From The Desk of Mike Sweerg

To: Design and engineering team for Toyota Tundra, Toyota Motor North America.

From: Mike Sweerg, Executive Chief Engineer Toyota Tundra.

Subject: 2022 model year + updates, and refresh project.

Hello Team Tundra, in a few short weeks our work on the 2022 Tundra will be unveiled to the public. I want to thank all of you for your hard work, dedication, and focus in our efforts to bring this new truck to the market.

A well deserved Pat on the back is in order, but this is the calm before the storm. As new trucks hit the market and reach customers expect an all hands on deck effort to identify unexpected problems and address them to the customers satisfaction. We will be making changes to production as quickly as possible to make sure early adopters problems don’t continue to affect future customers.

Within a few months of roll out, the process will begin to update this new generation of Tundra in the next 15-20 years with a mid cycle refresh. Customer input will be very important during this process, and fortunately many of our current customers are already giving feedback on Internet forums devoted to Toyota trucks.

I can’t begin to archive all of their suggestions but a few that standout:

1.) Customers are expressing a desire for more chrome trim, both exterior and interior. So we need to see what surfaces we can apply chrome finish to and achieve acceptable durability.

2.) The vast majority of customers are disappointed with the payload of the 2007-2021 Tundra. They claim it rides poorly due to the stiff springs and shocks, and that they never need all that hauling ability. We should explore accommodation of this desire by lowering the payload significantly, maybe a change to a fully independent suspension front and rear with softer springs could accomplish this?

3.) The redesign of the Tacoma continues to gain accolades. Particularly the change to the 2GR-FKS 3.5L V6. Our Tacoma customers love the sporty high revving V6 in the Tacoma, and Tundra owners are now clamoring for this to be an optional engine in the Tundra.

4.) On that front the decision to reduce cylinder count and displacement is extremely popular. We should explore the possibility of further trimming down the size of engines offered in the Tundra.

Those are just a few standout suggestions. I am sure all of you hear other great ideas from time to time, and we should archive them here to draw inspiration from.

 

Are they though?

 

Woosh!

 

Yes our customers love the 3.5L in the Tacoma. Look how many we’ve sold! They rave about the high RPM rush as the engine comes up on the cams at 5000RPM!

 

That 3rd paragraph though.

 

I think they were big in the 90's. How about spoilers?

....and Lambo Doors

 

I thought that was hilarious and I thought it was real, even after reading the 15-20 year refresh cycle lmao

 

Fake wood siding like this lovely Camaro? This '67 Camaro "Waikiki Edition" has shag carpeting!! Could these work on a pickup? These Rarest Camaro features could be coming to a Tundra near you. Let the foto-shopping begin!

 

2Tundras,

The spoiler idea is excellent and is proven on 1/2 ton pickups. Remember Dodge did this on short bed Ram 1500’s.

Lambo doors also have merits for customers in urban areas with tight parking spots. When they go to Bed Bath & Beyond it’s easier to get out from Lambo doors in a tight spot. At least assuming they don’t park across three spaces to protect their Tundra.

I will pass this on to the engineering team for doors, and body fixtures.

Thanks!

Mike Sweerg

 

1991 Dodge Dakota Sport

 

A convertible top Tundra could open up a whole new market segment.

Plus give more real estate to our team of interior designers to make things chrome.

Keep up the good work.

Mike Sweerg

 

turbo hybrid 3 cylinder diesel. this will sell like hotcakes.


with an 12 speed auto of course

 

Will that really shift enough?

 

Team,

Empty Lord brings up a good point about powertrains and that is going to be a pretty big part of any refresh, or even a new design.

What we are seeing from some customers is that they want the truck to get much much better fuel efficiency, and be as complicated as possible. Another large segment of customers want the engine and transmission to be as simple as the law will allow, fortunately they don’t care about power output or fuel efficiency though. This will work well for a two engine strategy, the question is what will those two engines look like to meet customer desires and expectations?

Engine/transmission 1.)

Small displacement, high complexity… I mean “features” that is the marketing language for complex. Remember that team it’s not complex, it’s packed with features! This one needs to be super fuel efficient, so tuning, throttle mapping, and fueling need to maximize low fuel consumption. Power is not important, the customers have made it clear they don’t care.

This will need to be paired with a very capable transmission, at least capable of utilizing the maximum spread of ratios possible. I propose a CVT that is tuned to maximize time spent at ratios keeping the paired engine below peak torque or peak power unless the throttle input is 100%.

Engine/transmission 2.)

For this one it just needs to be simple. Many of our customers associate unreliability with parts count, and they particularly distrust electronics. Can we get an engine that has a carburetor, magneto, and hand crank starter past government regulatory agencies? Our legal team will need to determine if the liability risk is too high, particularly on the hand crank starters. Maybe a pull cord with a recoil starter? Thoughts?

Transmission choice for this one is strait forward. Less gears equals less parts count. A 3 speed manual is more than adequate here.

Mike Sweerg

 

FWD Tundra,

Thanks for your input, I understand you don’t want a Diesel engine. At least that is how I chose to read it.

Not to worry at Toyota Motor North America we are committed to not offering a Diesel engine in the Tundra or any other products.

Regards,

Mike Sweerg

 

Chief Mike,

Most customers do not want to customize their Tundras, so please make it extremely difficult to do so.

Bumpers are dumb safety things lets just nix them altogether. I really think all previous gen Tundra engines run too cool, lets remove the radiator and just rely on some nanotechnology fluid. Engines should be built to accept extreme heat.

For the interior, only light color materials and super small buttons. No one uses their truck for truck purposes anymore.

The frame should probably be made of wood. A strong wood of course.

 

Thanks Mike you're a life saver. I wouldn't know what to do with all that extra natural torque, better fuel economy and exaust braking. Couldnt handle all the time and money saved from the 15-20k mile oil and fuel filter change intervals

Wait and the diesel engine lasts twice as long too?! Man I'm glad I dint have to deal with that before the plug ins and turbo gassers come out

 

Disappointed you didnt remove all fluid coolers from the entire truck and add electric rotary shifter on the dash that throws the truck in park when your backing up with driver door open, auto stop start and 3 cylinder deactivation in 6 7 8 9 10th.................gears

And fake 5.7v8 engine sounds pumped into the cabin over the speakers. That would make it a beast

 

Cracked me up thanks for the yucks...great way to start the morning...

The cab should be bigger and the bed shorter...

What is the point of a bed in a modern pick up truck anyway eh?

Off to the future...we're stylin'

 

The upper level trim should be called the
Feng Shui

 

Mike I thought we were keeping the two fake hood scoops and adding a third for the greater good

You added a grab handle to the driver a piller. Your going to have to remove that immediately. I am not buying a $50k truck and not having to order a $200 genuine toyota parts grab handle and take 4 hours to install it tearing up half the cab in the process

Unbelievable

 

that's hilarious. i'd suggest adding a 3rd tier to the floor in the rear passenger area of the Crewmax so my dogs can be even more miserable back there with the seats folded up.

 

Diesels will cut into that Toyota maintenance profit too much. 15k mile oil change interval cut profit to a thurd. In this new trucks owners manual the entire maintenance interval and schedule section will be a website address and phone number to schedule your 3k miles $150 oil change at your nearest dealer.

It will take you a week and 10 emails to get a print out of when and what maintenance needs to be done. And it will probably be a $20 genuine toyota printout. And it will probably require a 10 piece oil filter and at least 3 custom tools to do your own oil change.

 

And remember to include a 3 second delay between the driver going WOT and any kind of response from the drivetrain. This will make them question if burning all that extra fuel to pass that slow-moving motorhome on a two lane highway is worth it or not.

 

Team,

Excellent suggestions! The thermodynamics and materials science teams have been working on power plants that require no cooling for awhile, but we aren’t there just yet. We know Tundra buyers despise the large grill openings needed to keep the current trucks cool under heavy engine load. A solid 99.999999999% of them never tow or haul anything, and would prefer to have a smaller more tasteful grill. One proposal would be to downsize the radiator, and eliminate all the other heat exchangers aside from the air conditioning condenser. We could then make the grill tiny, per customer desires, but it would mean the engine would frequently need to de-rate itself to stay within normal operating temps.

What does everyone think of that as a strategy for reducing grill size, and what do we use that front end space for instead? More chrome? More black plastic cladding? One of you mentioned non functional hood scoops, maybe we could put some non functional scoops where the larger grill was?

Keep the excellence coming!

Mike Sweerg

 

The "Carolina lean" should come as an option so that visibility is hindered and offloading is easier.

 

i saw more chrome was the #1 priority and i almost lost it lol

 

I hope they don't put anymore storage in this truck. The more storage I have, the more stuff I can keep in my truck and that just leads to clutter.

 

Thinking we need a chrome tail gate grill.

 

Chief Mike,

Go ahead and reduce the grill size to something like the SSR. Maybe reach out to legal and partner with Chevy on the design. (think Supra)

The shark fin antenna should be relocated to one of the hood scoops. The fin should be chrome, and should have been from the start.

Thinking ahead, let’s start to POC a 4 cylinder engine that runs on Brawndo. Dino juice won’t be around forever...