Rented a '22 1794 non-hybrid for three days - my impressions

I had the opportunity to rent a '22 Tundra from a dealer in the area for three days. (details at the end of this post)

1794 6.5-ft Bed 4x4 (non-hybrid) in Wind Chill Pearl



560 miles on it when I picked it up. I put 182 miles on it.

Very sharp looking truck, I don’t care for chrome or white and I still really liked the look. Overall, it was a pleasure to drive, and I’m very picky.

Love love love the driver side grab handle. My favorite feature.
Power side steps work well, deploys at the right times. I worry about their durability in the winter.
Power bed step is nice. (The bed step, even the manual one, should be standard on all trims, c’mon Toyota!)

I daily drive a '16 4Runner. This is the first turbo vehicle I've driven. (I'm serious, even rentals, I can't recall a single turbo in my 40 years of driving.)
The non-hybrid has plenty of power when needed, and it's available at any speed. Highway merging is no problem. Most times you don't notice it's a turbo, but sometimes the power has a slight delay before it kicks in, and even then it’s smooth. I got used to it quickly, and it never felt doggy or underpowered at all. (Makes me question whether I still prefer the hybrid. )

Steering is precise and accurate. Three point u-turn on a side street doable even with long bed crew cab, but it was close. PVM helped a lot.

PVM is very handy for parking. Button to activate it is easy to find by touch, directly in front of the shifter.

Auto stop-start was rarely available, and I kept looking for it at stoplights. When it activated (twice), it worked well and was barely perceptible. Slight vibration when lifting off the brake and that's it. I would probably not notice if I wasn’t looking for it.

MPG varies depending on conditions. I got 21 miles per gallon after 15 miles of mildly hilly rural back roads, 35 - 55 mph. On other occasions, driving around town was as low as 16 to 18 mpg.
It takes a little while after getting on the highway before the mpg climbs. After a reset in the driveway, it started out really low, but then it went up to 21.2 after 15 minutes on the highway at 55 mph to 65 mph.
A 40 mile highway loop from driveway to gas station was 21.6 mpg on the trip computer, averaging around 55 to 65 mph. All in Normal mode.

The radar cruise control is very good. Handles busy traffic really well. It's very controlled, doesn't surge or panic stop.
Lane tracing assist with lane centering worked well, amazing technology. It beeped at me occasionally to correct the wheel. Kinda like a co-pilot. Although it did get a little close to tractor trailers for my liking. Needed clear lane markings to work reliably.

Visibility is good except for a blind spot over the left shoulder because of the rear seat grab handle and B pillar, and a blind spot over right shoulder because of back seat headrest and C pillar. I consider BSM to be essential. (It's standard on Limited trims and up. Optional on SR5.)

Standard mirrors are huge. Plenty good for occasional towing in my opinion.
(I forgot to check if both mirrors dimmed at night.)
Headlights are great. Brighter than anything I’ve driven before.
Ambient lighting is cool. It's blue and there are two levels low and high, and you can turn it off.
Interior lighting is dimmer than my other vehicles, seems subdued, but adequate at night in my opinion.
Panoramic sunroof is very cool.

The wireless phone charger worked for me over a 40 minute trip with an iPhone 11 Pro and a Spigen thin case.
I didn’t try wireless Apple CarPlay, and didn’t try creating a profile with Toyota. Wired CarPlay just works as soon as you plug in your phone, and it's very nice. The home screen of CarPlay is the multi-view that’s missing from the Toyota infotainment; music + map is all I need.

Stereo is very nice, but it was a little boomy initially, for the music I listen to. Turning down the base a bit did the trick.
Turning off surround sound makes a noticeable improvement.
Settings - Sound & Media - Levels - Surround sound: OFF

Interior is noticeably quiet. There wasn’t any excess wind noise.
This truck did have that small gap in the outside window trim that everyone complains about, but it didn't seem to make any noise while I was driving. (Trust me, I would have noticed. I'm hyper-sensitive to that kind of wind noise and it drives me bananas.)

Overall I was impressed with the ride quality. On a concrete segmented highway the bounce was fairly pronounced. This particular stretch is a shitty road in any vehicle, but the AVS wasn't able to smooth it out on any setting, and I tried them all. No miracles here. On non-crappy roads the ride was very nice. Wife approved.

No Check Engine Light or stalls.
No speaker or interior panel rattles.
Some separating exterior trim, minor, not too noticeable. (It was the door 1794 badging strip, at two different places, on each side.) https://www.tundras.com/threads/platinum-badge-peeling-off.105600/

I could feel the bump stops in the back occasionally. I looked under the bed and the air suspension was configured too low, as seen elsewhere in other posts.
https://www.tundras.com/threads/leveling-22-platinum-with-avs-air.99893/#post-2594102

Other than that, there weren't any significant Cons that I can recall.

Crew Max long bed (6.5-ft.) is big, I’m hoping the short bed feels a little smaller. Parking in tight lots was tough. Before I drove this I was convinced I wanted the Hybrid, after a short test drive back in February of a Platinum. But now after getting used to the power delivery and seeing the fuel efficiency under different conditions, I'm starting to reconsider the non-hybrid.

Hanover Toyota in south central PA has one Tundra 1794 to rent for $110 per day.
https://www.hanovertoyota.com/2022toyotatundrarental/
It was well worth it to me before dropping $60k plus on a truck.
And they are selling at MSRP.

 

Have a 1794 myself in the same color with the TRD off-road package so not as much chrome. Little over 2,000 miles on mine and love it.

Also wanted the under seat storage and do use it often. I too feel there is plenty power for me.

Looking forward to seeing how it tows the boat if I can ever find the time to get out…

 

Thank you for the very helpful review. If a 1794 ever gets allocated to northern Minnesota i would be definitely interested. It doesn't seem like they are being offered to dealers in this area.

 

How was the heads up display????

 

My wife just purchased a 2022 Camry XLE and the heads up display works well in the Camry. I like the design clean and has what I need on the display, digital speed, the speed limit of the road I am on and the tach. The only complaint is it could be brighter for daytime driving. I have it turned up to the brightest setting. You can move the HID up and down which is nice since I am taller than my wife.

 

The best part about the heads up display was that it puts the speed limit right next to your current speed in one place, at a glance. It also shows the compass, but I basically ignored that. Who uses a compass while driving? Who is -that- lost?

I did not find it distracting. Overall it’s a little bit more convenient than the regular instrument display. You still have to refocus, just not as much, and you still have to look down, just not as much.

It does not show turn by turn navigation cues from Apple CarPlay. It is supposed to show navigation cues from the built in navigation, but I didn’t get to test that feature.

Here is another post on it:
https://www.tundras.com/threads/heads-up-display-hud.102794/

 

I mean, as a fellow 4Runner owner, you *KNOW* who can get that lost.

But seriously though, I agree. There are rare times where using it does come in handy, but most of the time it's as useful as the plugged-in seatbelt notification. LOL

 

Very nice review! My wife has said many times that she wants my Tundra when her car dies. Maybe I will get a '24 Tundra to replace it.

 

Excellent write-up sir!

 

The hybrid thing for me is a point of contention. If they had included a generator like the Powerboost, then I would without a doubt consider the hybrid. Being someone who has a travel trailer and boondocks a significant amount of the time, I would use it for sure. Then of course it could power my house if I ever needed it.

But the fact that they only included the driveline functionality of the hybrid seriously reduces my interest. With my current F150, 50% of my driving is 55mph 2 lane roads, maybe 5% is in town, and the other 45% is towing my travel trailer. At least that is how it's been for the last two years. I am not sure that the hybrid would be very beneficial for me. It would just be a bunch of added weight and complexity for no significant benefit.

Now, if it were a plug in hybrid and I could charge the battery in my garage and then drive in EV mode into town and back(15 miles), that would peak my interest. I had a Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV in San Diego last week as a rental and charged it a couple times and it was super nice just scooting around all EV. I went about 30 miles EV only each time.

It pisses me off that the Sequoia is hybrid only. But again, if it had a generator function I would be ok with it.

 

That extra 12” do make a difference.

 

Yup. One big thing that bothers the crap outa me is not being able to put a dayuum 6ft table in the bed of a truck. Like wtf. Lol

 

That's what she said

 

Thank you for the exellent and very thorough review. I am expecting my 1794 TRD Off-Road 5.5 bed in a few months. Reading your review gets me even more excited to get mine!

 

Great review! Saw that rental when they first got it as well. Have purchased over 40 vehicles from Hanover Toyota.