As mentioned in our first look at the Tundra, Toyota pulled off the gloves with their new full-sized pickup and made it just as big as its USA nameplate rivals and even went so far as to begin manufacturing them in Texas, of all places. And Toyota isn’t just going after the recreational pickup truck owner, someone moving up from the Tacoma or another mid-sized Japanese pickup. Toyota engineers and designers slogged through construction sites and dodged cowpies to find what real truck users needed. After all, the casual driver can use a work-ready pickup, but someone who needs a work truck can’t make do with less. At least not for very long.

So the Tundra had to meet the standards of the work truck user and in fact, go beyond them to earn the trust of those who depend on their truck for a living.

We can’t give you the answer to that question. We can, however, report on what it’s like to use Toyota’s work-ready pickup on a day-to-day basis. Our tester was a 2008 Toyota Tundra CrewMax SR5 4×4, a big white - did we mention is was big? - pickup with the optional off-road suspension.

We discovered that it was big - did we say so? - but overall not a bad place to be. See what we mean in our authentic carbuzzard.com review of the 2008 Toyota Tundra CrewMax SR5 4×4. And be sure to tell us (look down this page) what you think.

Posted in Toyota, Tundra, car review, pickup, road test by admin on April 17th, 2008

We’ll confess to the guilty pleasure of been relieved of an albatross of a vehicle by having that car totalled in an accident (note: no injuries) that was someone else’s fault. The bit of guilt comes from knowing that someone’s rates probably went up as a result, but then there’s that check in hand.

But never would we ever deliberately cause damage to our car to collect an insurance payout because (a) it’s a crime and (b) it just ain’t right. We know there are crooks out there that do that kind of thing…but most people, we’d like to believe, are suffiently honest not to commit insurance fraud.

So we were baffled at first by the Toyota television ads that had people rolling rocks on their car or tying a rope to their truck for it to be pulled off the ferry so they could buy a new car. Why, we thought, would they not just trade the old car in? Surely Toyota can’t be suggesting that their potential customers should  commit insurance fraud. more

Posted in Toyota, advertising, government, insurance by admin on December 28th, 2007

The ninth generation of Toyota Corolla was not so much old, though it definitely had outstayed its welcome, as it had become boring. If fact, say that bo-ring, with the emphasis on the first syllable, as in Beauregard. Not grammatically correct, perhaps, but more exciting to talk about than the Corolla was to drive.

Not that economy cars have any right to be exciting or even entertaining, but there’s no reason why frugal wheels must be Exhibit A in a mattress commercial. And that’s what the Corolla had become: a rolling snooze. Need any more proof? Scion is Toyota’s confession that its smaller offerings had induced enthusiasm comas among the young.

But is the 2008 Corolla salvation from the previous generation’s lack of excitement? Or if it is, is that necessarily a good thing? Read the John Matras review of the 2008 Toyota Corolla and give us your opinion.

Posted in Toyota, car review, road test by admin on December 27th, 2007

We always thought that advertising was supposed to persuade you to do something, or perhaps not do something (for example, “This is your mind…”), by giving some compelling reason. The first step of marketing, we recall reading, is motivation.

We are somewhat bemused, then, to learn that the new advertising theme for Toyota will be, “Why not?” more

Posted in Toyota, advertising by admin on November 5th, 2007