No Tundra Down Under

Hideki Watanabe is the man who led the engineering project for the LandCruiser 200 Series. His presence in Australia for the launch of the LC200 was an opportunity to ask whether Toyota would consider the Toyota Tundra commercial vehicle (pictured) for the local market, since both vehicles are mechanically similar.

Watanabe headed up a team that was not only responsible for developing the LandCruiser, but also the other two elements of the tripartite project, the Sequoia SUV and the Tundra.

Both Sequoia and the Tundra are exclusively North American products. The former is larger than the LandCruiser (you read that right, 'larger') and the Tundra is a competitor for the Ford F-Series/Dodge Ram/Chevy Silverado.

According to Watanabe, the engines, transmissions and 4x4 transfer are shared across the three distinct models. We learned subsequently that the front chassis rails for the LandCruiser are common to the Tundra also, but Watanabe explained that the LandCruiser's crash safety meets a higher standard than the Tundra's.

By that, he meant that the LandCruiser had side airbags and side curtains whereas the Tundra doesn't. That's no deal-killer for a commercial vehicle in this country, of course.

So that means a right-hand drive version of the Tundra could pick up steering from the LC200 and comply with Australian Design Rules for perhaps relatively little re-engineering and certification costs.

Just in the nick of time, John Conomos, Chairman Emeritus of Toyota Australia adeptly crashed the party and asked: "Mr Watanabe, the Tundra is only engineered for left-hand drive, isn't it?"

Watanabe confirmed that to be the case and there the questioning ended.

But Tundra would be an intriguing test of the Australian market's reaction to such a large 'light commercial vehicle'. Toyota is already moving HiLux in large numbers, however, so the company is unlikely to consider a new model range that might snatch sales from the smaller model, without necessarily being a profitable line in its own right.