Goodbye Toyota V-8

[jmbopp]

I had a F150 with the 3.5. A good truck, only one unscheduled repair (sensor), way better than my wife's Venza. Now I have a F250 6.2, my first V-8 since '73. Love the rumble, hate the mileage.

[Bamaman]

Gear ratios are just relative when a manufacturer is running a 10 speed automatic with the top three gears being overdrive.

You bet that 5.7 is a fine engine, and I'm a Toyota/Lexus owner. But there's really no reason Toyota didn't re-engineer this engine for performance equal to the Big 3 gasoline engine offerings. Only thing I can think of is that Toyota's going to be going in a different direction on truck and big Lexus sedans' engines.

And all the while, Toyota wonders why their full size truck sales are dismal, but the mid size Tacoma sales are great.

They should have learned a lesson from Nissan who didn't upgrade their bodies and engines until the Big 3 left them in the dirt. Ford sells more F series trucks in a week than Nissan 1/2 ton trucks are sold in a year.

[FordmanNJ]

And all the while, Toyota wonders why their full size truck sales are dismal, but the mid size Tacoma sales are great.

The reason why Tacomas sales are good is because they essentially cornered the market when Ford dropped the Ranger in 2011. Toyota was the last compact standing. Since GM and Dodge/Ram dropped their compact trucks several years before Ford. They have the reputation for dependability. So they took off even more since no one else were making that size truck. I seen contractor services like for the cable company either dump their Rangers for full sized vans or start integrating Tacomas into their fleet. Most of the time it was vans since Toyota is not really known for fleet sales. They commanded a higher price unlike the big 3. Vans were cheaper to source out. This is how it was explained to me in a nutshell by a couple of sources.

I will have to talk to my neighbor about this. He is a Toyota master tech.

[WhittleBurner]

One of neighbors came home with a new Ford Ranger rental the other day. Like the looks of it but haven't had a chance to talk to him to see how he likes it tough. Sure is a lot bigger than what they used to be. Closer to the size of the Colorado.

[Bamaman]

I had a couple of Rangers back in the old days, and they were great trucks. My daughter just outgrew the back seat of the Supercab.

Seems like the 4x4 version of either truck is very good. But that turbocharged 4 cylinder in the Ranger is just the boss. Throw a 5 Star tune on it, and you're good for 5.9 seconds 0-60 mph. That's some serious performance.

I presently have a Lexus and the new generation Camry Hybrid. Toyota's are just so good that they continue to sell in spite of other brands' much better styling. The lines on the Tacoma pickup trucks are pretty ghastly.

[FordmanNJ]

I talked to my neighbor about the turbo'ed toyota engine. His response was he knows nothing but due to the Covid they have not had updated training services. Basically they are on the need to know for right now. If was coming out, he is usually one of the first techs in the shop to get any updated service training.

[backtrack2015]

I was chatting with the Toyota dealer here in Austin back in January about a few Toyota products (Supra, Land Cruiser, and Tundra). When the Tundra came up in the discussion, the dealer said the new 3.5L turbo V6 was coming in 2022. I had heard that rumor and inquired about the payload capacity (abysmal on the current crew-cab) and he said they were shooting for 2600 lbs payload with the new crew-cab trucks. If that's true, I think the Tundra will be a much bigger player in the market. I've never been able to seriously look at the Tundra due to the payload limits, and I'm sure there are many other buyers out there with the same concerns.

[DaveMatthewsBand]

I’ve owned several models from the big 3 over 20 years then switched to Toyota and boy what a massive shift in reliability. The next ten years that’s all I owned and I was sold. The ONLY reason I’m not driving one now is the fact that they don’t offer a diesel one ton. I don’t care if a Tundra has 2,300 or 3,300# of payload, it’ll never have an exhaust brake or the massive torque I am comfortable with (towing) until they come out with a diesel. I’m sure if they did, it would be a beast and just as reliable as everything else they build... and I wouldn’t be forced to settle for a Chevy, Dodge or Ford!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[That 1 Ron]

I own a 2017 Tundra with the 5.7. The mpg’s aren’t great but they are inline or even better in some situations than what my 2012 ecoboost f150 was getting. I’m even running larger, heavier tires on my Tundra. The available payload is low on the tundra but we make it work for now. It does tow a loaded trailer better than the f150- the f150 seemed to squirm more than I liked when towing, even with the max-tow package and LRE tires. I did mostly like that f150 but by 40k miles, it just became really unreliable and I was on a first name basis with the service guys at ford. We just couldn’t trust it so it had to go. So far, the Tundra has been reliable. I hope whatever direction toyota takes the Tundra, it remains reliable, powerful and hopefully with some more available payload.

Edit- that being said, I’ve been eyeing those 7.3 SD fords , especially with the Tremor package, simply for the increased payload. The power, torque, hp, and exhaust brake of the PS diesel intrigues me but I don’t want to have to deal with all the possible and likely emissions issues. I’m still a little gun-shy about owning another ford though.

[Calbar]

I own a 2017 Tundra with the 5.7. The mpg’s aren’t great but they are inline or even better in some situations than what my 2012 ecoboost f150 was getting. I’m even running larger, heavier tires on my Tundra. The available payload is low on the tundra but we make it work for now. It does tow a loaded trailer better than the f150- the f150 seemed to squirm more than I liked when towing, even with the max-tow package and LRE tires. I did mostly like that f150 but by 40k miles, it just became really unreliable and I was on a first name basis with the service guys at ford. We just couldn’t trust it so it had to go. So far, the Tundra has been reliable. I hope whatever direction toyota takes the Tundra, it remains reliable, powerful and hopefully with some more available payload.

Edit- that being said, I’ve been eyeing those 7.3 SD fords , especially with the Tremor package, simply for the increased payload. The power, torque, hp, and exhaust brake of the PS diesel intrigues me but I don’t want to have to deal with all the possible and likely emissions issues. I’m still a little gun-shy about owning another ford though.

Your experience with the Tundra was similar to mine. Gas mileage real world seemed almost as good as a friend of mine's F150 Ecoboost and not far off the average for fuelly F150 Ecoboosts. My friend had lots of reliability issues at 100K miles with turbo and transmission. Had transmission issues when new too. My Tundra was very reliable and handle the trailers I have had very well and was very stable.

Rob