First Drive: 2007 Toyota Tundra

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Toyota says its truck-building heritage can be summed up in the phrase, "Never Quit." That's an effective way of encapsulating the stubbornness with which Toyota seems to approach building trucks for the competitive North American market. While the brand's trucks are largely beyond reproach in terms of durability, Toyota has yet to sell a full-size truck here that's been a serious competitor to the big trucks built by the Big Three domestics.

The first "full-size" Toyota, the 1993 T100, was significantly smaller than domestic full-sizers of the time, and didn't even offer a V8 engine - a serious no-no for a "big" pickup. A V8 wouldn't become available until the first-generation Tundra arrived for the 2000 model year, but even then with only 245 horsepower and 315 lb-ft of torque (later models were uprated to 282 horses and about 320 lb-ft), that motor was outclassed by the big-bore motors offered by domestic competitors.

Toyota Canada officials admit that, as a result, the company has never been able to snag more than three per cent of the Canadian full-size pickup truck market, with the Tundra selling no more than 3,000 copies each year. With the second-generation Tundra about to go on sale in North America, Toyota brought Canadian journalists together in London, Ontario to drive the new truck for the first time.


The fact that Toyota chose to launch the Tundra in southern Ontario just before the Detroit auto show is no accident. DaimlerChrysler, Ford and General Motors all have operations in southern Ontario, and Detroit is the home of the North American auto industry. Toyota obviously has its sights set on Dodge, Ford and General Motors with this truck, which is being built in Texas, which is also significant.

For the first time, Toyota might actually have a product that will make a dent in the domestics' market dominance - and they're building it on the domestics' home turf: the trucks themselves are being built at the San Antonio, Texas plant that Toyota opened in November as well as at the Princeton, Indiana plant that was slated to open in January. The Tundra's motors are built in Alabama and the transmissions are assembled in North Carolina. If that's not enough, engineering development was done in Ann Arbor, Michigan and the styling was drawn up at Toyota's Calty design centres in California and Ann Arbor. It all adds up to what Toyota calls the "most North American new product launch" in the company's history.

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