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The Toyota Tundra is a full-size pickup truck introduced by Toyota in the year 2000. It was widely considered to be the first full-size import-brand truck built with an American look and feel and a refined V8 engine. The Tundra was eventually nominated for the North American Truck of the Year award and was Motor Trend magazine's Truck of the Year in 2000 and 2008. Currently the Tundra is assembled in San Antonio, Texas where production was consolidated in 2008. The first generation Tundra had many similarities with the older Toyota T100 and the compact Toyota Tacoma. The biggest of those similarities was the shared use of a 3.4-liter V6 engine which was the top of the line engine in both the Tacoma and T100. The V6 engine would serve as the base engine for the Tundra, while a second powerplant, a first for a Toyota truck, a V8 engine sized at 4.7-liters was added to the lineup. The Tundra was slightly larger than the T100, but still suffered the perception of being too small and carlike to pose a serious threat to the domestic pickup trucks. With a production capacity of 120,000, sales were double the rate of the T100. At the time the Tundra also had the largest initial vehicle sales for Toyota in its history. It garnered impressive honors, including Motor Trend's Truck of the Year award for 2000 and Best Full- Size Truck from Consumer Reports. Built in a new Toyota plant in Princeton, Indiana, with 65 percent domestic content, the Tundra showed that Toyota was serious about closing the gap on the "Big Three" in all major segments.Engine choices available in the Tundra were a 24V 3.4-liter V6 engine that produced 190 horsepower (140 kW) and 220 lb·ft (298 N·m) of torque and an LEV certified 32 valve 4.7-liter "i-Force" V8 engine that produced 245 horsepower (183 kW) and 315 lb·ft (427 N·m) of torque. A Toyota Racing Development (TRD) supercharger was already available for the 3.4-liter V6 (2000-2003 models) that bumped horsepower to the 260 horsepower (190 kW) range and 260 lb·ft (350 N·m) of torque. TRD introduced a second supercharger for the V8 (2000-2003 models) engine late into its second year of production that pushed the V8 numbers to the mid 300 horsepower (220 kW) range and torque to the 400 lb·ft (540 N·m) range. Although the V6 supercharger is still widely available, the V8 supercharger is rarer and harder to find because TRD stopped its production once Toyota released the updated VVT-i equipped 4.7-liter engine.
A larger Tundra was introduced at the 2006 Chicago Auto Show. It had lifted cues of its smaller brother the Toyota Tacoma along with some cues from the Toyota FTX concept truck. The truck had many enhancements, such as a towing capacity of up to 10,000+ lb, a payload capacity of over 2,000 lb (910 kg), a new 5.7-liter 3UR-FE V8 engine mated to a new 6-speed automatic transmission. The second generation Tundra has 3 engines available. The new 5.7-liter V8 that produces 381 horsepower (284 kW) and 401 pound-feet (544 N·m) of torque, and the carry over 4.7-liter 2UZ-FE V8 rated at 276 horsepower (206 kW) and 313 pound-feet (424 N·m) of torque, as well as the previous 4.0-liter 1GR-FE V6 rated at 236 horsepower (176 kW) and 266 pound-feet (361 N·m) of torque. Toyota made the new Tundra useful for many construction workers, by including extra large door handles, deck rail system, integrated tow hitch, and headrests that can fit a worker with his hard hat on. The Tundra also includes as standard: an electronic automatic limited slip differential (Auto LSD), Vehicle Stability Control, traction control, electronic brakeforce distribution, brake assist, anti-lock brakes and tailgate assist. However, its high starting MSRP of $22,390 makes it more expensive than the Chevy Silverado Work Truck (MSRP $17,860) and the base Ford F-150 (MSRP $17,345). Some other changes Toyota included in the new Tundra are optional tow mirrors, a 26.4 US gal (100 L; 22 imp gal) fuel tank, available 22-inch (560 mm) alloy wheels, backup camera, Bluetooth, large center console (big enough to fit a 15-inch (380 mm) laptop), extra-large disc brakes and calipers, and the aforementioned 6-speed sequential automatic transmission. All 5.7-liter Tundras come equipped with a tow package which includes engine oil and transmission coolers, integrated trailer hitch, 4.30:1 axle ratio, and large braking hardware for increased fade resistance.
The Tundra comes equipped with dual front airbags, front row side torso airbags, and rollover sensing side curtain airbags for both the front and rear rows. Vehicle Stability Control, traction control, anti-lock brakes, brake assist, and electronic brakeforce distribution are also standard. For the 2010 model year, a driver and front passenger knee airbag becomes standard. Toyota's Tundra was the first full-size pickup to have earned the IIHS's Top Safety Pick accolade, followed by the redesigned 2009 Ford F-150. In tests conducted by the IIHS, the Tundra received an overall "Good" score in the frontal offset crash test, the highest possible rating in the side impact crash test, and the maximum score for rear crash protection. During September 2007 Toyota Motor Corporation announced plans to add a diesel variant of the Tundra. This was again confirmed in January at the 2008 North American International Auto Show. There Toyota President Watanabe stated, "I am happy to confirm that a new clean-diesel V8 engine will be offered in both the Tundra and the Sequoia in the near future." But later in 2008 at the State Fair of Texas a Toyota official stated the Tundra diesel is on hold due to poorer than expected sales. Motor Trend and Car and Driver, have earlier reported Toyota will produce a heavy-duty version of the Tundra designed to compete in the 3/4-ton class. At the 2007 SEMA auto show, Toyota showcased its Tundra Diesel Dually Project Truck. This heavy-duty Tundra Diesel is based on a heavily modified Tundra Crew Max chassis. It features 8.0L Hino diesel engine, Eaton manual transmission, along with an extensive list of other modifications. High-resolution images are available in autoblog's gallery. During late-2006 Toyota purchased a stake of Isuzu from General Motors. The Duramax V8 engine design currently powers GM's 3/4 ton and 1-ton pickups, but GM's 1/2 ton diesel will be completely designed and built solely by General Motors. The Australian and European version of the Toyota Land Cruiser features a 4.5L diesel which a future Tundra Diesel could be based on. Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe has stated that he would like to develop a hybrid electric version of the Tundra. However, Toyota faces several technical challenges that it must overcome before it could bring such a vehicle to market. According to the Japanese newspaper Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Toyota is considering developing a gasoline electric hybrid Tundra, for sale in North America around 2010. Toyota may also introduce a diesel electric hybrid system for the Tundra. In Japan, the Toyota Dyna and Hino Dutro light trucks produced by the Toyota Motor use diesel electric hybrid systems. The Hino Ranger a medium to heavy duty cab-over truck could also provide hybrid technology for the next generation Tundra. At the 2008 North American International Auto Show, Toyota USA President Jim Lentz stated "different models require different types of fuel saving technology...there may be a few where hybrid technology doesn’t make sense". He further went on to say that the Tundra and the new Sequoia will not be offered with a hybrid engine in the near future, instead those vehicles would feature "clean, fuel efficient diesel engines. For now, it seems, the Tundra Hybrid has been sent back to the drawing board or cancelled entirely.
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