Toyota has been on a roll currently. With fashions just like the redesigned 4Runner, Tacoma and Land Cruiser, for those who’re an off-road fanatic and a Toyota fan try to be in heaven proper now. When you don’t wanna pay markup or wait on extra hardcore variations of the brand new fashions to launch, you possibly can indulge your off-road wants with the prevailing Tundra TRD Professional. You’re simply going to wish some deep pockets and put together to appear to be a bro wherever you go.
Full disclosure: Toyota lent me a Tundra TRD Professional for every week with a full tank of gasoline, and I managed to get it a lil soiled enjoying in some fields.
The present Tundra debuted in 2021 for the 2022 mannequin 12 months, which was additionally the final time we drove it. The Tundra’s first redesign since 2007, the present technology has a extra daring and commanding presence, and the TRD Professional ups that to 11. Perhaps even 20. The very first thing you discover is how huge it’s — practically 20 ft lengthy and 7 ft extensive, you dwarf most automobiles on the highway.
Equally huge is the TRD Professional’s price ticket. With trims like this, most individuals know it’s important to pay to play. The TRD Professional’s beginning value of $72,130 is positioned above the Tundra 1794 Version and beneath the $80k-plus range-topping Tundra Capstone. With only a few choices (simply $295 value) my tester rang in at $74,295. This kind of strains up with different off-road rivals at this value level just like the GMC Sierra 1500 AT4 (begins at $68,395), Ram 1500 RHO ($71,990) and Chevy Silverado 1500 ZR2 ($71,895).
Past simply the scale, the Tundra TRD Professional comes off as a bit obnoxious. It’s a brodozer for certain, with an enormous entrance grille, 18-inch BBS wheels wrapped in 285/65R18 Falken Wildpeak all-terrain tires, and a fixed reminder that you just’re driving a TRD. There’s no fewer than 11 TRD or TRD Professional badges on the outside. That features every wheel, the aluminum skid plate, seen suspension elements, the rear tailgate and faux hood vents.
There’s 5 extra within the inside: the engine begin button, every entrance seat, the shifter and steering wheel. The lid on high of this bro-y power drink are the camo print accents. Toyota calls it “technical camo,” and the fender flares, tailgate spoiler and seat patterns are coated in it. Anybody beneath 20 years of age would possibly assume it’s cool. A grown man like me thinks it’s all approach an excessive amount of.
It’s sure-footed and succesful when the terrain will get robust, a minimum of. An electronically locking rear differential helps improve grip to the rear wheels, and the TRD off-road suspension setup with 2.5-inch-diameter Fox inner bypass shocks means you may most likely take a lightweight bounce on this factor. All is helped by Toyota’s Multi-Terrain Choose system with mud, sand, and rock modes. The TRD Professional will not be fairly Moab prepared, nonetheless.
There’s an aluminum skid plate, but it surely solely protects the engine and drive elements on the entrance finish of the truck. There’s a small metal skid plate over the switch case, and one other plastic one covers the gas tank, so issues could get a bit dicey. Locations just like the gas tank, oil pan and transmission are among the most weak locations on an off-road car, and equipping a truck that’s billed as being this succesful with a “plate” that may be punctured over a significant space of the underbody is a bizarre miss.
Regardless of that, the TRD Professional shines in different conditions. I took the truck on an unpaved native highway that appeared like one thing straight out of the late nineteenth century. The TRD Professional dealt with grooves and ruts with ease, the Fox shocks absorbing the bumps and imperfections with hardly a shutter within the cabin. Issues got here when attending to deeper stuff. In making an attempt to traverse a ditch to achieve a sandy space that native ATV riders use, I found that the Tundra’s again finish will backside out arduous sufficient that you just’ll hear an unsettling slam in some conditions. The difficulty is the relatively low departure and method angles of 24.2 and 26.2, respectively.
The driving force-assistance options are additionally surprisingly delicate when off-roading. The Tundra’s myriad security methods can annoyingly kill the enjoyable, as they freak out in random situations. Issues like bushes and bushes will both trigger the parking sensors to blare at you or absolutely activate automated emergency braking. It’s bizarre that, when off-road modes are engaged, Toyota doesn’t program the protection tech to disable. The options could be disabled manually, but it surely requires digging into menus to take action.
The Falken Wildpeak all-terrain tires do a very good job of serving to with traction off-road. On the highway, nonetheless, they fall flat. There have been a couple of instances the place the Tundra’s dealing with felt uneasy at freeway speeds, virtually just like the tires had been barely greasy.
Commonplace on the TRD Professional is Toyota’s i-Pressure Max powertrain, which pairs a twin-turbo 3.4-liter V6 with a hybrid setup for a complete of 437 horsepower and 583 pound-feet of torque. Mated with a 10-speed computerized transmission, Toyota says this engine ought to get 22 mpg mixed; the EPA charges the TRD Professional at 18 mpg metropolis, 20 mpg freeway and 19 mpg mixed. I by no means got here near these numbers, averaging slightly below 15 mpg in largely metropolis driving in regular situations. Granted, this can be a 6,015-pound pickup truck, so I wasn’t attempting to drive it like a sports activities automotive. The Tundra’s inefficiency led me to marvel what the purpose of the hybrid system was. Additional energy? Bragging rights? No matter it’s, it’s not gas economic system.
One other draw back is the inside. It’s roomy and feels ethereal because of the usual panoramic roof. It’s additionally crammed with all of the tech and options you’d anticipate in a car at this value. There’s an enormous 12.3-inch middle gauge cluster for the driving force that has nice decision, a good larger 14-inch infotainment display that controls all the pieces else, glorious heated and cooled entrance seats, and dual-zone computerized local weather management.
The issue is high quality. Many surfaces and items of switchgear each feel and appear low-cost, unacceptable given each the TRD Professional’s value and Toyota’s historical past of high quality management. Black plastic of various thickness is all over the place. Massive, flat switches that management issues like trailering mode, middle diff lock and the hazard lights really feel as in the event that they’ll snap off if pressed too arduous. The inside door handles felt as in the event that they had been produced from a single piece of hole plastic. Even the gearshift, which annoyingly had a canopy that barely moved up and down, felt as if it might simply be pulled off.
Finally, the Tundra TRD Professional comes throughout as a strong effort that’s simply attempting a bit too arduous to show to everybody how succesful it’s as an alternative of placing that power into precise functionality. Regardless of its appears and off-road tech, the TRD Professional is extra for somebody who’s going to drive this factor to work in the course of the week and each occasionally take it off the crushed path that’s a bit extra tough than what your common crossover can deal with. For some patrons, the Tundra TRD Professional would be the good truck. For others, it’ll want only a bit extra.
