Toyota builds trucks like a big guy

Raleigh, N.C. — IT doesn't surprise me that, after 14 years of stalking the American pickup market, Toyota has finally unleashed full-size pickup hell with its monstrous Toyota Tundra, a truck that goes nose to nose with big-ugly domestics Ford F-150 and Chevy Silverado. Now that I have driven the redesigned 2007 Toyota Tundra — in its most gawdamighty-large configuration, the CrewMax 4X4 SR5 with the 5.7-liter V8 — I can't even raise an eyebrow. It's exactly what I thought it would be: a half-earnest, half-mocking tribute to the American pickup truck, bigger and saccharine-sweeter than its competitors, with major-league engineering (1,590-pound payload capacity in 4x4 trim) and focus-group features galore, including half a dozen of the biggest cup holders this side of the NFL.

By Dan Neil

June 27, 2007