Toyota Tundra
source: shutterstock
The Tundra is the big brother to Toyota’s Tacoma and Hilux, featuring the company’s first V8 powerplant in any of its trucks – and a reputation for extreme reliability to boot. Designed and rolled out of a factory in Indiana in 1999, the Tundra immediately won Motor Trend’s Truck of the Year award. It was an American favorite among foreign makes, thanks to Toyota’s use of 65% domestic parts in its production.
Today, the Tundra ranks as one of the best-selling foreign trucks on the market. Its numerous trims, powerplants, impressive towing capacity, and high safety ratings from the NHTSA make it a great all-around truck for residential and commercial applications. The Tundra is credited with uniquely reliable 4×4 operation thanks to its lacking a center differential. When the truck’s 4×4 is engaged, the Vehicle Stability Control System turns off. This complex system is seen as a weak point by Toyota, so they simply eliminated it altogether. The truck still received a Top Safety Pick award, but its drivetrain’s simplicity adds some peace of mind for owners who want their truck to run reliably, longer.
source: wikipedia
In terms of power, the Tundra has always performed well, too. The Tundra’s biggest powerplant features a large 5.7L V8 and in 2008, Toyota began selling an optional TRD supercharger for the big motor. With the blower installed, the Tundra can push out over 504 HP and 550 pound-feet of torque – more than most regular production vehicles available even today. This same supercharger is shared by the Corvette and Cadillac CTS-V, and it allows the big, heavy Tundra to make an impressive 13 seconds flat in the quarter mile.
In such a competitive truck market, Toyota got creative when it decided to prove the Tundra’s mettle: In 2012, the company struck a deal with NASA to let a single Tundra tow the Space Shuttle Endeavour atop a dolly, across the Manchester Boulevard Bridge. At 172,000 pounds the Shuttle made an impressive towing feat for the Tundra. In other notable accolades, a Tundra has been verified to have clocked over 1,000,000 miles on the odometer.
It was a 2007 Tundra that averaged 125,000 a year, and the dealership that served the truck remarked that its only real maintenance requirements were oil changes (the reserve gear in the transmission needed service at 776,000 miles, too). The owner claims the only lasting issues he’s had with the million-mile Tundra include a small tear in the roof liner and wipers that will only turn on full or off completely, with no intermediate settings working. These feats alone make the Tundra one of the Toughest Trucks on our list.
