A solid truck

Author's Rating:

Pros: Powerful V8, good ride

Cons: Reputation for brake problems, driveshaft "clunk", some cheap interior trim

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The Bottom Line: 
The Tundra is a quality truck, and although it has a few low points, is still better than the other three large pickups.

Author's Review
The Toyota Tundra is a pickup truck which is suited well for city driving. It provides a smooth ride and handles well. Mine is a 2WD access cab V8. The 2002 Tundra is available in two body styles- a regular cab with an 8' long bed, and an access cab (Toyota language for an extended cab) with a 6 1/2' long bed. For 2003, a stepside model has been added. As of now, no Tundra is offered in a true 4-door style. This is in the planning process right now, and may be available in 2004. The base Tundra comes with a 3.4L V6 and can be had with a 5-speed manual or a 4-speed automatic transmission. V8 models have the 4.7L "i-Force" V8 and are only available with the 4-speed automatic.

The Tundra has a nice interior for a driver and passenger, however the rear seat is not comfortable for anyone other than small children. The rear seats fold up and there are nice storage compartments underneath. The front seats (mine has the optional captains chairs), are quite comfortable, and there is also a comfortable left foot rest for the driver to the left of the brake pedal. The instrument panel is set up nicely, however the air conditioning controls are a little on the cheap side. I do not know if they have improved this for the 2003 models, but the A/C controls in the smaller Tacoma pickup are much nicer than the Tundra's. I have the premium stereo with the 6-disc changer, and all I can say is that in no way are the speakers "premium". The disc changer is all in-dash, so you load the discs in a normal looking CD player opening, and they are filed inside the stereo. The gauges are nothing fancy, but are not ugly in any way. One aspect of the interior that needs changing is the fabric on the doors. After 1000 miles, this was already showing wear from my elbow resting on it while driving.

The 4.7L engine is awesome. It makes the Tundra the fastest 0-60 truck on the road (aside from the Ford Lightning of course). Motor Trend and Car and Driver Magazine have each verified this. It will do 0-60 in a tick over 8 seconds. Towing is also good, as it has a 7200-lb towing capacity. It is a DOHC engine, with 4 valves per cylinder. While only making 245 horsepower and 315 lb-ft of torque, the engine will really pull hard at high RPM ranges or when under a heavy load. The transmission shifts smoothly, so smoothly that many times I watch the tachometer, and can see that the transmission shifts, but cannot feel it. The drivetrain is by far the weakest link in the powertrain. When stopping, often times a "clunk" can be felt in the rear of the truck. According to tundrasolutions.com, this can be fixed by adding some grease to the slip yoke. I haven't done this yet, however many people on this site have found that this solves the problem.

The brakes are notorious for having problems on this vehicle. The problems can start at a low mileage, and have been known to reoccur one or more times in a few trucks. The rotors warp and cause the truck to vibrate when they are applied. Toyota has supposedly come up with a way to fix this now, due to the abundance of people who have had this problem. I do not know the effectiveness of this new method, as it is rather new and I myself have not had brake problems yet on my Tundra. From my experience, the brakes work great. There is no lateral movement when braking, the truck will remain in a straight line and come to a stop quickly. They have a much greater feel than the Chevy brakes in my opinion. The Chevy brakes depress easily, until the pedal is about halfway down, when it becomes noticeably stiffer to press. The Tundra does not have this problem. All Tundras have front disc brakes and rear drums. ABS is optional.

My Tundra also came with the TRD suspension, which gives a little stiffer ride than the normal suspension, but can come in handy when doing any light off-roading. It also came with a limited-slip differential, a tow hitch and transmission cooler, fog lights, and ABS (an option which comes in combination with daytime running lights). Another option is the all-weather guard package. If the truck you are looking for has this, you will know from taking a close look at the lower part of the side of the truck, below the plastic trim. You will notice that the paint is thicker and has a slightly rough finish to it. This is normal. It is to protect from things that can chip the paint, such as rocks.

The Limited trim level offers leather seats and fake wood accent, to give a more luxurious feel. I personally do not prefer leather, so I opted for the SR5 trim level. For people who want a little more fun in their truck, a TRD (Toyota Racing Development) supercharger is available which gives a 4psi boost and helps the engine turn out 340 HP and 457 lb-ft of torque. This costs around $4,500. TRD also makes headers and other various performance parts. The good thing about this is that as long as you have it installed at a Toyota dealer, it will not void the factory warranty, even with the supercharger. However, you will need to use premium gas.

Gas mileage is about 14.4 mpg in my truck. There are 2 trip odometers, which is convenient when you want to measure your miles to a tank and your miles on a road trip at the same time.

All in all, I believe the Tundra is better than any other full size truck around. Since it is really about 7/8 the size of the other full size trucks, it is more well-mannered on the streets than other full size trucks. It handles well and there is never a lack of power. Test drive one and you will see that the Tundra is a quality truck which is capable of handling anything you can throw its way