Tundra\u2019s 1794 badge<\/a>\u00a0on my high-end Tundra is a claim to American authenticity.<\/p>\n\u201cThe new 1794 Edition is a tribute to the ranch, founded in the year 1794, on which the Tundra plant is located in San Antonio,\u201d reads Toyota\u2019s press release. Yeah, these guys are obsessed.<\/p>\n
But Toyota competing against Big Three trucks is like a Northwestern vs. Michigan State football game. Sure, Northwestern\u2019s got a Big Ten team, but have you seen the depth of that State squad? Similarly, the Tundra\u2019s quite competent five-model Tundra line must compete against the likes of Ford, which offers\u00a010<\/i>\u00a0variations of the F-150, and\u00a015<\/i>\u00a0variations of its F-250, F-350, and F-450 Super Duty line.<\/p>\n
And it ain\u2019t getting\u2019 any easier as the F-150 is investing in more fuel-efficient aluminum trucks and GM is coming after Toyota\u2019s midsize Tacoma with the Chevy Colorado\u00a0and\u00a0<\/i>GM Canyon.<\/p>\n
One-on-one in the open field, however, the Tundra 1794 is a match for any truck in class.<\/p>\n
My white 1794 features the Tundra\u2019s tougher 2014 look with a bigger, squared-off grille using more chrome than a 1959 Cadillac Eldorado with the Biarritz trim package. The truck\u2019s layout makes it a rolling Swiss Army knife. The roomy CrewMax interior offers leather luxury for the family with a back seat big enough to hold three Big Ten linemen (my 5-foot 5-inch wife needed the running board\u00a0and<\/i>\u00a0side door handle\u00a0and<\/i>\u00a0a painter\u2019s ladder to get in). Yet the vehicle is still rugged as a mule on the outside with terrain-gobbling 20-inch tires and a 5\u20196\u201d x 5\u20196\u201d rear short box that has plenty of room for the dogs or a load of mulch. Hook it up and the 5,860-pound Tundra will tow the Space Shuttle. Really. Google it.<\/p>\n
On the road, the 1794 rides surprisingly stiff. I could feel the concrete joints along the Lodge, for example. Rivals like the RAM 1500 have added air springs which help smooth out the ride, though as a veteran of stiffly-sprung sport sedans, I found the haptic ride reassuring in a vehicle two-stories off the ground.<\/p>\n
If not for the ride, the $50,000 1794 edition\u2019s (the base Tundra starts at $27K) stuffed-with-every-electronic-googaw cab feels like a luxury sedan with twice the acreage. Urban cowboys will appreciate the more fuel-efficient two-wheel drive option in addition to the truck staples of 4WD and 4WD off-road. But in Michigan\u2019s Winter from Hell, I usually traveled in 4WD despite its thirsty 13 mpg.<\/p>\n
After a few days of cramped commutes trying to navigate too-small parking places and crowded suburban shopping strips (what was that noise? Dang, I squashed another Smart!), the Tundra pined for tundra and so I took it out to the dirt roads of West Bloomfield\u2019s lake country. I usually tip-toe through these rutted wagon trials in second gear in my compact family sedans, but the Tundra attacks them with relish.<\/p>\n
Potholes covered with three inches of fresh snow? No problem. With tires out of the Brobdingnagian shopping catalog, the Tundra manhandled these roads. Turn a 90-degree corner with throttle and the 4WD drive-with-traction control bit hard, catching a power slide then leaping forward. Did I forget to mention that big, 381 horsepower V-8? Bury your right foot out of a stoplight and it sounds like a cattle stampede through a Texas gorge. Glorious.<\/p>\n
You can take the pickup out of the country, but you can\u2019t take the country out of the pickup.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Detroit News auto reviewer Henry Payne spent a week in a 2014 Toyota Tundra CrewMax pickup. Here’s the nicely-redesigned business end of the 2014 Toyota Tundra he test drove. (Henry Payne \/ The Detroit News) How big is the Toyota Tundra CrewMax pickup? I\u2019ve been picking Fiat 500s and Ford Fiestas out of its grille […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,87],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14250"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14250"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14251,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14250\/revisions\/14251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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<\/a>\u00a0companies target pickups \u2014 like the upscale Tundra 1794 edition I tested \u2014 to urban cowboys (and cowgirls) as well as their traditional, more rural audience, drivers should understand the capabilities of the beast at the other end of their reins.<\/p>\n