One Fast Truck: Toyota Tundra is Big, Heavy ... And Swift

Mar. 11--Six seconds is all it takes to fully appreciate the new Toyota Tundra.

That, in a flash, is the time the 5,200-pound pickup needs to blast to 60 mph, propelled with gusto by a burly new 5.7-liter V-8.

As most of you know, zero-to-60 in six seconds flat is astonishing for a big, lumbering truck. Pickups have long been easy marks for every Gen Y yahoo in a mildly juiced Civic beater. No more.

If you want to see how easily the Tundra races past every truck in the segment -- and most cars -- check out the chart I put together from a recent Car and Driver comparison of full-size pickups.

But will fleet feet be enough to push the Tundra into the big-truck big time? The old Tundra was No. 4 in the five-truck segment, and Toyota hungers for higher pickup sales -- not to mention the average $6,000 to $10,000 profit per truck.

The Japanese automaker anticipates a 60 percent increase in sales of the California-designed pickup that's built in Texas -- to 200,000 trucks. In this extremely competitive, fiercely American segment, that seems a lofty goal.

After spending several days in a two-wheel-drive Tundra, I'm certain the truck will attract more buyers than the old one, which was knocked as a smallish "seven-eighths" pickup. Unlike the Eastern media, I'm not quite ready to crown Toyota king of the world.

Granted, the Tundra is a moose in a segment of giants, standing a garage-scraping 75 inches tall. My black 2007 was a double cab -- a "small" four-door truck -- with the standard bed and 20-inch chrome wheels. It has the same high-sided pickup bed you find on a Ford F-series, and a big-rig grille similar to the up-yours snout on the Dodge Ram.

Some people here at the Daily Planet really liked the Tundra's polarizing "tough" style. But the truck looks a little puffy and exaggerated to me -- kind of like a gym rat who's been on steroids for about a year too long.

But we had no disagreement about that gem of an engine, made possible by a $3 billion to $5 billion investment that Toyota is rumored to have made in the Tundra and the new plant in San Antonio that builds it.

Rated at 381 horsepower and 401 pounds-feet of torque, the motor feels even stronger than the numbers imply. Coupled to a smooth six-speed automatic, this is simply the best powertrain in the pickup segment.

Punch the throttle at any speed -- 5, 40 or 70 mph -- and the truck leaps forward, sometimes with a little wheelspin at lower speeds. It truly distorts reality -- kind of like throwing a saddle on a Clydesdale and racing off with thoroughbreds.

I was less enthusiastic about the interior. The door panels, for example, are black with armrests that match the color of the seats -- tan, in this case. The dashboard was an interesting silver plastic material fitted with classy-looking gauges. But on the other side of the console, the black-on-tan color scheme resumed. The center stack, meanwhile, was shiny black.

Although most of the materials were high-quality stuff and the controls wonderfully logical, the interior was less harmonious than I expected in a $40,333 truck. Maybe Toyota was shooting for postmodern or something.

Once the truck was moving, everything felt fine, including the comfortable leather-wrapped steering wheel. Turn the excellent stereo down, and it's as quiet inside as the George Bush Think Tank, even on rough, rattle-inducing roads.

Also, like the commercial claims, the strong four-wheel disc brakes will leave you hanging ignominiously from your seat belt if you really drop anchor.

Capability has its price, though, and one cost is the truck's ride. If you're expecting carlike, you may be surprised. Think Ford Super Duty meets Toyota Avalon. The ride has lots of heavy-duty truck squirm and some bounce, but it is well damped -- more stiff than rough.

You probably won't have many complaints about the Tundra's claimed fuel economy: 16 miles per gallon city, 20 mpg highway. Those aren't the kinds of numbers that will prompt greenies to run out and dance around big trees, but they are very respectable for a 5,000-pound, Prius-squashing truck.

So do pickup buyers really demand substance over style? If they do, this could be a long, hot summer for the Big Three -- particularly Ford and Dodge. But instead, I'll bet that this is the start of a ferocious, years-long war.

Look for a substantially more powerful V-8 in Ford's new F-150 next year -- maybe the so-called Hurricane motor -- and more polish and power in the next Ram, which should follow the F-150. Count also on six-speed automatic transmissions soon in the new Silverado and Sierra.

And once again, we win.

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