I think the problem with these import trucks is that a pickup truck, as designed by Ford, Dodge, and GM, is fundamentally at odds with the basic philosophy of Toyota. That is, Toyotas (and Hondas) are designed to what I call the "just enough" principle. They're just exactly as strong as they need to be, and no more.
The Toyota principle of Kaizen, by which they base their entire company, is one of elimination of waste and inefficiency. So whereas Dodge, Ford, and Chevy build a considerable "margin" of excess strength and capacity into their vehicles (knowing how American truck owners have a nasty tendency to exceed weight ratings and towing capacities and otherwise beat the snot out of their trucks), Toyota sees such a practice as utterly contemptible.
The "just enough" principle works fine for cars, but begins to fall apart when you move into pickup trucks. And actually, it works okay for pickups as long as your customers don't exceed the manufacturer-established maximum ratings for the vehicle.
So the tailgate is merely a "door" to the bed. When Toyota says it has no weight rating, they're being consistent with their philosophy: since the tailgate is nothing more than a doorway to the bed, it should be exactly strong enough to be a door and no stronger. After all, does anyone put hundreds of pounds of weight on the doors to the cab? Why should the door to the bed be any different?
In my opinion, therefore, the philosophy that has brought Toyota (and Honda) tremendous success in the car market - that is, Kaizen - will prevent them ever building a pickup truck able to adequately satisfy the majority of American truck owners.
They're going to sell a lot of Tundras - but mostly to people who use them moderately.
Ryan
A foreign engineer designed it, the money goes back to the foreign company. I don't care where it's made, it's a foreign car! I understand it's made here, by american workers. Buy american! The workers can work for one of OUR car companies! #@$%!
I live in Dayton, OH, not far from a large Honda plant where they build Accords, Civics, and CRVs. The plant is in East Liberty, OH. I've seen the extraordinary growth and economic prosperity that plant has brought to the East Liberty area. If it weren't for Honda, East Liberty would be, quite literally, nowhere. All the money that all those workers' salaries pour into the local economy has created many hundreds (thousands?) of jobs at restaurants, suppliers, machine shops, stores, etc.
A good friend of mine, born, educated, and raised an American citizen, is an engineer for them. He is actively involved in the design and manufacture of these vehicles for the North American market.
So if people don't buy the vehicles made by this plant, and Honda were to leave the area, thousands of Americans would be out of work, and the East Liberty area would become an economic wasteland.
It's very hard to make the argument that Ohio, with all it's American workers, hasn't benefited from Honda's presence here as much as the Japanese have.
We castigate Dodge for sending its money to Mexico to build trucks because we'd rather see Americans getting those jobs. But we also castigate Honda for sending its money to America to build cars, even though Americans are getting the jobs.
So, we want Americans to have jobs, but only if it's for an American company?
I'm not bashing you, Pete! I'm just saying things aren't as clear cut as they first seem, especially when you know people who would suffer without the economic prosperity brought in by certain companies.
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