Tundra Motor Trend Truck of the Year!

[ocnblu]

How could they go from CTS to... this? One Tundra owner started an excited thread over in the Motor Trend forums, his nick is "xtreme". I had to smack him down a little bit. If anyone ever gets over there to the MT forums, check it out. Here's what I said:

A word of caution: please don't put the trophy on the tailgate. It's not meant for such heavy use. And try not to Move Forward with too much enthusiasm, you might break a camshaft, torque converter or u-joint. Oh, and don't wreck it, you might hurt yourself with your 4-star crash rating. One more thing, please don't forget to put a bag over your head before going for a drive... you really don't want people to see you driving such an out-of-proportion, ugly Atomic Tadpole, do you?

Edited December 18, 2007 by ocnblu

[Drew Dowdell]

This will go down in history like when they picked the '83 Renault Alliance, the '81 K-Cars, and the '02 Thunderbird.

[RJB]

It sounds like M/T gave them the sympathy vote because of all the problems this truck is having. Personally I wouldn't even have included it in the competition due to the unpredictable reliability.

[ichbinjohnk]

This is one reason I wasn't all that excited when the CTS won the car of the year...even though it had stiffer competition in its class. MT OTY awards are trash. The Turdra...with all of its problems so far...won this. I think it cheapens the victories of the CX9 and the CTS...

[I hope GMRULES again]

This doesn't make sense. I thought because it came out as an 07 it wasn't eligable to be 08 Truck of the year. I guess the Silverado couldn't win 2 years in a row. :AH-HA_wink:

[regfootball]

unfortunately, reliability is not a factor in that judging, at least not numerically. They see the hoyotha badge and subjectively uprate every other catagory based on the 'reputation'.

MT comes off as even more ridiculous now.

[SingleStylish]

My challenge to MT:

Name ONE... ONE... aspect or feature of the Tundra that is not available from another manufacturer.

[Robert Hall]

Obvious choice...what else was new for '08? The Ford Super Duty was just a hideous restyle and update of the '99 model.

[AAS]

Obvious choice...what else was new for '08? The Ford Super Duty was just a hideous restyle and update of the '99 model.

Exactly... what was the turd's competition, did it even have any? This award applies to ONLY new (redesigned?) vehicles, right?

[Drew Dowdell]

My challenge to MT:

Name ONE... ONE... aspect or feature of the Tundra that is not available from another manufacturer.

Variable solidity camshafts

Quick release rear differential

Perma-Lock torque converter

Dynamic tailgate shaping

automatic bed cargo settling

Sport lock parking brake <allows maneuvering even with brake engaged>

rear wheel drive active stability control

best ever crash test rating*

</Toyota PR Department>

*on a Toyota truck

[siegen]

unfortunately, reliability is not a factor in that judging, at least not numerically. They see the hoyotha badge and subjectively uprate every other catagory based on the 'reputation'.

Apparently, otherwise the gmord's wouldn't have won. (/sarcasm)

[Cory Wolfe]

Was anyone really surprised? It had no competition.

[Satty]

Exactly... what was the turd's competition, did it even have any? This award applies to ONLY new (redesigned?) vehicles, right?

The GMT-900 HDs and the F-Series SD were the competition.

[regfootball]

Obvious choice...what else was new for '08? The Ford Super Duty was just a hideous restyle and update of the '99 model.

THE SUPERDUTY is a category killer, and provides capability for truck buyers almost not seen before. However, its not a real mainstream product for metrosexuals in California, which is the only crowd Motor Trend writes to these days.

I don't think the Super Duty Launch has been a debacle like the Tundra however.

[pow]

Judging by all the past winners, it's usually based on "significance" or "game-changer" status.

[Drew Dowdell]

Judging by all the past winners, it's usually based on "significance" or "game-changer" status.

well in that case they picked the right truck because it's going to significantly change the game in regards to Toyota's perceived reliability

[toesuf94]

My challenge to MT:

Name ONE... ONE... aspect or feature of the Tundra that is not available from another manufacturer.

Self cancelling ESC when 4 x 4 is engaged...no other truck I know of has that.

- also included are: Bad cams, transmissions, brakes, driveshafts, tailgates and a bed that will make a martini shaker blush.

So there!

[siegen]

Think about it, the bigger they are the harder they fall.

[Drew Dowdell]

Self cancelling ESC when 4 x 4 is engaged...no other truck I know of has that.

- also included are: Bad cams, transmissions, brakes, driveshafts, tailgates and a bed that will make a martini shaker blush.

So there!

beat you

[Z-06]

&#036;h&#33;-san Titan was also the truck of the year. What did it achieve?

[Cory Wolfe]

&#036;h&#33;-san Titan was also the truck of the year. What did it achieve?

No it wasn't. The F150 was. The Titan just won comparisons, never MT's big award.

[Z-06]

No it wasn't. The F150 was. The Titan just won comparisons, never MT's big award.

I am going to play with semantics. I did not say Motor Trend truck of the year. Although Tinyton was a truck of the year by these buffoons.

[Camino LS6]

This is going to make MT look really bad.

[A Horse With No Name]

well in that case they picked the right truck because it's going to significantly change the game in regards to Toyota's perceived reliability

Preach it, Brother.

Chris

[gm4life]

I think MT rated the Turd second in a comparo test against the Silverado. So they basically ate &#036;h&#33;, and the worst part is I get that rag. Keep in mind the truck wasn't out when they tested in 2007 for it. But still it makes them eat ass because those bastards basically gave a truck all new for 2007 truck of the year for 2008. Talk about stupid. For Toyota they think its great but if the Turd had been out in 2007 for testing GM still would have got it. I feared this happening all year because I knew they didn't have out for 2007 test. &#036;h&#33;, but in away its a good thing it makes them eat &#036;h&#33; with there obvious relability issues. GM, Ford and Dodge will have the last laugh here.

Edited December 21, 2007 by gm4life

[Drew Dowdell]

If the award is only awarded for trucks newly available for sale between Jan 1 and Dec 31 of that year, the the name of the award should be New Truck of the Year.... that way when there is little to no competition like in this case, we can all say "big deal".

[Duncan]

MT's Car/Truck/SUV/&#036;h&#33;box of the year is strictly a marketing exercise, significant of nothing. You'll note that almost as soon (if not before, in some cases) the issue goes out, the manufacturer in question is already pimping their "of the Year" status.

For instance, I saw that the Mazda CX-9 (again, a dubious choice compared to the much more significant Enclave, but there you go) had won via Mazda's own TV ads - I don't even recall seeing the SUVotY issue on the shelves. Then again, maybe I wasn't looking that hard, either.

I wrote MT off as a serious automotive magazine around the time they started devoting about three issues a year to Viper vs. whoever comparison tests. Don't get me wrong, I do love the Viper long, long time, but is it really necessary to "stack it up" against anything and everything with an engine? They also devoted a cover and six thinly-texted pages to a one-off "Suburban-fighter" from Dodge that turned out to actually be a Ram nose grafted to a "real" GMC Suburban, built by some guy who never had any intention of making more.

Same reason I stopped caring about Automobile Magazine (not surprisingly, from the same publisher) - when their annual All-Star awards became less a matter of rewarding truly excellent achievements and more about what the editors' favorites were. Then again, Automobile has always been more dubious as a source of automotive info regardless, so maybe that's not surprising. Generally, they're more excited about the wine selection at the name-drop-special restaurant they took the "long-term" 911 to this month.

The only awards I trust are the Car and Driver 10Best Cars/5Best Trucks (and even then with a grain of salt, since they still can't get off their BMW fixation).

[ellives]

The problem (whether anyone here likes it or not) is the fact that winning the "award" sells more vehicles. This could be a good or bad thing depending on how you look at it. On the one hand, they'll sell (give away?) a few more Tundras than they would have otherwise, but on the other hand they'll have THAT many more disappointed buyers when they realize what a POS they've spent good money on.

[Duncan]

The problem (whether anyone here likes it or not) is the fact that winning the "award" sells more vehicles. This could be a good or bad thing depending on how you look at it. On the one hand, they'll sell (give away?) a few more Tundras than they would have otherwise, but on the other hand they'll have THAT many more disappointed buyers when they realize what a POS they've spent good money on.

Did I say that was a bad thing?

I don't entirely hate Toyota, but their recent desire to take over the world via over-production is ultimately not a good strategy for them or the industry as a whole. Their slipping quality is indicative of the former; the mad competitive rush that will ultimately follow from the rest of the world should be indicative of the latter.

The world doesn't need more and more cars, just better and better ones. Toyota used to be good at that, and has obviously not learned anything from GM's recent fall from grace in their addition of more brands, more production, more mediocrity, and progressively less refinement.

Sure, Tundra is the "Truck of the Year". Maybe it's like when Time picks their "Person of the Year" - it's not always for the reason you'd expect.

[mystik]

Look I love that Chevy was able to milk the Motor Trend truck of the Year award for a year. But let's be fair....why the hell should they even have this award? A new truck gets unveiled every year, so by default, *that* truck will win Truck of the Year. The reason that Toyota delayed release of the Tundra was because they knew that if it went head to head against the Silverado, it would lose. No fault of theres, the Silverado is just a better truck from stylistic and optional standpoint. Two interiors, more engine choices, plus a much bigger impact on the market. So they delayed it's release a little bit so that this would not happen, because the last thing Toyota was going to risk was it's Tundra losing outright to the Silverado (which it would have). But I digress, this award may as well be called "The Motor Trend Newest Truck Released This Year" award because essentially, that's all it is.

[NOS2006]

&#036;h&#33;-san Titan was also the truck of the year. What did it achieve?

World Peace.

Nissan's now selling them to Suzuki to make money for a new truck designed with Chrysler.