Home Forums Gear Hunting Trucks and Four-Wheel Drives Choosing another 1/2 ton pickup

Why are you ditching the Ford?

If you're only going to keep it a year like the current one, get which ever one tickles your fancy. They should all last that long.

Everyone has their favorite and their hate list. As soon as one brand is recommended someone will be along to tell you it's a piece of [bleep]. I went with Tundra.

Last time I purchased I wanted a fairly basic 4dr pickup with just a few options. By the time I priced what I wanted and what I was willing to pay I ended up with the tundra. I was near the end of the model year so was a little limited in choices, and most of the big 3 trucks were heavily optioned and more $$ than I was happy about, Toyota gave me the most choices in lightly optioned trucks. Plus I've had very good experience with Toyota in past.

We have a 2012 Tundra SR5 four-door with the 6 1/2 ft bed and 4WD. It also has the TRD off-road package. We're well over 144K on the odometer and have done nothing to it except the scheduled service. We replaced the OEM tires at about 25K and are on our second set of Hankook DynaPro ATMs. I did trash the front skid plate 2 1/2 years ago, but that was my fault, not any failure of the truck. Living in the middle of nowhere, most of our miles are highway miles, but we do a lot of off-roading on BLM and National Forest roads, as well as on unimproved ranch roads and two-tracks.

If you want a truck that will last 8 years, I would strongly recommend that you look at the Tundra. Before we bought the Tundra we had a Tacoma 4WD on which we put over 248K miles over an eight year period. Other than scheduled maintenance, we only replaced the center CV joint in the rear drive shaft at a little over 100K miles because it was a little loose. It was still running like a watch when we sold it. (The trucks overlapped for about 3 years before we bought a Mercury Sable for a road car.)

I usually keep vehicles for at least 8 years.

Being bought back by Ford its a lemon. It's been a nightmare

I am looking too. What I am finding is that chevy/GMC hold their value the best, followed by Ram, with Ford dragging up the rear. I am not really looking at Toyotas or Nissan, so I am not sure about their resale value. I'm not sure what that tells you, other than what the market will bear, but they all cost about the same new.

What were the issues with the Ford?

Does Ford have the capability to build one specifically for you with someone doing QC checks through the entire process knowing you had a lemon? Just a thought that if they'd essentially build one special for you with additional oversight it might be worth it. I have no idea if that's even a possibility though.

Being bought back by Ford its a lemon. It's been a nightmare

Did it have the 5.0 V-8 or echo boost engine?Just curious.

I bought a new 2011 Tundra Double Cab 4x4 with the 5.7L engine in Feb of 2012. So far I have replaced the factory BFG tires at 30,000 miles. If I had it to do over again, I'd more than likely choose the Tundra, even though it is a bit dated. However, I'd give them all a serious look.

Are you going to use it much off road ? If so, Chevy/GMC's get little use by the folks that live around here. Toyotas, either the Tacoma or the Tundra and the opted out Fords seem to be the picks in the 1/2 ton catagory. Even Nissan's latest are more popular than the GMC products.
I'm a Dodge Ram fan. But in the half ton's I'd go with a Tundra with their TRD Pro Package. E

We have a 2012 Tundra SR5 four-door with the 6 1/2 ft bed and 4WD. It also has the TRD off-road package. We're well over 144K on the odometer and have done nothing to it except the scheduled service. We replaced the OEM tires at about 25K and are on our second set of Hankook DynaPro ATMs. I did trash the front skid plate 2 1/2 years ago, but that was my fault, not any failure of the truck. Living in the middle of nowhere, most of our miles are highway miles, but we do a lot of off-roading on BLM and National Forest roads, as well as on unimproved ranch roads and two-tracks.

If you want a truck that will last 8 years, I would strongly recommend that you look at the Tundra. Before we bought the Tundra we had a Tacoma 4WD on which we put over 248K miles over an eight year period. Other than scheduled maintenance, we only replaced the center CV joint in the rear drive shaft at a little over 100K miles because it was a little loose. It was still running like a watch when we sold it. (The trucks overlapped for about 3 years before we bought a Mercury Sable for a road car.)

Toyotas are not exactly given away and are more expensive then the big 3 generally. That said they hold their value better . Toyota IMHO has taken a dip in quality and noticeably so.

I haven't found the tundra to be as expensive as a comparably equipped truck from the big 3. I've got a 2016 tundra and have had no problems as I would expect from a toyota. Between my (ex)wife and myself we've had three camry's and over 600,000 miles the sum total of the unscheduled maintenance on them has been one wheel bearing that went out at 160,000 miles on one of the. Given my experience you won't convince me that toyota's quality isn't light years ahead of anything GM, Ford, or Chrysler makes.

I have an 09 F150 that I like quite a bit, but I had to rent a truck last week when I was doing some stuff on my land in Montana and they gave me a new Tundra. It was a pretty basic version of the Tundra and had the smaller V8 (I think 4.6), 4x4. I spent a lot of time either off road or hauling stuff from Helena to my cabin in the woods about 65 miles from Helena.

This is obviously very unscientific, but a few things about the Tundra stood out compared to my F150.

On the positive side, the ride on road was much smoother and it was plenty capable off road.

On the negative side, that 4.6 engine was not up to the job. It felt gutless on the highway, even unloaded, and got horrible mileage (worse than my F150). Something like 14 mpg overall. For a new vehicle (it had only 4000 miles on it) it was already starting to show quality issues-the rear doors would unlock randomly, the backup camera didn't always work when the truck was put in reverse and the seats felt like they had no padding.

It wasn't a bad truck at all, but if you're going Tundra I think the 4.6 is a bad move. Everything I've heard about the 5.7 engine makes it sound like you don't take a MPG hit by going with the bigger engine but you get much better power.