By: Jeffrey Ross
Autotropolis.com
When the all-new 2007 Toyota Tundra debuted, many in the industry saw the truck being a major threat to domestic pickups. Despite negative press about receiving only four stars in a frontal crash test, it appeared to be a minor and inconvenient setback for one of Toyota’s most important new car launches this decade.
Even the latest Ford F-150 commercials that attack the Tundra’s inferior crash test rating have done little to slow down the Tundra’s onslaught against American pickup trucks. In fact, only the Tundra and the Dodge Ram posted sales increases compared to last year. The latest news could ruin whatever forward momentum the Tundra had in the market.
The most powerful half-ton V8 on the market, the Tundra’s 381-horsepower, 5.7-liter DOHC i-Force V8, has experienced devastating and costly camshaft failures. The devastation and costs are not only in reference to the replacement of the engine (repairs estimated at $5,000 per truck), but Toyota’s image will most certainly take a big hit, as well, continuing an uphill battle to penetrate the American full-size pickup truck market.
The camshaft problem was first noticed in February and changes to the production procedures were changed. While no recall has been announced, the camshaft failures could turn out to be a major problem for Toyota. So far, Toyota is prepared to replace the complete engine assembly on any Tundra that experiences a broken camshaft, and only 20 of the estimated 30,000 engines have actually experienced broken camshafts, but Toyota is still studying how many of the engines may have been affected.
The camshaft is supplied to Toyota from an outside vendor and the problem is recognized as a “…a metallurgical defect in the casting.” One positive aspect for Toyota is that in order to keep inventories low, engines are built using just-in-time parts supplies which means that there are no “batches” of engines and, good for Toyota, any bad parts should be limited to a small number of engines.
Regardless, all the negative press toward the Tundra lately will undoubtedly be Toyota’s first major test with customer service as many Toyotas are thought to be the most reliable and dependable vehicles on the market to some. Replacing the entire engine and not just the camshaft at least shows that Toyota continues to look ahead (regarding customer service) while dealing with major problems efficiently as they come along.
While expected sales goals will most likely not be beat, the Tundra’s 2007 sales numbers are relatively strong. Toyota sold 14,200 Tundras in April, up 60 percent from last year, amassing 40,662 units through the first third of the year. Toyota had its hopes on selling 200,000 Tundras in 2007 but at the current sales rate, last year’s tally of 124,508 sales seems more reasonable.