I forsee a lot of complaints about power on take-off, hunting on the freeway (especially when towing), and other issues; followed by half a dozen TSBs to reprogram the ECM and TCM... just like the Tacomas (though they seem to drive better now, still a bit gutless on the low-end but thank Toyota for putting an Atkinson's style stroke on a non-hybrid engine destined for a truck).

That is of course you can drive your new Tundra... the waste gate issue seems to be the more minor issue at the moment (though we already have two out of the 4 we got at our dealer probably needing new turbos). Oddly enough, from what I have been hearing it seems to an issue not with the turbo itself but the linkage binding up... apparently one FTS somewhere "accidentally" installed the linkage upside down and it fixed the issue. :noidea: So we'll see if there's gonna be a recall to flip the linkage or we're doing turbos on these suckers for a bit... (man, I hope not... looks like you have to pull the engine to do much of anything on these like the Tacomas...)

But we've got another Tundra that has an issue where it kills itself when you are coasting to a stop and then floor it. No word on what is causing that or what the fix is yet; still under investigation. That's apparently another entirely not rare issue popping up, among others.

I was talking to my service writer about it the other week and commenting how didn't Lexus start using these damn engines a few years ago? They haven't figured out how to keep them running in that time? He mentioned to me that he spoke with one of our old technicians that had gone back to work at Lexus across the way and he said that apparently our flavor of VT35A-FTS is apparently "newer" and shinier than what Lexus has been using (which is a bit odd, usually Lexus gets the shiniest stuff first) and that they're getting that updated one in a year or two. So we're the guinea pigs for this new drive train.

~

Long and short of it being, unless you have a lot of patience I'd give Toyota some time to figure out what they are doing with the new Tundra. I mean if you want to buy one, go ahead; if it has an issue it's under warranty and Toyota will fix it, but as was mentioned... parts are on backorder and they are actively investigating multiple issues so it's going to take a while for anyone who has issues that aren't simple QC problems (i.e. the first Tundra we got off the truck, the fellow at the factory forgot to plug in a passenger mirror assembly...)

I'm a bit hesitant to even consider a 6th gen at this point given how the Tundra is turning out. It's a good looking truck with 35's on it and some trimming and the inside is very nice, but I just am not a fan of how it doesn't drive like a truck and how buggy this launch has been. Given that the 6th gen will likely share a lot of the same drivetrain and such (it seems like Toyota is going to try and trim down their options to "you get the small 4-Banger or the big turbo V6 in hybrid or non-hybrid flavors" going forward), I'm very much on the fence right now.

 

[Joewildlife]

Well, hate to hear that about the Tundra.
The F-150 10 speed auto is awesome. My work truck has the 5.0L engine, not the ecoboost, and on the highway you never even notice it shift when unloaded. When pulling a double axle trailer with a 6-wheel UTV, you can notice the transmission shifting, but only because it might drop all the way to 5th when pulling a hill at 75mph. But the transition to 5th from 10th is nowhere near as bad as when my 06 Tundra drops from 5th to 3rd on the freeway.

I figured Toyota would get it right, better than what you are saying.
The work F-150 seems like a great truck other than the electrical stuff: rear camera recall, TPMS, front camera/collision assist system is down, auto hi beams don't work as a result either. It needs to go back to the dealer for warranty work, it only has 20K on it. 18-20 on the highway 75-77 mph is the norm with the 5.0

Interestingly, the 5.0 likes to rev a helluva lot more than the 4.0L in my 4Runner. My impression of the 4.0 is that is drives more like an old V8 and the 5.0L Ford drives more like a V6 the way it likes to rev.

Joe

 

[BlackWorksInc]

Well, hate to hear that about the Tundra.
The F-150 10 speed auto is awesome. My work truck has the 5.0L engine, not the ecoboost, and on the highway you never even notice it shift when unloaded. When pulling a double axle trailer with a 6-wheel UTV, you can notice the transmission shifting, but only because it might drop all the way to 5th when pulling a hill at 75mph. But the transition to 5th from 10th is nowhere near as bad as when my 06 Tundra drops from 5th to 3rd on the freeway.

I figured Toyota would get it right, better than what you are saying.
The work F-150 seems like a great truck other than the electrical stuff: rear camera recall, TPMS, front camera/collision assist system is down, auto hi beams don't work as a result either. It needs to go back to the dealer for warranty work, it only has 20K on it. 18-20 on the highway 75-77 mph is the norm with the 5.0

Interestingly, the 5.0 likes to rev a helluva lot more than the 4.0L in my 4Runner. My impression of the 4.0 is that is drives more like an old V8 and the 5.0L Ford drives more like a V6 the way it likes to rev.

Joe

I mean it is entirely possible that they will adjust the logic with updates to the programming as time progresses. When the 3rd Gen Tacomas came out, the first two years or so we had like 4-5 different TSBs for drivetrain concerns that were just flashing the ECM and TCM for better shift logic. I think the most current one is literally "Automatic Transmission Shift Feel Improvements" or something like that. The thing that sucks with the Tacomas is that they can only do so much from a programming standpoint because the 2GR-FKS uses Toyota's "Atkinson's Style Cycle" which is great for cruising efficiency and MPGs, but at a cost of low-end torque (which is why that specific style of operating cycle is usually only reserved for our hybrid drivetrains where the electric motor can compensate for the loss.)

In the case of the Tundra, the engine itself is pretty damn peppy and has some good pull to it; so I would imagine they could theoretically program it to have the feel of a proper truck. But they'll probably only do that if it doesn't hurt the MPG rating, otherwise they'll probably just say "it's a normal characteristic of our modern truck drivetrain." I personally have never been a fan of how Toyota seems to really just purposefully make their throttle response and shift logic so sluggish and spongey feeling in the first 1/4 or so of travel and their off the line response. I know why they do it, but I genuinely wish that if you select the "Sport" drive mode that it just goes, "well you don't give a s%$# about fuel mileage, have fun!"

I think the Tundra has the protentional to be a great truck once the release bugs are ironed out and they tweak the shift logic a bit. I am really curious to drive the Hybrid version and see how they feel; I kind of wonder if the Hybrid is going to be the "powerhouse" feeling truck that I am expecting of the Tundra.

Oh, I will mention that the electronic power steering on the new Tundras is great, makes the truck feel very nimble and responsive compared to the outgoing model (it's even adjustable IIRC).

 

[RAVL 2016]

Wow, I would never of thought quality and Ram would ever make it into the same sentence.

As for the New Tundra, we have a 17 Limited and love it, I am not sold on the new one. I think it looks hideous (except the interior) and no V8 option.

I had some qualms too, but so far so good and the truck is just beautifully put together. We will see how it goes. One advantage of the Ram 1500 over any Toyota body on frame vehicle - no rust on the frame this far or the seam welds. Love my 4runner but that bugs me.

 

[Jetboy]

I think the shift logic is going to carry forward to the next gen 4R. It's a Mike Sweers and his team problem. Not a toyota/Aisin problem. He's been asked a few times about the Tacoma shift issues. His response is that he thinks it has a great shift logic and there's nothing to change. He's wrong. But that's where it seems to come from. And why it's not getting better.

It's not Toyota wide. There's no shift logic issues with the Camry, or the Highlander, or the Lexus GX. The models out of his hands don't seem to have the same issues, despite using the same transmission ratios in vehicles that weigh the same and have the same engines.

 

[BlackWorksInc]

I think the shift logic is going to carry forward to the next gen 4R. It's a Mike Sweers and his team problem. Not a toyota/Aisin problem. He's been asked a few times about the Tacoma shift issues. His response is that he thinks it has a great shift logic and there's nothing to change. He's wrong. But that's where it seems to come from. And why it's not getting better.

It's not Toyota wide. There's no shift logic issues with the Camry, or the Highlander, or the Lexus GX. The models out of his hands don't seem to have the same issues, despite using the same transmission ratios in vehicles that weigh the same and have the same engines.

You're not wrong, I never really considered it that way to be honest. I mostly give the cars/CUVs a pass because they're not in any way performance vehicles nor do I expect them to pull off the line. Where as I am more critical of the trucks/SUVs not being able to do the one thing most people in our area need them for, low-end grunt and being a workhorse.

I am not entirely sure how apples to apples a comparison a newer Highlander is to a Tacoma since almost everything except for the Corolla seems to have switched to an 8spd transmission in our line-up. But you're point is still very salient, which does make me less than enthusiastic about the 6th Gen's shift performance...

I always found it frustrating that the AB60 & A760 6-speed transmissions in the Tundra, Sequoia, and Land Cruiser (and GX series as well as a couple Lexus models) were such solid performers with fairly good shifting habits, and yet in the Tacoma's AC60 just doesn't perform like a truck transmission should.

 

[gm350reratliff]

I mean it is entirely possible that they will adjust the logic with updates to the programming as time progresses. When the 3rd Gen Tacomas came out, the first two years or so we had like 4-5 different TSBs for drivetrain concerns that were just flashing the ECM and TCM for better shift logic. I think the most current one is literally "Automatic Transmission Shift Feel Improvements" or something like that. The thing that sucks with the Tacomas is that they can only do so much from a programming standpoint because the 2GR-FKS uses Toyota's "Atkinson's Style Cycle" which is great for cruising efficiency and MPGs, but at a cost of low-end torque (which is why that specific style of operating cycle is usually only reserved for our hybrid drivetrains where the electric motor can compensate for the loss.)

In the case of the Tundra, the engine itself is pretty damn peppy and has some good pull to it; so I would imagine they could theoretically program it to have the feel of a proper truck. But they'll probably only do that if it doesn't hurt the MPG rating, otherwise they'll probably just say "it's a normal characteristic of our modern truck drivetrain." I personally have never been a fan of how Toyota seems to really just purposefully make their throttle response and shift logic so sluggish and spongey feeling in the first 1/4 or so of travel and their off the line response. I know why they do it, but I genuinely wish that if you select the "Sport" drive mode that it just goes, "well you don't give a s%$# about fuel mileage, have fun!"

I think the Tundra has the protentional to be a great truck once the release bugs are ironed out and they tweak the shift logic a bit. I am really curious to drive the Hybrid version and see how they feel; I kind of wonder if the Hybrid is going to be the "powerhouse" feeling truck that I am expecting of the Tundra.

Oh, I will mention that the electronic power steering on the new Tundras is great, makes the truck feel very nimble and responsive compared to the outgoing model (it's even adjustable IIRC).

I was hoping you would comment on the new tundra and I agree with what you said.

I was hoping this new tundra would make me want to rush to the nearest Toyota dealership and trade in my 2017 TRD Pro double cab Tundra. Unfortunately, or fortunately, it doesn’t trigger that itch at all. There’s nothing wrong with my current tundra, I still enjoy driving it, and I don’t ever see myself parting with it. I think my thoughts on the new tundra also includes the new sequoia. I really like the interiors, I don’t really care for the exteriors, maybe I’d come around to them but add in all the issues popping up and I think I’m out.

It sucks because we’ve loved our 4th gen 4runner- 200k miles later I still like driving and 4wheeling it. We’ve liked our 5th gen - some little issues but overall it’s been a great vehicle as well. Much, much better than the f150 it replaced. Our Tundra has also been stellar and I absolutely love driving it. I’ve recommended so many Toyota vehicles to folks who have asked me for a vehicle suggestion, many of which were 4runner and Tundra recommendations, and many have took my recommendation and have purchased a Toyota. You could’ve even called me a “fan boy” at one point. I stopped recommending the Tacoma in 2017 and I can’t really recommend the tundra anymore either for now. I’m hoping Toyota can get their shit together soon, my wife wants a new sequoia!

 

[Jetboy]

You're not wrong, I never really considered it that way to be honest. I mostly give the cars/CUVs a pass because they're not in any way performance vehicles nor do I expect them to pull off the line. Where as I am more critical of the trucks/SUVs not being able to do the one thing most people in our area need them for, low-end grunt and being a workhorse.

I am not entirely sure how apples to apples a comparison a newer Highlander is to a Tacoma since almost everything except for the Corolla seems to have switched to an 8spd transmission in our line-up. But you're point is still very salient, which does make me less than enthusiastic about the 6th Gen's shift performance...

I always found it frustrating that the AB60 & A760 6-speed transmissions in the Tundra, Sequoia, and Land Cruiser (and GX series as well as a couple Lexus models) were such solid performers with fairly good shifting habits, and yet in the Tacoma's AC60 just doesn't perform like a truck transmission should.

I might be too critical of Sweers. It's easy to armchair quarterback. It's very possible that he is given the transmission and engine and told to "go make it work." And his team isn't responsible. He'd have to say the shifting is fine whether he actually likes it or not. I just like to pile on because he's an easy target.

All I really know is that the shifting seems really nice in the old tundra, Land Cruiser, and GX. And I have no issue with the 4R.. But boy the Taco is a mess. I'm bummed to hear that the new tundra is similar. I expected with the power available and all the effort in tuning it would be great. I really wanted to love the new tundra but I'm struggling. I haven't driven one yet. I'm not ready to order one blind. I want to test drive the trims and see what it's like. Might have to wait a year or more to do that though. Hopefully there will be some updates to fix these issues.