Author Archive for Jason Lancaster

Special Ordering a New Tundra – The Skinny

Here’s the deal with “special ordering” a new Toyota. Technically, it’s possible. Realistically, it’s often too much trouble to bother with.

Toyota, unlike domestic manufacturers, doesn’t build trucks to a dealer’s spec. Instead, before one vehicle is built, Toyota determines the number of red ones, the number of 4×4’s, the number of limiteds, etc. that they’re going to build. As the trucks are produced and sold, Toyota may (or may not) tweak their pre-determined production numbers based on sales rates and commodity availability. Witness the beginning of the 07′ model year — Toyota was producing quite a few regular cab Tundras in a “fleet” configuration because they anticipated a lot of fleet sales. Unfortunately, the demand for reg cabs was low, so Toyota’s first incentive was $1,000 on all regular cab Tundras.

In short, Toyota doesn’t build trucks based on orders. They build trucks based on what they want to build. It’s not a bad system — it’s been working for them for decades — it’s just not the way the “big 3” do it.

To continue the story…A Toyota dealer gets a build list from Toyota that tells them what trucks they’ll be getting in the next two or three months. If the dealer wants to “order” a truck, they make a special request. Depending upon Toyota’s pre-determined mix, the truck might be built right away, might be built if a certain commodity is in excess, or it might not ever be built. If Toyota has determined the configuration being requested isn’t something they’re willing to build, the order will go unfulfilled. Hence, the term “special order” isn’t really applicable to a Toyota. It’s more accurate to describe it as a “please make this request.”

SO, when a dealer says they’re taking your order for a new Toyota, what they’re ACTUALLY saying is that they’re going to keep an eye open for an inbound truck that matches your specs and try and fill your order that way. They’ll also “preference” an order for your truck, but that may be a meaningless gesture (as explained above). Don’t get us wrong — that’s not a slam on dealers. They’re doing the best they can with the system they have. It’s just not what people think it is.

A lot of people find that when they discuss ordering a new car with a Toyota salesperson, the salesperson seems to be uninterested. The reason salespeople walk away when a person mentions “special order” is that it can take 2-6 months for that unit to come in. Most salespeople have an attention span that is measured in minutes, not months, so they’re not interested in working hard for a deal that might not happen for a few months (if it ever happens).

So what does it all mean? Basically, if you want to order a Tundra, make sure you’re asking for something that’s “normal.” If you want a truck that’s dramatically different than every truck you’re seeing on your local car lot, your chances of getting what you want are pretty slim.

Possible Bed Bounce CURE

Great news! One of our readers, Matthew Davis, has come up with a way to dampen and CURE the Tundra’s bed bounce cheaply and simply — check out his full explanation and PICTURES below:

Hello everyone. I am the owner of a 2007 Tundra double cab 4X4 with the 5.7 engine. I have noticed the bed vibration since shortly after purchasing the truck in July. I had some time on my hands the other day, so I got up under the truck to see if I could identify the source of the vibration. Those of you who own this truck can go and grab the rear bumper and shake it up and down vigorously and you will observe independent motions of the bed and the cab. I began to realize that the frame of this truck has a harmonic frequency with a pivot point between the engine/transmission area and the rear axle area of the frame. (Visualize a guitar string.) You can get into the bed of the truck and stand directly over the rear axle and jump up and down, and you will find that it is almost impossible to make the same vibration that you can easily achieve by applying pulsating pressure to the bumper or open tailgate.

I thought about the idea of attaching some sort of weight to the rear bumper area, but as I considered the idea, I realized that this would only change the frequency of the vibration, but would not necessarily dampen it. It might even make the vibration more intense in the cab. So I thought about the idea of somehow canceling out the harmonics of the frame by creating a dampening device with a slightly different harmonic frequency attached to the area of the frame behind the rear axle as close to the bumper as possible. The logic here is that if you could CAUSE the frame to vibrate from this point, then it should be possible to DAMPEN the vibration from the same point.

I decided to use the spare tire for this purpose so as not to increase the weight of the vehicle. I lowered the spare tire a few inches from the frame, and I cut out two pieces of high density rubber foam and placed them in between the tire and the part of the frame that the tire is pressed against. (I used one of those kneeling pads that you use for working on hard surfaces on your knees.)

The pad:

(Click for larger view)

(Click for larger view)

There are four points at which the tire contacts the frame. I placed the foam on the rear points and let the front portion of the tire remain in its original position against the brackets that prevent the tire from moving forward. I then re-tightened the tire to where the foam was snug between the tire and the frame. (The tire should be tight enough that it does not rattle.) The tire holder at the end of the cable is spring loaded so it will accommodate some slight movement. This setup allowed the tire to

Diesel Tundra Update: Diesel Tundra Likely in 2009

UPDATE – This post is out-of-date – see the latest news on the Diesel Tundra for more info.

Isuzu and Toyota made a recent announcement about a diesel they’re developing that shines some light on their development of a diesel Toyota Tundra.

GOOD NEWS: While not specifically having anything to do with the Tundra, Toyota’s recent announcement (see link below) contains some enlightening information. The press release indicates that Toyota and Isuzu can recuperate diesel development costs even if the diesel engine they’ve developed only sells 20k units per year. If Toyota can recover their R&D costs on on such a small number of engines, the sales volume needed to justify producing a diesel variant of the Tundra is probably lower than we estimated in our last discussion of a Diesel Toyota Tundra.

If we conservatively assume that Toyota will need to sell 40k diesel engines per year to cover R&D costs, Toyota only needs to boost Tundra sales by 20% to reach their “break-even” point. In 2006, Dodge sold 150k diesels, GM 200k, and Ford about 320k diesel powered pickups. Granted, some of those vehicles were “fleet” heavy duty offerings that Toyota may not compete with, but if Toyota only reaches 10% diesel market share, they’ll more than break-even on their diesel development costs.

Is this an indicator that Toyota is producing a Diesel Tundra? We think so — Toyota continues to demonstrate interest and investment in the diesel market, and the pending passage of new CAFE regulations requiring better fuel economy encourage Toyota to put more emphasis on diesel technology. Considering that Toyota Vice President Kazuo Okamoto has stated the Tundra is going to be Toyota’s first U.S. diesel, consider this another sign that a Diesel Tundra is coming ASAP.

Why do you think the Diesel Tundra will debut in 2009? The industry consensus is that engine development takes 2 – 3 years. Toyota announced a partnership with Isuzu to develop diesel engines in June of this year, the idea being that Toyota would be able to bring diesel variants to market faster with Isuzu’s help. If R&D for a diesel Tundra began immediately after the partnership with Isuzu was solidified, (which is easy to imagine based on the Tundra’s sales performance this year) that would mean that the Tundra diesel engine will be ready for production in 2009 or 2010. We believe that Toyota will most likely assemble the new Tundra diesel engine from components already available, making 2 years a likely time frame.

How big will the Tundra’s diesel engine be? It’s still a mystery. Toyota may be adapting a diesel for the U.S. from one currently in production somewhere else in the world, or they may be developing a completely new engine. The 2007 Tundra Diesel SEMA concept featured an 8.0L Hino engine, but we doubt that will be the final offering…Ford is planning to offer a 4.4L diesel in the F150 in 2010, and Ford will offer a slightly larger version in their SuperDuty line. Certainly not anything as big as the 8.0L Hino though — such a big engine would only worsen emissions and fuel economy. Expect the Tundra diesel in the 6.0L range, with the possibility that Toyota’s first diesel might be a little smaller than everyone else’s (just like their first V8 was).

We’ll continue to update you about diesel development as more information comes in. Read the press release.

Sweet Zero to Fifty Five Tundra Video

Nice video of Will Travis racing his blue 07′ Reg. Cab.

Find more videos like this on TundraHeadquarters Social Network

I like the smell of burning rubber in the morning. Smells like…victory.

How Long Before Toyota’s Drive Themselves with Robotics?

Toyota Motor Company has a history of innovation. They debuted a production hybrid car in 1997 (the Prius). They built one of the world’s most sophisticated assembly plants in Mikawa Bay, Japan, called Tahara, back in 1979. The Tahara plant is now estimated to be the world’s best quality auto production facility, with fewer defects per vehicle than any plant in the world. Of course, in 2007, Toyota debuted the new Tundra, the most powerful half-ton truck on the market today.

So, like I said, they’ve got a history of innovation.

We’ve already reported that Toyota is excited about the potential of their personal robot, and how they plan to develop a completely new industry. However, we’ve seen evidence that they intend to apply much of the technology developed with robotics integrated into new vehicles. Here’s a list of the new features you can expect:

1) Optical Recognition: What’s really stopping your car from driving itself? The on-board computer already controls every aspect of the drive train, and with the advent of ABS, traction control, and stability control, most vehicles can (and do) steer and accelerate themselves as needed. On board navigation systems, when combined with a local radio location signal, can pinpoint the position of your vehicle to within a few inches as it drives down the road.

If you car can stop, steer, accelerate, and know exactly where it is, why can’t it drive itself?

Because it’s completely and totally blind — at least for now. Optical recognition technologies are evolving. Originally pioneered by the defense department for guided missiles, computers with CCD sensors can now easily distinguish between shapes and colors. We’ve all heard of the face-recognizing cameras in Las Vegas, right? Continued investment in robotics will lead to better optical recognition technology, ultimately allowing a vehicle to “see” where it’s going using relatively inexpensive electronics.

2) Immediate Obstacle Awareness: Robots deployed in your home need to know what’s within the immediate area at all times. A variety of technologies can be used to achieve this, but a sophisticated radar-type system (significantly better than the sonic technology currently used in parking sensors) is needed to help keep a robot from running into a table leg, your foot, or your dog. This technology can (and will) be applied to vehicles. There’s a very good chance that “Collision Avoidance” will be an option that we’ll find on the window sticker in 10 years or less.

3) Robot-to-robot communication: If all our cars could see what’s in front of them and detect obstacles around them, it’s a short leap of the imagination to assume they’ll be able to communicate that information with each other. A high-speed wireless vehicle network could be used to share all this data amongst 100’s of vehicles, allowing them to function more efficiently. Theoretically, they could weave in between each other at high speed, negating stop signs, traffic signals, etc. All of our cars would move amongst each other like packets of bits do on the internet. Flying from point to point carefully navigated by a network of computers.

Imagine special ordering a new truck in 2022 — “I’ll take the Limited model with obstacle detection and avoidance, self-driving mode, and the Vehicle-to-Vehicle network package. I’d also like a sunroof.”