Wanna ride shotgun with GRM?
Welcome to this week’s test vehicle, a 2024 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro.
The most off-road focused Tundra of the lineup (for those looking for luxury, check out the top-tier, almost $79,000 Capstone) power comes not from a V8 but from the i-FORCE MAX twin-turbo, hybrid, 3.5-liter V6.
In total, Toyota says the i-FORCE MAX is good for 437 horsepower and 583 lb.-ft. of torque, …
Eager to hear how JG likes this one. Will he buy a new one or hold onto the V8?
My next purchase is most likely going to be either a used Tacoma or Tundra. I would take either! I like the size of the Tacoma and the V8 of the Tundra. Decisions, decisions...
surprisingly, the V6 has a lot of NVH coming into the cabin. It feels and sounds like a mild race motor. It's definitely torquey, but the whole package also drives BIG. The mirrors are huge. To the point where they obstruct forward 3/4 vision, and the rearward view with them is pretty meh and definitely doesn't justify their size and presence.
I mean, it's all nice and modern and I expect it to tow like no one's business tomorrow, but for $75,000 I'm just not getting that it's a substantial upgrade over my 5.7 Tundra for the cost. Yeah it's got more bells and whistles, but I also know I'd way rather drive mine when it's not hooked to a trailer than this new one.
this same trip to the firm with my tundra usually sees 12.1 MPG. We'll see what 15 years of technology has done to improve on that.
The proportions look a bit off to me. Huge nose, tires too small, wheel wells too big.
im also putting a lot of value in JG's impressions of it.
So, what's the value proposition for this vs. a raptor? I'm not seeing it. I guess this tows more, but if you're buying an $80,000 pickup truck to tow, you're probably shopping for a diesel 2500 anyway.
Final number was 13.7mpg for the drive over. So if I sold my Tundra for $15k, I could buy this and it would pay for itself in fuel savings within about 1,940,000 miles. Liking that math.
It does tow like a dream. The NVH backs way off after it warms up, so that must have been some extended cold start protocol. Boy it's big, though. Towing is sweet, but not towing... I'd be less enthusiastic.
Final number was 13.7mpg for the drive over. So if I sold my Tundra for $15k, I could buy this and it would pay for itself in fuel savings within about 1,940,000 miles. Liking that math.
It does tow like a dream. The NVH backs way off after it warms up, so that must have been some extended cold start protocol. Boy it's big, though. Towing is sweet, but not towing... I'd be less enthusiastic.
I mean, it is a Toyota, so it will probably run for 1,940,000 miles.
So, it tows amazingly well. On the return trip it averaged almost 15mpg and was much more aggressive about activating the hybrid system and E36 M3ting off the engine during cruise. There's no driveline lash from the switchover, but there is a lot of noise and vibration when the engine is running. Like, '90s V6 Camaro level noise.
Aside from that, I'm not really getting it. The power slide out tow mirrors are cool, but the mirrors themselves suck butt. The frames are huge and they really block your forward 3/4 views.
And the mirror glass is plenty big, but the focus distance is just... weird. You just end up not really being able to use them very well.
So you can't see behind you very well, or to the front corners, but that's fine because you can't see in front of you, either. Here's what an Acura looks like over a full car length ahead.
Also, the center screen is nice and large, but angled straight back, like they expect someone sitting in the center of the back seat to be using it. For the driver to get a good view of different screen functions, you have to lean way over to the right.
It's just... wow Toyota. Kind of a big whiff on this thing.
I just picked up the Tundra and trailer and drove it five miles home.
Wow--it rides rough. I expected a Raptor. I encountered an F-250 on leaf springs.
NVH is abundant. You hear and feel every single horsepower. You don't see them on the speedometer, though, because It's not quick.
I figured JG was just being whiny about the mirrors, but they're absolutely hateful. I'm a fairly normally built 6' tall dude, but I can't see cars to my left at a four-way-stop. I also can't really see what's next to me due to the mirrors' field of view.
This thing looks cool/mean/tacticool/etc. it has a cool built-in lightbar. But the basics I've encountered so far just don't cut it in a market segment as competitive as this one.
Hmmmmmm. Glad I don't need/want a truck and if I did the Santa Cruz would likely fit the bill for me. First the GM trucks with their barn door grills and odd proportions then the Land Rover and now this.......Aren't things supposed to get better with re-design?
Headroom in the back seat isn't amazing. Mitch is like 6' 4", but this still seems weird for a full-size truck. 
Since JG wasnt real impressed and Tom was less impressed, i now feel like i can be open about how much i absolutely HATE the tundra. I had one in the fleet of work vehicles a while back and wanted to like it, then the more i drove it the more maddeningly awful i found it to be. And im a Japanese car guy too.
drove my coworkers 2024 for a good bit. liked the new bells and whistles compared to the 2017, but I disliked the engine and pretty much everything else about it. Didn't really seem to get any more mpgs than mine, either
Toyota hasn't been the same since about 2010.
Im curious, if you put it in 4-low, will it scream at you constantly? The one i drove would beep incessantly if you dared to put it in 4-low. It was also a TuRD "off-road" model.
oh and the traction control could'nt be fully turned off so when in sugar sand and a tire slipped, you were greeted by the ABS trying to help. The ABS was on the drivers side fender/firewall and sounded like someone hammering on the truck. Just a really terrible experience.
Here's a photo I shot this afternoon at a four-way stop. I held my phone against my eyes, so this is exactly the driver's line of sight.
See the approaching traffic from the left? Exactly.
So I picked up the truck from Tom this morning. My first impression, wow this thing is big. It looks big, and drives big and I think a big issue for me is just how high the hood is. That being said, it is a comfortable place to be, at least in the drivers seat. One big plus in my eyes is the amount of physical buttons and the layout made sense. 
As long as we're piling on, you also have to consider the reputation the new engine is getting for eating the #1 crank bearing within 30k. Factory longblock replacement at the dealership is $30-40k job if you're paying out of pocket.
I love my 2006 Tundra, and I'm going to keep on loving it until it just won't go.
Now that the Tundra is out of my driveway, I'm back to driving my electric F-150. Obviously I'm a fan, since I bought one.
Ignore the powertrain, which I wasn't a fan of, and here's the difference I see between the Toyota and the gasoline F-150's I've driven: Every single part of the F-150 seems to be the result of a focus group of people who actually use the truck to do truck stuff. The two vehicles are pretty similar on paper, but vastly different in real world use. From little stuff like which side of the bed the power outlet is on (Ford's is designed for right-handed people standing on the ground, Toyota's seems deigned for left-handed people standing on a step stool) to big stuff like Ford's drastically smaller mirrors that don't block forward vision but also have a far better field of view for towing. When you hook a trailer to the Ford, it walks you through enabling all of the driving assists--adjusted for the trailer--you paid extra for. When you hook a trailer to the Toyota, a message pops up saying it's disabled everything because you're towing. The Tundra has a big hump in middle of the rear floor, which isn't a deal-killer for hauling people but means you can't stack rubbermaid bins on a flat floor like you can in my truck.
I didn't test the Tundra off-road, which is what it's apparently made for. But ignore the lift and big tires, and I just don't see why you'd pick this over an F-150 if you're going to use a pickup truck as a pickup truck.
In reply to Tom Suddard :
I can't confirm it either way, but that sounds like the Tundra was designed by people who normally design cars, not trucks.
In reply to Colin Wood :
It feels very similar in interior design to my parents Toyota Highlander, so yeah I think you might be on to something here.
Chris Tropea said:In reply to Colin Wood :
It feels very similar in interior design to my parents Toyota Highlander, so yeah I think you might be on to something here.
This is one of my biggest criticisms. The tundra feels like a bloated camry. Soft and numb.
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