Baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Toyota’s Tundra Crew Max?

Coincidence or not, 2007 is proving to be a very big year for Toyota, as the Japanese automaker has become the first foreign manufacturer to compete in NASCAR’s elite stock car racing series this year, too. That effort started four years ago with a Tundra entry in NASCAR’s Craftsman Truck Series.

Frankly, I prefer Chevy’s Silverado in virtually every respect, but the Tundra Crew Max is an impressive vehicle nevertheless. For folks who happen to have five full-size adults and lots of equipment to haul to work sites, the Crew Max is hard to beat.

The 44.5 inches worth of rear seat legroom is exceeded in utility only by the fact the Crew Max is the only full-size pickup entry to offer rear seats that both recline and slide. The Crew Max looks humongous from the outside with its 145.7 inch wheelbase and the interior’s capacious rear seating area makes it seem even bigger.

From the driver’s seat, the Crew Max also feels huge, with a high position that looks out over a large hood and prominent fenders. You are constantly aware of the Crew Max’s proportions, especially on a two-lane road and with traffic on roads with any number of lanes.

Bigtrucks need big power and the Tundra’s 5.7 liter iForce V-8  has torque in abundance.

What is perhaps most surprising about the Crew Max, though, is how it performs in a straight line. The 5.7 liter iForce V-8 produces a very healthy 381 horsepower and an even healthier 401 lb-ft of torque.

Hooked with a slick-shifting six-speed automatic, a four-door Double Cab Tundra will pull 60 mph from rest in under seven seconds. The Crew Max with the same powerplant needs an even seven seconds. Both numbers are eye-opening for vehicles of the Tundra’s heft.

The Silverado with Chevy’s 6.0 liter Vortec is a bit quicker and I like its exterior looks and interior accommodations better than the Tundra, but the latter comes with one thing the GM product lacks and that is Toyota ’s sterling reputation for unbeatable quality.

At $42,350 for the Crew Max with rear-wheel-drive, the Tundra isn’t cheap, but then fully optioned versions of the Silverado, Dodge Ram 1500 and Ford F-150 don’t come cheap, either.

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