All New Toyota Tundra

It’s a humongous combination of the Taco in front and 4Runner on the sides of the front.

I like it. It’s going to be easy to make these things look crazy awesome. And it doesn’t look like a lame attempt at being an American wannabe anymore.

Line. Drawn. In. Sand.

One of the biggest reasons five of my last six company field crew trucks were vans and the sixth was a Colorado long bed.

But I'm not the market anymore and know that. Pickups are primarily family grocery getters and play vehicles now.

My mistake. I went back and looked, and both of the trucks are Super Crew - full four doors. Each has a few options. Towing package and cruise, but not much else.

And as far as 4x4 goes. I live in Minnesota. The only people running 2wd trucks are municipal workers and parts runners - essentially fleet vehicles.
I'd say at least 95% of trucks on the road here are 4wd. I know I couldn't pull my boat out of the shitty gravel launch we use with a rwd truck.

My point is, that even for a base model full size truck, that's a LOT of money.

I imagine the new Tundra will sell well, in spite of its front styling, simply because it's a very good truck.

I pull my trailer with a "race" car in it. I put my dual sport and my son's dirt bike in the bed. I put my dual sport on the rear hitch when solo. I towed my BMW bike on a U-Haul trailer. I carry a bunch of spare tires in the bed when I go to the track. I could have done a lot of that with an SUV but the truck is super convenient.

I don't love it but whether someone else thinks I should own it or not is none of their business.

I think its the same reason the cars have a flat front. Supposed to protect pedestrians if they get hit. My guess is they'd turn into a pile of red mush filtered through the grill.

Yuck.

You must have a pretty big boat? When I was a kid my Dad pulled our 16' Glastron ski boat up the shitty gravel ramps at Lake Minnetonka and various others with a VW Scirocco.

I'll exclude myself from your assessment but, generally speaking, yes.

As I've stated multiple times, best bang for the pickup truck buck remains a 3/4 ton, though even those are becoming grocery getters.

The thing I don't like about my 3rd gen Tundra is that it does not like being grossly overloaded; never felt that way about an F150 or F250.

I've finally concluded that the Tundge really is nothing but a Sequoia without the rear seating.

Not at all interested in the newest version which, AFAIK, does not have a work truck package configuration because, as it was explained to me by a salesperson- "the Tundra is intended to be a premium truck experience." .

Blow me.

I was able to buy a reasonably priced truck just a couple of years ago. I wanted a truck for hauling lumber, navigating logging roads around deer/elk camp, and pulling a trailer sometimes. So my criteria was a 6.5' bed, 4WD, and ~10k towing. I didn't need a crew cab or luxury features. A cheaper truck with decent towing was a unicorn at the GM/Ford/FCA/Nissan dealers, but the local Toyota dealer had many to choose from <$40k. I bought my 2017 Tundra SR5 double cab 5.7L 4WD brand new for $32.6k. I financed it at 2% and it's long-since paid off. Sure, the fuel economy sucks but I drive it less than 4k miles per year so big whoop. It gets driven when I need a truck, and should serve me for many years.

I understand why Toyota wants to complete with the big guys. I just hope they continue to build a few useful, affordable trucks in addition to the $50k+ luxury brodozers.

That had to be some time ago. I don't think there are anything resembling gravel ramps left on Minnetonka. (of course most boats out there now are about $75-100k).

Mine is an 18' 1971 Starcraft. The issue is the launch more so than the boat. Where we put in every weekend at our cabin is honestly quite terrible. I do think a FWD truck, like the new Maverick would pull it out. But I had a RWD 1966 F100 that I used to launch with, and it didn't exactly work very well. I don't really need a full size truck, but it was a really good deal when I bought it. With wife/kid/black lab in the truck, a smaller cab would be uncomfortable.

My truck is a 2014 F150XL 4x4. Super cab w/base six cyl. Former fleet truck. I bought it 2018 with 115,000 on it for $16k. It just turned 170,000 with basically no issues other than maintenance. I did have to replace the trailer wiring harness and a 4wd actuator, which I did myself - under $100. I do have a dent in the side of the bed, and as I said, I'm constantly dealing with some rust issues behind the rear doors.

I'm seriously considering looking at what it would cost to get all the rust fixed considering the cost of newer trucks.

They took the ugliest front end features of a Silverado and a Super Duty and put them together.

Ugly, even by truck standards. But I do like the sound of a 3.5L twin turbo engine. Love the ego boost in my F-150. Turbo's rule the west (at least in the mountains at higher elevation).

However, Toyota's 3.5TT looks weak compared to fords 3.5TT. You have to get Toyota's hybrid 3.5TT to match Fords numbers on their non-hybrid 3.5TT.

Competition is good, even if it's ugly.

Christ, that's one ugly truck.

Technically, if you haven't sold the stock/bond/whatever, you haven't made anything yet.

The US stock market has an approx average annual return of 12% which is about 8% adjusted for inflation. It's almost doubled since 2017 and has been on a bull run since it recovered from the housing crisis. There have also been lost decade/s where the market languished.

So IMO cash/finance decision really depends on your finances and investment/retirement time horizon. If you can invest $50K into the market over 20-30 years (finance your truck/s) you will most likely come out ahead vs paying cash.

I regretted paying cash for my F150 3 years ago, so when the wife bought a Jeep this summer we used our equities as collateral (margin loan) to purchase the Jeep at 1.5% interest. We don't have to pay any principle, just interest so her $55K jeep cost us just $825 per year. But we get to keep that $55K invested where it should be compounding @ 12% (averaged over 20-30 year period).

Obviously this is not an option for everyone, but if you have enough invested in a brokerage account, you can use that to unlock some bargain basement financing options.

I like the new Tundra design.

I have seen 25 million threads on new vehicle releases and everyone slams the design then 6 months later say how great it looks in person and the dealer can't get you one since they are sold out everywhere.

I love my 2020 F150 but came close to a Tundra last year when I was shopping. Getting $14k off the price of the F150 is really the only reason I didn't get the Toyota (could only get a couple grand off that one).

Any I paid cash for my new truck, one of the reasons I got the killer price. I've financed, leased and paid cash for vehicles but I like the freedom of paying cash whether or not its the best financial decision. If I want to trade it in I don't have to worry about liens or being underwater on the value.

And I live in the country and tow and haul regularly. This week it was my ATV in the bed, last week I picked up a heavy chain harrow, etc. Went from a $90k Mercedes to an F150 and prefer it in many ways.

Yep, 1970s. There were two different gravel ramps on Grays Bay we used, both of which aren't there any more. To be fair, he only had to tow the boat from Eden Prairie so it wasn't exactly a long haul for the Scirocco. Although he did haul the boat up to Breezy Point north of Brainerd a couple of times too.

Does your F150 have electric or hydraulic power steering? My son has a 2014 F150 with the 3.5L TT, EPS, and 80k miles. The EPS failed a few weeks ago and he learned that:

A) This is apparently a common failure around those miles, and

B) The EPS rack has no serviceable parts, so you have to replace the whole rack for $1500 plus labor.

I imagine replacing the steering rack is made even more fun on a Minnesota truck with rusty steering and suspension components. Something to think about.

I would also argue that it depends on the interest rate you can get vs. the rate of inflation. Even if you're not terribly savvy about investing, if you can finance a vehicle at 2% and the inflation rate is at 3% (and actually much higher right now) you're money ahead because the bank bears the cost of inflation.

This is why when my wife wants an expensive new phone I use AT&T's payment plan even though I'm perfectly capable of paying for the phone outright. They finance phones at 0%, so AT&T bears the cost of inflation instead of me.