Toyota Adds Power to Full-Size Pickup

Toyota Motor Corp. has introduced its new entry in the full-size pickup market now dominated by the U.S. Big Three.

The Japanese auto maker showed off the V-8-powered pickup truck, named Tundra, at the Indiana State Fair last week.

“In America, particularly in the Midwest, full-sized pickup trucks rule,” Don Esmond, vice president for Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc., said at a news conference.

The truck, to be assembled at a plant under construction north of Evansville, Ind., will reach showrooms in late May as a year 2000 model.

The Tundra will offer an optional 4.7-liter V-8 engine to compete against the Ford F-150, Dodge Ram, Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups.

List price for the Tundra has not been set. “It’s really too early to say where we’ll set the price,” Esmond said.

An industry analyst said the Tundra will have much ground to make up against its U.S. competition.

“I think their past pickup truck efforts have suffered, at least by comparison with GM, Ford and Chrysler entries in the field,” said industry analyst David B. Healy of Burnham Securities.

Toyota’s current full-size offering, the T-100, was equipped only with four- or six-cylinder engines and drew criticism for lack of power when compared with the V-8-equipped models built by the Big Three. The T-100 was introduced in 1993 and will be replaced by the Tundra.

The full-size Tundra will be available in two- or four-wheel drive, be powered by a V-6 or V-8 engine, offer a standard or four-door extended cab and come equipped with dual air bags with a passenger-side cutoff switch.

“They’re not going to woo away a lot of die-hard Ford and GM loyalists. But they’re going to put out a good product, and it certainly will improve their market share,” Healy said.

Toyota had planned to call the new full-size pickup the T-150, but officials at Ford Motor Co. objected to the name as too similar to that of its F-150.

Toyota dropped the T-150 name in a deal that included Ford’s agreement to rename the Lincoln LS-6 and LS-8 as simply the LS. Toyota thought the original Lincoln names sounded too much like that of one of its luxury cars, the Lexus LS-400.