What they heck??? Yea I said the same thing.. Talking to a buddy of mine in SA and they are still in the process of building the plant down there.. He said that Toyota might be manufacturing a 3/4 ton DIESEL truck.. He also said the rumor is that it will be getting some where around 25-30 mpg. I asked him about a light duty diesel like in thier Tacoma and he said that there is a couple of different diesel engines that they are about to be rolling out on the show room floor.. I heard about this reading Car and Driver about a year and half ago.. I guess it really is true what you read in the papers.

 

That's pretty cool. That'll give the Chevy and Fords a run for the money

 

Toyota either has controlling interest or outright owns Hino, the medium duty truck maker. Hino has some decent bobtails running around with straight 6 diesels that are pretty reliable.

I'm hoping that if Toyota actually builds a diesel it's one of the Hino inlines in it, instead of a V8, because that's what they 'think' American buyers want...

Now if they'd put one of their diesels in a Tacoma... That will be really interesting. They already have diesel Tacomas running around other parts of the world. And if one of those would have decent power and great mileage, I'd actually consider buying one, if the price was right.

 

they sell a diesel tacoma (called the hilux) in australia. i like to go to toyota's australia website and dream away....
toyota hilux

 

I would never buy one if they did build one. They make good little trucks, but I hate to see a company like that take over the big truck market too Hopefully Ford, Dodge, and GM can hold their own.

Eric

 

I personally think that toyota would not do well the first few years, but then I would expect them to dominate. The only reason they could dominate dodge is because of service. It can't get much worse than DC service.

 

My guess is that any diesel they bring out will not be tops in its class in any regard, though I bet it will last forever and a day.

Nothing Toyota brings out is ever revolutionary or class-leading.. it just does *everything* well enough, and is well-built.

Just my $.02

 

Thinking back a lot of years didn't Toyota have a diesel in their Landcruisers? Those suckers would go anywhare and last forever too!

 

The irony of that is my Ram was built in Mexico with an American maker's name on the hood.
Toyota is building a brand new plant in Texas to build vehicles with a Japanese manufacturer's name on the hood. Go figure!

DC ought to pay attention to this one... That is going to be some quality competition... Ford was who DC always compared themselves with and it has been easier on DC since Ford started putting the 6.oh-no in their trucks...
DC, get your track shoes on! Toyota's coming!

K.

 

It's a TOY it will be expensive.

 

Um, and Dodge??

I'd rather buy an American made Toyota than a Mexican made Dodge........
Who cares where the company is based, I worry more about where they employ.

All these "American" compaines can't scramble fast enough to ship jobs out to India, China, etc.

I for one would be very interested in a Diesel powered Toyota. Have yet to see someone not happy with the old(er) T-100's.

 

Along the comments about American made... I was at a car show last year sometime and was looking (just LOOKING :-) at the Toyota Tundras. I guess they're a decent truck if you're looking for a larger Tacoma...

A guy with a UAW jacket on walks buy and says something about never buying a foreign piece of crap like the Tundra. One of the Toyota guys was there, and very cooly he asked the guy what kind of car/truck he had.

The UAW guy said he had some kind of Chevy - can't remember what it was - and the Toyota guy said - 'isn't that one built at the GM plant in Canada?'.

The UAW guy figured out pretty quickly where the Toyota guy was going. His reply was 'yeah - I know the Tundra is built in Indiana, but it's still a foreign piece of crap' and with that he walked away pretty quickly...

 

a truck with some power that gets 30mpg

sold

 

Yea right, they said the same thing when Nissan came out with the Titan, the gas mileage on that is as bad if not worse than the Chevy,Ford, and Dodge.

 

I have yet to figure out why most cant be happy getting 20mpg in a truck this big already? 30 mpg is just being plain greedy. Dad gets from 19-21mpg driving to and from work in a 7k lb 4wd truck with 500ft lbs of torque. What more do you need?

Eric