Why did you buy a Tundra?

What made you buy a new model Tundra over other truck brands? Did you consider other vehicles aside from trucks when shopping for your Tundra? If so, which?

 

I bought a Tundra because it was the best value and was hoping it would have long term reliability. I priced out all the half ton trucks and to have the features I wanted I would have had to pay another ~8k in a Ford or Chevy. So far I haven't had any major issues with my 2022 SR5 OR Premium and it I bought it for 58k in October of 2022.

 

Had a 2020 Silverado that was starting to give me signs the transmission wasn’t going to last and I was getting close to end of warranty. Decided between the lifters/transmission issues that were well known and the ongoing strike that would cause a prolonged downtime I didn’t want to deal with that truck or any of the big 3 “American” manufacturers. Initially debated on a titan but hated the way it drove and the interior so went with the tundra.

I have acreage and hunt a few times in central Texas yearly, and want a boat soon too, so decided that I still “needed” a full size truck. Tundra checked all the boxes

 

I have never been a fan of Chevy as they seem to really be hungry for oil and most owners never notice it until it’s too late. I have never and will never buy a dodge because they are just bottom of the barrel imo and ugly af.
My family growing up were always Ford fans and I had my eyes on the F150, but I was driving a 2022 Tacoma at the time. When the new Tundra came out I loved the design and I chose it over anything else because of the great experience I have had with Toyota in past with 2 tacomas and a MR2 Spyder.

The only other truck I would consider would be a Ford F-150 tbh. I just think GM is like the Dennys of the automobile industry and Dodge is like Family Dollar.

However, paying $50K for a XL “STX” blows my mind and $55K for a XLT is still mind boggling to me.

 

My first Tundra and only 3rd Toyota among 15+ new vehicles bought in my life. I am pretty brand agnostic and look at a fair sampling of vehicles to determine the best match and value for me. I have a few brands I avoid: anything from Ford and all kraut burners.

I had a Ram 1500 EcoD previously that was a great truck for 7 years. I was favoring a new Ram but they had raised prices, hollowed out the features of the Laramie, and reduced exterior colors that I came to the conclusion I liked my 2015 better than what I was looking at. That opened the door for looking at others. The Tundra TRD Sport nailed the look I wanted, had the equipment I wanted without a ton of fluffy marginally useful stuff and was priced same as Ram.

I like not seeing myself in every corner which is a fact of life with any big 3 truck where I live. I am one of 2 Army Greens I have seen in the area and only AG TRD Sport. While my Toyo local dealer is just OK, I don't get the feeling every employee has been in prison at some point like at my 2 local Ram dealers. Or they at least cover their prison and gang tats.

 

Because a Porsche taycan is too expensive

 

Roll down back window.

 

A buddy of mine has been telling me about his Chevy shake that needs a transmission flush every 30k that he only found out after multiple visits to dealers. And that it’s really common for Chevy. Seems like a terrible ownership problem to have

 

All the Toyotas I have had have been rock solid and wanted to continue driving a Toyota. Plus I know a lot think it’s ugly but man I think it’s a great looking truck. Was looking at F150s as well and wanted the 5.0 V8 but I knew if I went that way I wouldn’t be happy in the long term and would have switched it out for a tundra. I was also looking at dodge power wagons, but was more money than I wanted to spend. Been almost a month and I’m still glad I made my choice.

 

I'm a fanboy through and through, so it was always going to be a Toyota. I'm pretty brand loyal in general. Considered waiting for the new Tacoma but I knew it'd be too small, and I didn't want to spend more on a smaller/less featured Tacoma than I spent on my nearly loaded 2007 Tundra. Seemed like a huge leap backwards to me. The only time I kinda looked at another brand was pre-COVID and the Chevy dealer had a "buy me red" 1500 on the lot. It was marked down almost $12k and I started to question how much my loyalty was worth. Dad has always been a Chevy guy, and I probably would've been had it not been for that 1996 Tacoma in high school.

 

Respect and trust go a long way. Their engineering process, global collaboration, work culture. All of that shows in the end Tundra product. Not perfect, but pretty good all around. And there are too many big 3 bromobiles running around here rolling coal, it’s embarrassing. I’m not joining the race to the man-card bottom. I just need to tow something heavy.

Tundra has towing standards that are credible.

Also the emergency braking. There are bikes and pedestrians swarming around me on any given day.

 

I just wanted an American made truck that would last me 15 years.

American made and more American made parts in the tundra than the big 3 had in theirs.

Not sure if that stat is still true, but in 2009 it was.

 

We have the Tundra for a daily and light work and Silverado 3500s for business since Toyota doesn’t make an HD payload Tundra.

 

I came from a 2020 Tacoma. I had a ‘02 Tundra in the past, my brother had a 2015, which I have borrowed a few times. I like the Toyota reliability (historically, at least).

I wanted to upgrade the Tacoma to something that had more space and power, as I plan on towing in the near future. Bought my Tacoma under MSRP, traded it in for over that value. I do enjoy the newer tech in vehicles, so the 3rd gen made sense for me. Personally, as much as I liked my brother’s Tundra, I didn’t want to buy a 2020 and feel like I’m in a 2007 interior.

No ragrets

 

Always been a GM fan and live in a GM town. Between my wife and myself we have owned about 35 new GM cars and trucks. However I had nothing but trouble with the last two, one was finally bought back under the lemon law and the other leaked oil from the day it was delivered. Dealer after fixing it took it out for a test drive and totaled it. I got a Tundra because Toyota is known for building a good product and the Tundra is American made unlike some of the GM junk.

 

Better questions are what made you buy yours? And, do you think all that you have been through with your Tundra another brand would have been better? @hagrid

 

Easy, I have had other brands... and one Tacoma... so getting a Toyota was an easy choice. I mean a REALLY easy choice. But I really only got a Tundra because the 4th gen Tacomas weren't ready when I needed a new vehicle.

 

Because I've owned half ton RAM, GMC and Ford trucks. I've also driven all 3 brands from half ton to 1 ton and even the 5500HD RAMs for work.

The only brand I'd consider other than Toyota is GMC.

 

I have driven Ford trucks since I started driving and keep my vehicles for a long time. I was close to buying a new one right before the Tundra was released. Ford’s prices had gone through the roof and the more I researched the quality of their build the more problems I found. Rear main leaks, cam phaser issues and the list kept growing. The worst part was everyone I spoke with said Ford was not standing behind their products and was doing the absolute minimum to fix issues. I checked GMC and Chevy and the story was even worse. I worked at a Ram dealership and that experience ruled their products out completely. All of our other vehicles have been Toyota the last ten to fifteen years. In the end I decided all manufacturers have reliability issues these days and I had the best chance of a company standing behind their product with Toyota.

 

Longevity. I considered an F150, however, based on experience with Ford's recently and Toyota's the Toyota was way more reliable. In all reality you just have to make your best guess and decision on the information you have. Can an F150 make it to 200k miles without major issues? Sure, it happens quite a bit. Can a Toyota Tundra plague you with issue after issue? Sure, it happens.

 

Resale value .

 

Short answer: We (family of 5 with a 60-lb dog) outgrew our 2012 4Runner. Needed a bigger adventure vehicle.

Long answer:
I know several people who drive Ford trucks. They all have an ongoing relationship with their dealer service center. I scratched Ford off the list.

I had been maintaining two GM full-size vehicles for my wife (a Suburban, then a Yukon XL), and I got sick of all the AFM issues and electrical gremlins. Test drove a Trail Boss that felt clunky and had a terribly cheap, rattly interior. Scratched GM off the list.

I never even considered a Ram or a Nissan.

Everyone I know with a Tundra says it sucks on fuel but just works every single time. Plus, it shares some major components with the Land Cruiser. That's what I need: a truck I can always depend on. I like to maintain my vehicles myself, and my wife and I enjoy taking our kids out in the middle of nowhere to camp and hike. I have the best chance of coming back every time with a Tundra.

The extremely high resale value (due to how much life is left with the Tundra vs every other truck at whatever mileage) doesn't hurt, either.

 

You're better off asking the cat.

Or a wall.

@Eurodriver

 

I prefer an extended cab over a crew cab because I don't need the extra interior space (ideally I'd have a single cab), but I also like having all the tech and options one can get. The big 3 have de-contented anything other than a crew cab so that made the tundra limited the only available option really.

Also dig the aftermarket support and fanbase for toyota products.

 

I went Toyota for a few reasons.

From a business perspective Toyota is top notch. Business school teaches a lot about how vertical integration is the key to higher quality final products. Despite this, vertical integration fell out of vogue and manufacturers outsource heavily to keep costs lower. Toyota bucked this trend and is one of the most vertically integrated manufacturers on the planet, certainly it’s the most vertically integrated of the auto manufacturers and they exercise strong control of their products for the outsourced bits.

In fact they wrote the book on manufacturing. They are so good that GM opened a plant with them in Fremont called the Numi plant. They built their Pontiac Vibes next to the Matrix. GM never figured it out. Eventually the plant was shuttered and became Teslas manufacturing plant.

they have a system that allows ANYONE on the line to halt production to fix a problem. In fact they even allow those people to bring solutions to engineering teams to evaluate, so basically the opposite of Boeing since the MBA’s took over.

I am personally a big of companies that walk their talk. Toyota isn’t perfect, but I’ll be damned if they aren’t trying the hardest to be so. Thus, I vote with my dollars for that kind of commitment to their quality, business, employees and customers.

Also, I have been in the business for a couple of decades and I have seen the engineering of all manner of vehicles first hand. A bunch of it I have hands on experience with. From an engineering perspective, Toyota follows
The engineering mantra of KISS. They also use quality designs (for the most part). Brushed motors in door lock actuators and blower motor fans are some hot garbage but nobody is perfect.

take a look at the window regulator in a Camry from vs a similar year VAG product. The VAG product has rivets that need to be drilled out to remove the motor. It has a wired cable design that loops all over the place around plastic wheels and then the window sits on plastic runners. All that plastic disintegrates with time and falls apart. It’s also a giant pain to replace all that ridiculousness. The Camry is a simple stamped steel X with bolts holding the motor in.

This is a really good example of the engineering differences between vehicles and these differences extend to every part of the car. This is before accounting for the quality of the sourced components. A lot of the overengineered designs could be made to work if higher quality parts were used, but they aren’t.


So anyway, long story short, I like their business model and their engineering.

 

We were looking for more towing capacity over the 2019 Ridgeline, 5000 lbs / 600 lbs hitch / 1500 lbs payload.

Once the dust settled, we got 2 out of 3! We haven't had many Toyotas but all the PR out how good the brand is made us look at the new generation. So now we are sort of watching what happens with all the issues that this new model is experiencing.

We like the size of the truck and the power, the tech seems pretty good compared to the Honda but certainly not as refined when it comes to the ride.

For now, we are going to drive it and see what happens.

 

You got 3 out of 3. 10k+ towing, 1000 lb+ tongue weight, and whatever your door jamb payload number is, it's better than the Ridgeline.

The giant caveat with the Ridgeline is that only 1000 lb of it's 1500 lb payload can go in the bed. There is no such qualifier with any Tundra.

 

I've owned a few different trucks:

- 1995 F250 - had some small issues, but pretty reliable overall.
- 2003 F150 - in 200K, all it needed was a TSB flash and a left rear blinker light (aside from oil changes, brakes, etc.)

That led me to my 2013 F150. I liked the truck....but it had a TON of small issues (media system was complete crap; driver's seat rails constantly squeaked; driver's side rear door would not close - which was a HUGE issue considering it was a SuperCab; 2 TSBs to resolve issues; emergency brake; and the rear back glass defroster crapped out THREE times).

More to the point...the dealership was a royal pain to deal with, as was the next closest one. I began to ask myself "If this is the service I get when it's in warranty....what kind will I get when I have to actually pay?"

I'd liked Tundras for years....but in February 2020, as COVID was beginning to hit, I saw people stop buying vehicles. I worked for the gov't on servers and wife worked healthcare...so we KNEW the two people who wouldn't lose their jobs were us. As such, I bought the truck the day we all got sent home for a year or so.

Below is the list of stuff I've had an issue with in 62K miles:

- HVAC sensor

That's it. Other than that, it's been ridiculously reliable. I towed occasionally with my '13 F150, and all I wanted was to be able to tow the same stuff a bit easier and more reliable. Given the Tundra had 20HP/20TQ more, and had 4.30 gears vice 3.31, it's been tons easier to tow. It's paid off, and I don't plan on getting rid of it anytime soon.

 

I needed to replace my Saab Viggen, and my long wheelbase dually 1-ton Chevy.

If you put these on a spectrum, the Tundra falls right in the middle.

I was either going to get a 3/4 ton pickup from the big 3, or a Tundra.

I need to tow 12,000# (12) times a year, tow 8k (12) times a year, haul stuff in the bed (30) times a year, and daily drive it, to include road trips. Averaging 25-30k a year mileage.

Tundra seemed to fit this well.