Toyota and Lexus and Scion were, for the first time, all grouped 
together at this year's LA Auto Show (the second LA Show this year if you count the first held last January). This full-size Chevy/Ford/Dodge-fighting Tundra is Toyota's biggest single intro for this show. Some might argue and say the Lexus LS600hL is the most important, but that car was actually introduced at the more-recent New York Auto Show, though the LS600hL did get quite a large stage on which to spin and show-off its lovely (and rather large) lines at the LA Auto Show.
The Tundra has become a little bit of marketing problem for Toyota, something that company is not all that used to experiencing. Here's the deal: Toyota is building the truck in their new plant in Texas and they want it as All-American as possible. However, of the three engines available, the 4 liter V6, the 4.7 liter V8 and the new 5.7 liter V8, only the first two engines are available in large quantities from Toyota plants in the USA.
The only 5.7L V8 powerplants, with an all-new six-speed automatic, are currently coming off an assembly line in Japan. Toyota wants no argument about this Tundra being "Made in the USA", so they are waiting to actually put the truck on-sale until that specific V8 can be built in large numbers in one of Toyota's US factories.
So Tundra production started in Texas in early November, but that V8 from Huntsville, AL, producing 381 horsepower (current one makes a mere 271hp) will not be available in large numbers until January, 2007.
Bottom line: Tundra goes out the door to owners on February 12, 2007 --- That's the earliest Toyota says all three engines, all three American-made, will be able to be fitted into the all-new truck.
And in the "Could Have Been Worse" Department: Originally, the new 5.7L V8 engine was not going to be available for installation in the new Tundra until summer of 2007.
So Toyota has moved production and sales dates all over the map for the past few months, leading
some to believe that they might have run into some real problems with that V8. But it appears the only problem was a rare scheduling snafu for Toyota, with the company drawing up the final plans for the 5.7 several months after the actual start of truck production.
So if you go to the Toyota truck plant in Texas, you'll find a lot (and a lot-full) of brand-new Tundras with their hoods wide open, waiting for someone to feed them all their new engines ... And then we shall see if American consumers think enough of an Asian truck to dump their much-loved domestics and buy into the first true Japanese competitor in the field.
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