An American in Japan. Why? . . . Toyota Trucks

Mike Sweers must help reinvent Toyota's lineup to be greener, while keeping the power, functionality and rugged looks demanded by truck fans.

http://www.autonews.com/article/20180326/OEM02/180329837/toyota-truck-translator-mike-sweers

Good to see they are taking into account the North American view on what makes trucks desirable; please don't screw it up Mike!

 

They should have gotten me in on some of that action.

 

Or many of us for that matter LOL

 

Interesting article

 

I'm just here to say I love your avatar.

 

@T500 is always changing 'em. Keep checking back for updates

 

good article. As far as Diesel, Europe pushing to get rid of it by 2030. Funny is that in the 90's they were pushing for Diesel cars so most of the cars over there are Diesel. !

 

And then there was this: a VW pickup...

Please let this not be true

https://jalopnik.com/we-may-see-a-volkswagen-pickup-truck-concept-this-week-1824071330/amp

 

True, and it’s now come back to bite them in the ass

 

yep

 

screenshot for posterity then. If he changes it to some unicorn midget porn later I don't want people to get confused about what I like. I like midget porn, just not unicorns.

 

I love diesels but they wouldn’t make sense for me being that I wouldn’t use it for its intended purpose often enough. Short trips to work just don’t make sense. I would definitely need a commuter car. The tundra as it sits fits right up the middle for me although I still would like a commuter car. I always laugh when I see guys daily driving there diesels to work and running errands etc. a mall crawler diesel is silly to me. You’d probably be better off driving your diesel to work and then letting it idle all day until you come home ha ha.

 

Someone should point him to Tundras.com; just sayin' . . .

 

Great post GIJOSE' Gonna get interesting fo sho.

 

Interesting. Im fairly diesel illiterate. I always figured they were meant to idle. But how you put it makes sense. Good to know for the future.

 

In a nutshell . . .

 

Couldn't agree more. I'd take a hybrid 1/2 ton over a diesel 1/2 ton any day. The use cases are just totally different. The one and only reason I could imagine a diesel benefiting Lisa and I is distance between fillups. When I plan overland trips now, I have to plan for about a 200 mile max dirt distance. I could possibly double that in a diesel 1/2 ton, but then using it as a daily driver (as we do) would suffer. A quality hybrid could fill both roles quite nicely.

 

I was somewhat aware of most of that, it was more about the common rail and idling I didn’t know about. Although diesel still amaze me how they ignite the fuel. That video gave a good representation for a little more understanding.

 

I always heard that Toyota develops all their ideas and new cars for ten years ahead? Mazda has an interesting new engine. Called the something X. Gets way better gas mileage and more powerful too. Tundra with an engine like that but bigger would blow the competition away for a long time! Peace. https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/2019-mazda-3-with-skyactiv-x-compression-ignition-gas-engine-prototype-drive-review

 

Good read, ""You're going to see trucks change faster than you've ever seen trucks change." I find this portion hard to believe though, its just not what Toyota does, Platforms just don't change much.

I cannot imagine the task they have when trying to make a truck check most the boxes for everyone. If you want a truck as a truck fuel mileage suffers, just a fact. But yet people are screaming for 20+mpg, Tundra still has straight up v8 power like a truck should have..no start/stop, cylinder deactivation bs. It will be interesting to see how they move forward with the redesign.

 

Sweers screwed up the Tacoma redesign.. drum brakes in this day and age, torqueless engine in a truck. Didn't change the engine or frame on the 2014 Tundra update ( so to me it's the same truck ). Hasn't touched the Sequoia or 4Runner since 2008 and 2009 respectively. FJ cruiser is dead. 2016 Land Cruiser got 8sp auto, how come the Tundra is still on a 6speed? I truly hope the new BOF stuff from toyota is class leading but I'm not optomistic considering WHO is at the helm.

 

6 spd trans is plenty for me. Thats a lot of damn shifting in a 8 or 10 speed. I bet those fuckers hunt for gears all day long! Sounds like heat buildup and future transmission slippage to me. I remember being happy with a 3 speed with OD lol

 

We may or may not be planning Baja this Fall (I say that because we’ve been planning to go to Baja every year for three years). One week (9 days), however far south we get is how far we go. 90% dirt from Ensenada and back.

 

This guy is Doing diesel swap for Toyota including Tundra. 40k will get u v8. 42k with DEF

http://dieseltoys.com/tundra-diesel

 

Agreed, heck even the Tacoma is still on the same frame pretty much, just a few tweaks to it. I think the Tacoma redesign was rushed because of the introduction of the new Colorado back into the market. It will be interesting to see what happens with the Tundra for sure.