Mike Sweers Interview - He wanted a Diesel Tundra (and to keep the 5.7 as an option)

Yeah, V8 noises are great on the way to the grocery store.

But towing, the smooth, quiet hum of a TTV6 is superior. I don't need to listen to a V8 screaming on every hill.

 

Actually, the second one, “Road Warrior” was the absolute best one in The series. The original mad max was dubbed over for the theatrical release which put a damper on it. The 3rd and 4th one was trash. Fury road was “Ok” but you can’t replace Mel as Max.

 

I don't want to guess and be forced to drive a certain way to get the Electric motor to work.
Is it too much to ask for a switch on the dash to invoke the Electric motor that will give me say 30 - 50 miles of range.
At all other times the gas motor can charge it.
I am off road once a week up and down hills loaded down going around 5 - 20 miles per hour max.
It would be great when in this mode to run on full electric (quiet through the forest)
The gas motor sucks alot of gas in this mode. (wish list)

 

Would be epic in the future, but not how it is currently designed or executed.

 

If anyone can replace him, it's Tom Hardy.

 

Well, and that's *why* I bought a Tundra. Yes, I do 'tow' somewhat regularly...but 99% of the time, it's a 14' trailer loaded with furniture or mulch or what have you, and the other 1% of the time it's an 18' camper, going maybe 200 miles away. 2/2.5 Gen will easily handle both of those. I don't tow @ high altitudes that much.

Now, if I lived in a higher altitude, or needed to pull more than that? Yeah, I'd likely bypass 1/4 tons completely and get a diesel. But for what I need, and given reliability is paramount for me, the 2.5 Gen was fine.

Agreed that the Big 3 weren't/aren't asleep at the wheel like they were in 2007.

 

buncha baloney!! yet the Rator R with a supercharged V8 will be releasing sometime soon....

 

So, what’s your point? Not being disrespectful but just not following what your trying to say. Trucks like the Raptor R are what I consider “boutique” trucks that are specialized for a limited special market and not to the mainstream. The domestics can afford to produce these boutique trucks due to the high volumes they put out in the mainstream. Toyota does not have that luxury.

 

To each their own of course, but I absolutely love listening to my TRD duals with the subtle supercharger whine pulling my camper around. I can’t get enough, and love the opportunities to merge and hear it sing. TRD duals are a beautiful blend though of sound and minimal obnoxiousness that takes trial and error to replicate when building your own exhaust system. If I wanted it quiet the stock muffler would suffice for a lower sound level. That said, I pulled my camper 13 hours each way and only stopped for gas a few times from eastern PA to Bar Harbor, Maine with an even louder Carven exhaust with a DD resonator and I was not fatigued from the noise. We all have different tolerances I guess.

 

is that why Toyota piped in the fake V8 noise ? ......just saying.

I have a vintage summer car it has an engine in the back with original radio - because I never listen to it.
Engine noises can be theraputic and calming.

 

Listening to a V8 shift through the gears is great. Listening to a V8 sitting at 4500 RPM for 10 minutes straight while climbing a hill is annoying. That last MPG loop video with the Hemi and the mopar exhaust was mind numbing and they werent even climbing big hills. It was dumb little rolling hills on I-25 outside of denver.

Your also outside of the norm. A blown V8 at sea level probably tows a little different than the same NA V8 at 7000' of elevation. Just a guess. Pulling my travel trailer with my stock 1UR isnt pleasant.

 

I like the rowdy noises of the LS3 in my Chevrolet SS, but cruising along on the highway it doesn’t drone or make much noise. Plus it’s a very capable sport sedan, so the loud shouty noises are accompanied by actual strong acceleration and high speeds.

I don’t want to listen to that in a truck. For starters even “fast” trucks like a Ram TRX are glacially slow compared to a sports car or sport sedan costing the same $$$. If you want to go fast buy an appropriate tool. If you want to go fast off road buy a high performance side by side or some other toy, only idiots are going to beat their $90K daily driver truck to pieces doing that.

I’ll take quiet and effortless any day in trucks, luxury cars, vans, or SUV’s.

 

Do you long distance road trip that vintage car for 12-13 hours of therapeutic engine noises at a stretch?

 

No - its become a glass house - its value rising make me scared to even drive it.
It also doesn't need a rad or have one.

but
The Toyota TRD Duals are made by Borla.
if you do the research you can get the ones like the TRD with no drone at all on the highway.
Only when on it do you hear it and it is F Glorious.

and then you have my son with his (past) STI who totally destroyed drive ability by putting on an abnoxious dual exhaust.
Thankfully its gone and he replaced it with a 4runner.

 

Vintage air cooled Porsche or VW?

 

I'd love a Chevy SS. I had a 2006 Pontiac GTO 6 speed and its still my favorite car I've owned and completely regret selling it.

 

It seems like they missed the mark there.

A: Its ridiculously slow compared to a Ford Powerboost.
B. Its 1/2 second slower than a non-hybrid Tundra, at least if you go by the TFL 1/4 mile times.

 

'96 993

 

This doesn't make sense to me.
I thought the hybrid was supposed to be the equivalent of the bigger displacement engine.
I assume the added Hybrid weight hurt it ?
The Ford is a lot lighter and my understanding is the F150 2.7 L frame is actually lighter than the F150 3.5 liter frame.
I guess this means Toyota's (Sweer's) power claim is only good on paper.

 

While I do think you are arguing a point that nobody made, I’ll still waste my breath and attempt to explain why someone may enjoy owning a “fast truck”. Bear in mind not everyone is going to have the same priorities, but I’ll explain how it suits mine through personal experience as opposed to being automatically cast into the “idiot” classification of your post, without a word.

I sold my fun extra car that was exclusively for going fast because that was all it did well. I dealt with the Extra insurance, registration, inspections, maintenance, hogging garage space etc. I then took those profits and purchased my supercharger, a stage 2 Harrop that makes in the neighborhood of 600hp/tq at the crank, give or take. Not earth shattering by today’s standards but nothing to sneeze at. My truck is now a substantially better tow vehicle, has truck bed utility, and is comfortable and quiet on road trips. Daily driving and reliability are not compromised with a proper tune, and I can drive it in poor weather conditions and do some off-roading. It does all of these things but is still quicker than the fun car it replaced. It doesn’t corner like a sports car, but that was never my thing even when I had a sports car. Fast cornering is a better way to end up wrapped around a tree than quick 0-60 stints from a stoplight. It’s a do it all machine for me and I’ve never enjoyed a vehicle more.

No, I’m not going to be dusting substantially lighter sports cars with similar power from a roll, but it will definitely hang and surprise a lot of people. Especially from a dig in 4x4 it can best a lot of quick cars like WRXs, Nissan Z’s, mustangs etc. and frankly that’s a whole different facet of fun in a truck with large aggressive tires and a “pappy cap”. 0-60 and 1/4 mile times are identical to your LS3 SS based on the publications I saw (4.5-5 seconds and 12.9-13.2s respectively). So no, it’s not the absolute best at everything I ask of it compared to a car or truck built to the extreme for a specific task. That said, it’s definitely in the top 20 percentile of all vehicles on the road in many regards including acceleration, towing and hauling capabilities, offroad capabilities, and reliability and it’s all packed in one vehicle.

 

I must be the worst

I have a truck similar to @Silver17

and a Tesla plaid


The truck is wayyy more useful and awesome

and it scoots

 

Am I the only one who reads all the bitching and whining in these threads and wonders how long till one of you guys sacks up and swaps a 3UR into the third Gen? I mean, if it's the best engine the world has ever seen, why not just man up and swap one in.

Jesus it gets old coming here to look for info on the truck and all I read is adults whining because Toyota didn't give them a V8. You act like Gen Z'ers whose parents took away their tik tok for the weekend.

 

I beat a Nissan Z in a Fusion 2.0 Ecoboost. Of course I was in Denver when I did it but the guy was so pissed

 

You sure he was racing? I know elevation and turbos vs NA yatayata, but 5.2 vs 8.2 to 60 at sea level is a colossal difference.

 

But.. but.. but... Toyota gave use everything else we asked for - more power, more toque, better fuel economy, higher payload, more towing capacity, more technology in the cabin, better ride, etc, etc... Why WOUDLN'T they give us a V8, too? I mean, while they are acquiescing to our requests, you'd think they would keep tabs on ALL of our requests. I asked for them to make the new tundra cost $1, but they ignored me. So I'm mad. I'm going to stomp my feet and slam the door in protest. 'To the interwebs, my mighty keyboard commandos!'

Seriously, though, I hear ya. Makes me shake my head. People always gonna find something to complain about. I honestly wanted a turbo straight six or forced induction small displacement v8 but neither of those choices had to do much with exhaust note (as vomitous as I feel a v6 exhaust note is...). But seeing the way the hybrid system was designed, a v6 makes the most sense. I do have a few gripes about the new tundra, but overall I think it's a solid platform. AND I HAVE YET TO PUT SOME SEAT TIME IN ONE SO EVERYTHING I SAY ABOUT THE GEN 3 IS BASED PURELY ON SPECULATION OR SECOND HAND KNOWLEDGE. I don't think it's the platform destroyer that the 2007 Tundra was - I'll admit I was pretty skeptical about it when it was released. But it does more than just keep up with the Jones'. My opinion.

 

I am seeing 6.9 for an Ecoboost fusion. I didnt put bus lengths on him but was pulling.

 

I don't own one yet. I have sat in a few of them and played with all the stuff and driven 2 of them.

I do understand, personally I wanted:
- A diesel
- Them to give me the damn fluid temps for everything, god knows they have all the digital read-out space they need, Toyota just doesn't want to do this and would rather give dummy gauges
- Another 2+ mpg highway
- More customization of the large infotainment screen. Let me divide it into 2, 3 or 4 sections like Ram.

But overall its a solid design, and I think Toyota did a great job, both inside and out. Every vehicle has some early issues, that doesnt worry me at all. Toyota went out of its way to make the Tundra version of the V35A more reliable than the other Dynamic Force engines - and so far those engines aren't really having issues.

These 2nd gen guys saying they will buy a Ram or Ford are cracking me up. These are the same group of guys that lose their mind that the 3UR has the cam tower leak... yes one inherent annoying issue in that engine. Ram can't even make a damn push-rod that doesn't have 3-4 inherent issues, all of which are much more catastrophic. The 3.5 ecoboost STILL has Cam Phaser issues, and its on its 3rd generation... and Ford has been dealing with that issues in numerous engines for YEARS. Good luck buying a small displacement turbo engine from one of the American truck manufacturers.

Listen, I am cross shopping this against a Ram with the ecodiesel. The Ram is a good overall package and I like the highway gas mileage. Somehow that engine seems to be reliable, which is mind blowing given the last generation was one of the worst modern engines I've ever seen. But I am not over here pretending I will get Toyota reliability from that truck. There's absolutely no way.

I think what Toyota did was give us a modern truck with a modern engine that will actually be reliable and you can own for 10-15+ years. That's no small feat in 2022.