Zastava_101

http://www.autoblog.com/2007/01/17/t...rd-asks-first/

neil07gt

what's the downside? I've been thinking about it but can't come up with much.

Will ford be selling tacoma's instead of rangers, and selling toyota hybrid cars?

Zastava_101

I don't see how it would benefit Toyota other than Tundra 2500 and 3500.

Evil_Capri

It would help validate Toyota's efforts to become an 'American Car Company'.

Moosetang

Toyota gets access to Ballard's Fuel Cell tech, which Ford is holding the reigns on right now. They also probably gets first dibs on any manufacturing capacity that Ford sheds.

jsaylor

Try Tundra 1500 too. Toyota's new full size appears to suffer from as many hickups as the old ones did. Also, Toyota has never been very successful at manufacturing performance cars, especially not of the rwd variety. And everybody who thinks they don't want one smokes something of very high quality indeed. They gave up beause they couldn't figure out how to crack that nut, not because they didn't want to.

Yeah, somebody is going to start ranting about MR2's or Supra's. Most of those cars were utters failures in the eyes of Toyota and the rest were just competent. Example: The last generation Supra may be drooled over now by the F&F set, but they were riveted to the dealer lot pavement when new. Turbo's wore rebates of nearly 20k dollars by the time the U.S. market waved goodbye to the car.

Toyota has never had a runaway success in the performance car dept...ever.

That said, a Toyota-Ford alliance may be the worst idea ever.

Zastava_101

New Tundra 1500 is a great truck. 5.7L makes more power and has the best towing capacity than any other 1500 truck on the market.

Evil_Capri

I think Ford up'd the F-150s towing capacity in 2007 to 11,000lbs besting the Toyota by 200lbs. I also think the F-150 also has best-in-class payload capacity.

neil07gt

The Lariat interior and ride comfort beats the pants off the Tundra. However, if you thought throttle-by-wire lag was bad on the mustang, it's the same or worse on the F150. (F150 Lariat Supercrew with 6.5' LB is the way to go)

Zastava_101

Accoring to Ford's brochure maximum towing capacity is 10,500 pounds.

Zastava_101

New Tundra is not out yet, so its impossible to know how interior i ride comfort is.

Evil_Capri

As of January 4th, 2007 it's 11,000lbs.

http://media.ford.com/products/press...3b0560Z$3F$9A$

Zastava_101

I guess they need to update their brochure

jsaylor

It makes more power and a towing capacity advanatage that didn't make it through the trucks launch. But most of what you cite has been done before, how well did 'uber' hp work out for Nissan?

Toyota also dropped the ball in several keys areas. First, payload is hadly trend-setting, and that powerful 5.7L also continues the great gas sucking tradition of past full-sizeToyota pickups. Go for either of the smaller engines to avoid this pitfall and you end up with nothing you can't already get elsewhere. Toyota also decided not to use fully boxed frame rails in a segment flush with them, and where durability, or the perception of it, matters. And what is the price going to be? The Tundra is stupid expensive now, and that with less powerful motors in a smaller package. Did I mention that I have yet to hear anyone express that they actually like the trucks looks?

Even worse, many of Toyota's advantages appear short lived. GM can easily match Toyota's power with existing motors, and Ford has the Boss V-8 and V-8 TDi motors coming soon which should easily trump the 5.7L Toyo V-8. There is very little here to convince anyone to abandon their Ford or Chevy.

Zastava_101

I wouldn't mind more horsepower in my F-150 even if payload and towing capacity won't increase. 4.6L in F-150 is waaaay underpowered.

Treadhead

That thing looks someone punched it in the nose and it's swollen up now.

mudshuvel319

I have a really hard time believing that this would ever happen. Ford is having its troubles financially, but it would really be waving the white flag to ask Toyota to help them. The company has a lot of pride and self-respect and it would be completely trashing both of those by joining Toyota.

I don't know that this will never happen, but at this point, Ford believes it can rebound from its problems. The company would have to be a lot deeper in the red (like having filed for chapter 11) to even consider joining forces with "the dark side". There may be some potential benefots for both sides in the deal, but there is not nearly enough to force Ford's hand.

tacbear

And I thought the last Gen Camaro looked like a "Catfish"!!!!!!!!!

future9er24

Beat me to it.

vistablue mustang

The F-150 is about as close to a perfect truck as you can get (want more power buy the Roush) GM's trucks are also equally competent, we are renting an 07 Tahoe right now and that thing is a great vehicle (yes I know it's a SUV and not a truck). My uncle has a 02 Silverado and with over 65K on the ODO that thing runs circles around Tundras of a similar year. Toyota is a crappy truck manufacturer who can never seem to get a happy balance between Payload, HP, ride quality, and gas mileage.

To me I think Toyota does not have what it takes to hang in the American Truck industry, their strength is sedans. Much like the mid size coupe's I feel over time Toyota may pull away from F-150/Silverado market much like it did with coupes. I also feel that Ford has little to gain from joining with them outside of cashing in on some of Camry's profits, Toyota has the mid sized sedan market tied down pretty good but if Ford can keep the Fusion going strong (which is a better car then the Camry hands down, and yes I have driven both) and get the quality in the Fusion to spread out to all their sedan platforms and start making GM-esque progress with interiors Toyota will have good fight on it's hands.