What We Learned After Testing a Toyota Tundra for 40,000 miles from maestro don starface trio trio Watch Video

⏲ Duration: 11:28
✓ Published: 25-May-2024

Description:
It's not easy to sell full-size pickups to truck-lovin' Americans unless you're an American brand. When we added a 2023 Tundra Hybrid Limited to our long-term fleet last year, we knew Toyota didn't design it to topple the Detroit Three. Yet we wondered if the reinvented Tundra could shrink the gap between itself and America's favorite pickups. After 40,000 miles, we have an answer.<br/><br/>The Tundra got a top-to-bottom redesign for 2022 that brought a more chiseled body and a Peterbilt's schnoz. It dropped the old V-8 in favor of a trio of V-6s, adopted a sturdier ladder frame, and replaced the rear leaf springs with coil springs. <br/><br/>The rear-suspension change helped transform the ride from jittery to buttery, especially with the optional load-leveling rear air suspension. Our Tundra was so equipped, and its smooth-driving nature received tons of logbook praise, with one staffer even comparing it to a Ram 1500—currently the benchmark in the segment. Not only did the Tundra's ride rival that perennial 10Best winner, but whether tooling around town or shuttling families across the country, we thought it drove more like a big SUV than a body-on-frame truck. That might not be a selling point for pickup purists, but it should be for everyone else.