Toyota Wins Texas Distinguished Service Award – Truth in Towing
Tim Esterdahl | Oct 28, 2013 | Comments 14
How important is telling the truth when others don’t? Apparently, so important that you get a “distinguished service award” like Toyota did for being the only automaker to be J2807 compliant.
Knowing exactly how much is safe to tow is vital for the safety of yourself and others around you. Toyota gets this and they were awarded for it.
Toyota says that the standard “developed by the SAE, in agreement with the major automotive manufacturers, the J2807 establishes a single, repeatable test curriculum to determine real-world tow ratings for its body-on-frame vehicles. Prior to the standard, manufacturers had devised their own tests and published their ratings without a third-party guideline.”
“Toyota owners look to us to develop vehicles that meet the highest safety standards, and our voluntary adoption of J2807 helps us deliver on that promise,” said Mike Sweers, chief engineer of the Toyota Tundra and Tacoma, according to a press release. “Tundra owners can tow confidently knowing that the published tow rating has been verified by the industry’s foremost engineering authority. With Tundra, what you see is what you get.”
Interesting to note is that the standard applies to trucks AND towing-equipped SUVs and minivans throughout Toyota’s lineup. This means no matter what Toyota vehicle you tow with, you will know what it can tow exactly.
Towing numbers are often a joke among truck enthusiasts since many automakers do some “magic” math accounting to improve the towing capacity of their trucks without any modifications. The reason? Advertising. The “other” guys try to consistently take the crown of the largest towing in class moniker.
What does all this “magic” math add up to? Trucks that are significantly overloaded thanks to false maximum towing numbers. Congrats to Toyota for not lying to its customers.
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Filed Under: Tundra News
Strike while the iron is hot; Toyota should turn this award into a commercial.
Agreed. So many people only know what the big 3 commercials tell them. The truth shall set you free.
Absolutely!!
Amen. Saw a motorweek review of 2014 Tundra, it closed saying that “the big 3 still do it better”. Still do what better? Lie about tow ratings better?
Yep. Right on point about the lies.
-Tim
As I said it before I am going to say it again, Toyota should take advantage of the Big 3 and call them out. I posted my 2 cents at PUTC and their b$ article down playing the award.
T,
I threw my two cents into that article as well. How is an accurate and truthful towing number NOT a safety issue?
-Tim
Tim,
What is interesting, even quite a few Toyota basher’s are calling them out. The regular T basher’s on the site did not respond to the article either, that is a sign of admission that the article is b$.
Did you notice the the “U.S. Pickup Trucks Makers Struggle in Consumer Reports’ Reliability Study” article? A very Toyota friendly article following the…”article on towing”…
TFL IMO is up and coming and I think PUTC might have to go back to basics to regain its credibility.
In your commercial make sure you put that the other manufacturers can be sued for false towing numbers. By these false statements customers are overloading their trucks by the manufacturer so called fuzy math. Where the hell is Ray LaHood and why hasn’t this POS did anything about these standards. Safety is involved here RAY!
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I’ll give tfltruck credit for asking engineers about the “magic tow dust” they sprinkle on their trucks–the exception being Toyota.
http://gmauthority.com/blog/20.....ard-video/
Mike Sweers did a good job with his interview; GM was very careful in what he said…
LJC,
You’re right that Sweers was good and GM was ultra careful. Once they put both videos up, I’ll re-post them here.
-Tim
all I know is loaded down the tundra squats less than my former chevy silverado did plus brakes and handling and engine were a ton better as well.
motorweek will favor the big 3 since govt. owned for the most part they have no real world experience.
agreed with you “LJC ”
“Toyota Wins Texas Distinguished Service Award”
i would say it is not an unusual thing for toyota.