2008 Motor Trend Truck of the Year Winner: Toyota Tundra

2008 Motor Trend Truck of the Year Winner: Toyota Tundra

The F-150, Ram, and Silverado guys had better get out of the rain

By Mark WilliamsPhotography by Robert Kerian

When Toyota first announced it was coming out with a full-size pickup truck to go head to head with the big boys from Ford, Chevy, and Dodge, the question arose as to whether an import could truly compete as a heavyweight. The answer is in: The new Toyota Tundra is now ready to take on any American-made pickup truck -- on all levels.

Superiority? Toyota is pulling no punches by introducing one of the biggest, strongest, and most capable vehicles in the segment, as well as investing billions in a new state-of-the-art manufacturing plant in the heart of truck country-San Antonio, Texas. Significance? With Toyota looking to more than double its presence in the hotly contested half-ton marketplace, the Tundra represents one of the most highly anticipated new vehicle launches in many years -- car or truck. Value? The new Tundra offers three different powertrains (one V-6 and two V-8s), with the 5.7-liter V-8 a high-tech wonder and torque monster -- and is among the most powerful engines in any half-ton configuration. Toyota's platform has the entire segment covered with three different bed sizes, three separate wheelbases covering five different cab and bed configurations, combined with three different trim packages (Tundra Grade, SR5, and Limited) in 4x4 and 4x2 drivetrains -- 44 different truck flavors to interested buyers, from work truck to luxury touring.

Offering that kind of variety right out of the gate is impressive and ambitious; in fact, some might say too ambitious. The recent launch of the new Tundra has not been without a few hiccups. Several months ago, an early output of camshafts in the 5.7-liter V-8 were failing. Toyota tells us they traced down all the affected parts to a specific batch and have since made the corrections to the design. No failures have surfaced since. More recently, there have been some reports of transmission shudder under certain low-speed conditions, which dealers have traced to a torque converter issue. Toyota says these incidents were isolated and have also been resolved. And finally, there's been chatter on the Internet concerning tailgate problems, which Toyota is in the process of tracking down. Our guess is many of these stories spread like wildfire, given the lightning-rod effect this new truck is having with enthusiasts and the speed with which an Internet item can travel. With all that said, let's take a deeper look at what's special about our 2008 winner.

As mentioned in the introduction to this special section, we ran our contenders through a series of on- and off-road courses at a working Arizona proving-ground facility, subjecting all our test units to a rigorous set of criteria. It was in our work-duty testing that the Tundra first started to catch our attention, with the 5.7-liter V-8 Limited CrewMax Tundra running miles ahead of the competition, with and without a loaded trailer in tow (note our performance analysis in the story and the Tundra's winning Performance Score). The Tundra proved itself a star player in plain dress (Double Cab Tundra Grade, 4.7L V-8; $27K), as well as in fully decked out (CrewMax Limited, 5.7L V-8; $47K). When dressed down, the front bench seating allows for a column shifter and work-truck dash with a dual glovebox and hidden center storage compartment under the center seat. Our fully loaded model had supple leather captain's chairs and a huge center console storage bin, large enough to hold a few laptops and serve as a filing cabinet. The CrewMax model, with its extended passenger cabin, offers a sliding rear seat with drop-forward and slide-forward capability.

One of the more important interior comforts, cabin quiet (while driving on rough roads or at highway speeds) is probably the Tundra's most impressive quality. If there's a quieter truck out there, we haven't driven it. Only two beefs with the interior: the center stack's excessive size and visual split (looks like it's cut in two) and the location of the navigation system almost out of arm's reach for the driver.

Is it the perfect truck? That all depends on what you need, but by offering 44 different flavor choices, Toyota expects to have what you're looking for, stuffing heavy-duty truck capabilities into a half-ton truck that's quiet and strong. After some debate, the majority of our judges agree: The most deserving competitor for Motor Trend's 2008 Truck of the Year title is the all-new Toyota Tundra.