2024 Toyota Tundra review: Tundra down under

“Volume won't be a problem with this car based on our sales planning,” says Sean Hanley, Toyota's Australian boss as he looks across to the right-hand drive Tundra pick-up, the culmination of a five year project.

Toyota calls this ute their 'premium towing machine' and it's not hard to see why. With a rated towing capacity of 4.5 tonnes, it picks up where LandCruiser 300 and HiLux have left off.

There's been a long validation process and 280 customers and 20 Toyota internal staff are in the process of a year long trial, so this is yet to be a signed off program.

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When asked if he's confident that the right-hand engineering, in partnership with Walkinshaw, will be up to scratch, he smiles confidently, leans in and says, “We're certainly not doing this not to launch the car,” he chuckles.

It's a project that has been made easier by the wealth of componentry shared with the LC300. The crucial 'run, stop, turn' items that would be hugely costly to re-homologate are virtually a straight swap.

That's not to say that the project has been easy. Both Toyota Japan and Toyota USA needed to be convinced of the viability of the project first. Then there's the small matter of the statement of technical ability.

Naturally, should the Tundra project prove a success, the gateway would appear to be open for Toyota Australia to become a hub for right-hook re-engineering with export potential, but Hanley won't be drawn on that one. “There's no export plan at this point, but who knows for the future? We always look at opportunities,” he says.

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Ray Munday is the engineer in charge of the project or, to use his official title, Senior Manager – Vehicle Evaluation and Regulations. He throws some more light on the development story.

“In 2017 we undertook a genchi-genbutsu (go to the source) tour,” he says. Toyota invited Japanese staff to speak to ex-Toyota customers in Australia, ex-customers who no longer felt served by Toyota for their towing requirements. “It wasn't always glamorous. We did a tour of caravan parks, which was a bit of a novelty for the Japanese because they don't really have them at home.”

It was clear that there was an opportunity for Toyota to serve a market for those towing large horse floats, race cars, construction equipment, farming gear and big boats. The priority was simple: maximum towing capacity. It also needed to offer space, comfort and a long driving range.

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The focus was firmly on-road driving. That's why the Tundra sports a five-link coil-sprung rear end rather than the heavy duty leafs as seen on most other dual cabs.

Yes, you lose a little in the weight it can carry in the bed, but Toyota claims the gains in comfort and control more than offset this for the target market. Lateral location is particularly good with the coil-sprung rear, which builds confidence when towing something large.

Likewise, the 3.4-litre (3445cc – don't let them bilk you by calling it a 3.5) i-FORCE MAX petrol V6 features a motor-generator that adds 36kW and 140Nm. The electric boost isn't for economy; it's for sheer grunt. With a system power output of 326kW and 790Nm, the Tundra could tow an errant tectonic plate back into line.

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We hitched up a horse float filled with concrete in order to max out the towing capacity of the Tundra and it still pulled cleanly and relatively effortlessly.

That's the joy of the instant torque of the electric motor. Without it, the V6 would probably be straining somewhat to overcome that inertia, but assistance of that permanent magnet synchronous motor is key to smoothing the inputs and reducing strain on the transmission.

At this point it's worth pointing out that our drive of the Tundra was entirely confined to its Australian home base, the AARC proving ground in Victoria, so there are still some questions that remain unanswered – by us at least - about how it works on road here.

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A 50mm tow ball is supplied as standard, which is good up to 3.5-tonnes. Beyond that, you'll need a heavier duty 70mm ball if you want to drag the full 4.5-tonne quota.

Bear in mind that when towing at maximum capacity, a couple of people and their luggage is about as much as you can legally house on board without busting through maximum payload limits. The Gross Combined Mass of the Tundra is rated at 7825kg and its kerb weight is listed at 2778kg.

It can operate in EV mode to 30km/h and features a 288-volt Ni-Mh battery under the rear seats while the motor-generator sits in the bell housing of the 10-speed auto.

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A tow/haul mode changes gearbox shift points, electric power steering feel, throttle mapping, alters the drop-down front spoiler, detects a trailer and optimises safety systems like blind spot monitoring. The transmission also has dedicated Eco, Normal and Sport modes.

Overall refinement is good, and the electrically-assisted steering is a little relaxed about the straight-ahead which, given its likely intended function, is perhaps no bad thing. The electronic brake controller for the trailer works extremely well, pulling the trailer back into line cleanly if you've done something to upset the balance.

The four-pot front brakes of the Tundra are appropriately meaty, clamping onto 354mm vented discs. At the back there's a single-piston floating caliper that gets to work on a 335mm vented rotor.

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Despite the fact that the Tundra is fitted with a dual-range 4WD system and a limited slip differential, this is no off-road hero.

When asked how good it was off-road, a Toyota employee made a comment which could be very loosely translated as 'about as good as would be expected of a vehicle with 21-degree departure angle and road-biased tyres'.

Nevertheless, the big Toyota is admirably stiff in terms of chassis torsion for such a long wheelbase vehicle. There's very little in the way of scuttle deformation, even when bumping up oblique kerbs. The four-wheel drive system is also capable of shifting on the fly at up to 80km/h between 2WD and 4WD although you will, predictably, need to come to a halt in order to engage low ratio.

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With a 122-litre fuel tank, the Tundra's equipped for distance and the cabin is comfortable enough to easily cope with big road trips. Even in the back, there's a huge amount of rear legroom. So much so, that you almost miss a rear bench that could recline a few degrees to take advantage of it.

Cabin quality? That's one area that could do with a little bit of additional polish, with the storage bin lids feeling pretty basic. At the estimated price point of the Tundra, that could be a little better. It feels resolute and no-nonsense but not the leather-swathed luxe of some top-end utes.

You do get black pleather upholstery, heated and vented front seats with 8-way electric adjustment, a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster, wireless Apple CarPlay (but wired Android Auto), a 12-speaker JBL stereo, a 14.0-inch central touchscreen, five USB ports and a 12v accessory socket, dual zone climate control with vents in the rear and a 60/40 split rear seat.

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The cushion can fold up, creating an additional dry storage area for bulky items while still retaining some vestige of rear passenger accommodation.

The tub features side and back rails and moveable tie-down points as well as a manual trifold tonneau cover. Toyota claims that it a full accessory package including bull bars is in the works but more on that at a later date.

As well as switching the steering wheel from left to right, the Tundra required ADR-compliant headlamps, license plate mount, and mirror angles. The steering rack and exhaust heat shield all had to be changed, along with the wiper system, the dash panel, the brake pedal and mounting points (from LC300).

The wiring harness, brake master cylinder, HVAC blower motor, IP wire harness, seatbelts, multimedia, tail lamps, trailer plug, and mudguards all needed to be re-engineered. Even the floor mats were all-new custom designs, made in Australia.

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Toyota needs to convince itself of the quality of the re-engineering work

Thousands of kilometres of back-to-back testing at the AARC proving ground in Victoria and on-road between Altona and Darwin while towing a 4.5-tonne trailer have convinced Toyota that it's onto a good thing with the Tundra, a vehicle that, no matter what detractors will say about giant utes, seems a good fit for the more wide open parts of Australia.

There are still a number of blanks that remain to be filled before we can deliver a decisive verdict on the Aussie-spec Tundra, price being the key component.

Toyota needs to convince itself of the quality of the re-engineering work, but make no mistake, if Toyota Australia can get this one right, it not only boosts the prestige of the Aussie outpost in Toyota's global ecosystem, but potentially opens the doors to other projects and, logically, other right-hand drive export markets. So there's a lot riding on it. At this juncture, the impressions are cautiously promising.