Australians just can't get enough utes. More than 180,000 of them rolled off dealer forecourts last year, making ours the world's fourth-largest ute-buying nation. In fact utes are more popular here than any other type of new vehicle except small cars. Toyota's HiLux regularly tops the national monthly outright sales charts and is a consistent best-seller in states like Queensland and West Australia.
However, despite being invented here by Ford, the home of the ute is now North America, where Ford's bigger F-Series 'pick-up' attracts more customers than any other new model bar none, and where full-size utes are the most popular new vehicle type, period.
A small cross-section of America's most popular pick-ups have long been available Down Under via local converters including Performax International, which is experiencing unprecedented demand for its conversion of the latest Toyota Tundra twin-cab.
Everything's big in America but when it hails from Texas – the largest US-mainland state – it's sure to be even bigger. That's where Tundra, the first full-size pick-up from a Japanese manufacturer and Toyota's direct response to the world's top-selling ute Ford's F-150, is built.
Yessiree, in the Lone Star state...
They are big business too. Even if demand has declined in recent years between the Toyota and The Ford, the two utes amassed almost as many sales as Australia's entire new-vehicle market last year.
In a clear case of bigger the better, the largest version of the Tundra, the CrewMax, accounts for almost half of all Tundra sales in the US (where smaller single- and dual-cab variants are also offered) and up to 80 per cent of buyers choose the top-line 5.7-litre petrol V8 (4.0-litre V6 and 4.6-litre V8 engines are also available Stateside).
Of course, the Tundra sells in significantly smaller numbers here, where two versions of the flagship CrewMax 5.7 V8 4x4 are available via Queensland-based right-hand drive converter, Performax International.
Yet already this year more than 30 Australians have taken delivery of the 2014 model year Tundra, making it Performax's second most popular model after the Silverado – at least until the all-new F-150 arrives later this year.
Available since last September, the MY14 is new enough for some to call it the third generation Tundra since 1998. It features an all-new interior, revised tray and tweaked mechanicals.
One thing that hasn't changed is its mammoth dimensions. Dwarfing Australia's top-selling ute, Toyota's 'mid-size' HiLux, the Tundra CrewMax rides on 4180mm wheelbase and measures 6289mm long, 1941mm wide and 1925mm high.
That makes it about a metre longer than a Holden Caprice, which the CrewMax also eclipses for legroom in the rear seat, where there's enough head and shoulder room for three burly blokes.
Although centre rear head space is tight for those taller than 195cm, the rear seat is far wider than a HiLux's and the Tundra's rear doors open to almost 90 degrees.
Apart from acres of space, occupants also get generous storage options including a cavernous centre console box, man-sized door pockets with bottle holders and grab-handles galore, plus four auto up/down power windows and a power-operated rear cab window.
Other clever cargo features include a split rear seat base that flips up to store gear on the rear floor, Amarok-style tray illumination and adjustable tie-down rails in all four sides of the tray, which also features a gas strut-equipped tailgate opening system, making it fall softly to horizontal every time.
The Tundra is as well equipped as it is accommodating. Embarrassing even the most expensive mid-size utes is a standard features list that includes LED daytime running lamps, heated and ventilated front seats, power tilt/telescope steering wheel adjustment, a powered moonroof, dual-zone climate-control, heated auto-dimming and power-folding door mirrors and a seat/wheel/mirror memory.
The Platinum Tundra tested here is distinguished from the 1794 Edition via an urban-themed interior with brushed metal-style trim (rather than rural-themed with woodgrain), perforated black (not tan) leather trim, a colour-coded (not chromed) grille surround and different wheel and floor mat designs.
Outside the new model Tundra scores a bigger grille, redesigned front quarter guards, a new tailgate, revised tail-lights and fresh 20-inch alloy wheels. Not that it needed to be more imposing, since everything about it is big and bold -- from the oversized switchgear and massive doors, to the huge chromed door-handles, wing mirrors and side steps.
Biggest change for 2014 is the new dashboard, instruments, steering wheel and centre console, plus luxury leather upholstery and infotainment system upgrades including a 3.5-inch colour screen with full Bluetooth connectivity and the ability to convert smartphone text messages and emails to voice. Alas the satellite-navigation system doesn't work in Australia, but that appears to be the only shortcoming of this non-official Toyota model, which comes with full ADR compliance, a factory-beating four-year/120,000km warranty and top-notch interior fit and finish.
Performax has been importing and re-engineering left-hand drive American vehicles to ISO 9001 Quality Assurance standards since 1989, and these days uses technologies like computer-aided design, 3D-printed parts prototyping and injection moulding.
It takes a crew eight days to convert four Tundras at a time – double the time of the less complex Silverado on a separate production line. The result is an interior that's so well integrated it's almost impossible to tell it's been stripped, flipped and converted.
One giveaway is where the dash meets the doors, with Performax using the opportunity to actually improve on Toyota's design, although of course inherent bugbears like Toyota's beloved foot-operated parking brake remain,
Advanced safety aids like Blind Spot Monitoring (BSM), Rear Cross-Traffic Alert (RCTA) and a reversing camera are now standard, in addition to traction/stability control, four seatbelt height adjusters and a full complement of front, side and curtain airbags.
Under the bonnet, there's no shortage -- 284kW of it, plus a buxom 543Nm of torque from a lazy 3600rpm. The engine is a 32-valve alloy 5.7-litre V8 that's shared with the Lexus LX570 and matched to a similarly sophisticated six-speed automatic transmission.
We recorded fuel consumption of 13.5L/100km in a day of rural driving around Performax's Gympie HQ north of Brisbane, which is about 5L/100km more than a HiLux diesel. But that figure would easily soar to beyond 20L/100km in the city.
Unsurprisingly, however, the big petrol V8 delivers surprisingly quick progress for a 2580kg (tare) truck, thanks to a muscular midrange and a willing yet refined top-end surge that doesn't let up until 6000rpm.
Sitting up high in the CrewMax's saddle, with a good old-fashioned bent-eight burble from beneath the pool table-size hood up front and a satisfying surge of V8 torque just a twitch of your right foot away, it's hard not to feel like the king of any road.
For those that want even more power there's a bolt-on supercharger kit available from Toyota's TRD performance arm in the US, lifting outputs to 376kW and 750Nm. For less than $US6000, it lowers the 0-100km/h sprint time to a sports car-like 4.5sec!!!
But the standard powertrain configuration is a nice fit with the impressively quiet cabin, the surprisingly high-quality interior materials and the amazingly supple ride comfort – despite relatively low-profile 275/55-section 20-inch Bridgestone Dueller H/L rubber.
Sure, there's plenty of body roll and it pays to anticipate your next bend early on, as you'd expect in any vehicle this size and weight. But it's not much harder to place accurately on the road than, say, a 200 Series LandCruiser, thanks to slow but accurate steering and strong, progressive brakes.
On-road dynamics are not the Tundra's forte, and nor is it anywhere near as capable as a LandCruiser or HiLux off-road, where its enormous wheelbase and relatively long overhangs cause it to snag at the sight of the first ant hill.
ARB has the answer in the form of a two-inch aftermarket lift kit for the coil front and leaf rear suspension, which would make far better use of the electronically selectable 4x4 system and provide an even more commanding view of the road.
But the Tundra's number one drawcard – or so we thought – is its towering four-tonne towing capacity and a gross combined mass (GCM) of no less than 7270kg. This means it can tow at least 500kg more than the LandCruiser and the most capable utes (3500kg).
The higher the towing capacity the easier a vehicle will haul any given load, but the fact is most Australian-made caravans weigh less than 3500kg. That leaves only the most serious horse or boat carters disenfranchised by the best mid-size utes. That said, our experience with towing with these long wheelbase US trucks is that their advantage goes well beyond the 500kg premium. Towing a 3500kg load in a LandCruiser can be taxing. In a 'big' truck you barely know the trailers there.
Ironically, although the CrewMax's tray is significantly longer, wider and deeper than a HiLux's (the Double Cab Tundra's is longer overall still, but it has a shorter cab), it has a lighter max payload than even the top-spec HiLux dual-cab SR5 diesel 4x4 (835kg).
That's why only a small proportion of Tundras are actually bought specifically for load-lugging, and why most are in fact sold to show-boating city-dwelling Toyota fans, many of whom already own a top-shelf LandCruiser Sahara.
Call it an overgrown HiLux, tray-backed LX570 or expensive status symbol, but whichever there's no shortage of Aussies willing to pay at least $120,000 to stand out from the crowd in the ultimate Toyota ute.
What we liked: | Not so much: |
>> Space | >> Price |
>> Performance | >> Payload |
>> Towing capacity | >> Fuel consumption |