Toyota has been on a roll recently. With fashions just like the redesigned 4Runner, Tacoma and Land Cruiser, should you’re an off-road fanatic and a Toyota fan try to be in heaven proper now. For those who don’t wanna pay markup or wait on extra hardcore variations of the brand new fashions to launch, you’ll be able to indulge your off-road wants with the present Tundra TRD Professional. You’re simply going to wish some deep pockets and put together to seem like a bro wherever you go.
Full disclosure: Toyota lent me a Tundra TRD Professional for per week with a full tank of gasoline, and I managed to get it a lil soiled taking part in in some fields.
The present Tundra debuted in 2021 for the 2022 mannequin yr, 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 large it’s — practically 20 toes lengthy and 7 toes extensive, you dwarf most automobiles on the highway.
Equally large is the TRD Professional’s price ticket. With trims like this, most individuals know it’s a must to pay to play. The TRD Professional’s beginning worth of $72,130 is positioned above the Tundra 1794 Version and under the $80k-plus range-topping Tundra Capstone. With only a few choices (simply $295 price) my tester rang in at $74,295. This kind of traces up with different off-road rivals at this worth 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 dimensions, the Tundra TRD Professional comes off as a bit obnoxious. It’s a brodozer for positive, with an enormous entrance grille, 18-inch BBS wheels wrapped in 285/65R18 Falken Wildpeak all-terrain tires, and a fixed reminder that you simply’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 parts, 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 prime of this bro-y vitality drink are the camo print accents. Toyota calls it “technical camo,” and the fender flares, tailgate spoiler and seat patterns are lined in it. Anybody below 20 years of age may suppose it’s cool. A grown man like me thinks it’s all method an excessive amount of.
It’s sure-footed and succesful when the terrain will get robust, not less than. 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 light-weight bounce on this factor. All is helped by Toyota’s Multi-Terrain Choose system with mud, sand, and rock modes. The TRD Professional isn’t fairly Moab prepared, nevertheless.
There’s an aluminum skid plate, however it solely protects the engine and drive parts 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 a number of the most susceptible 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 an important 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 seemed 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 trying 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 simply’ll hear an unsettling slam in some conditions. The difficulty is the slightly low departure and method angles of 24.2 and 26.2, respectively.
The driving force-assistance options are additionally unusually 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 totally 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 might be disabled manually, however it requires digging into menus to take action.
The Falken Wildpeak all-terrain tires do an excellent job of serving to with traction off-road. On the highway, nevertheless, they fall flat. There have been a number of instances the place the Tundra’s dealing with felt uneasy at freeway speeds, nearly just like the tires had been barely greasy.
Commonplace on the TRD Professional is Toyota’s i-Power 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 just below 15 mpg in principally metropolis driving in regular situations. Granted, it is a 6,015-pound pickup truck, so I wasn’t making an attempt to drive it like a sports activities automotive. The Tundra’s inefficiency led me to surprise what the purpose of the hybrid system was. Further energy? Bragging rights? No matter it’s, it’s not gas financial system.
One other draw back is the inside. It’s roomy and feels ethereal because of the usual panoramic roof. It’s additionally stuffed with all of the tech and options you’d count on in a car at this worth. There’s an enormous 12.3-inch heart gauge cluster for the motive force that has nice decision, an excellent larger 14-inch infotainment display that controls every part 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 look low-cost, unacceptable given each the TRD Professional’s worth 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, heart 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 created 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 may simply be pulled off.
In the end, the Tundra TRD Professional comes throughout as a stable effort that’s simply making an attempt a bit too arduous to show to everybody how succesful it’s as a substitute of placing that vitality into precise functionality. Regardless of its appears to be like and off-road tech, the TRD Professional is extra for somebody who’s going to drive this factor to work through the week and each from time to time 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.
