Getting acquainted with the 2008 Toyota Tundra first began this past January with a preview in Charlotte, N.C. The two-day event featured some off-roading as well as a long drive through surrounding rural and suburban areas.
The message then — as it was just a couple of weeks ago during a test drive — was relatively straightforward: The Tundra is bigger and badder than it was before.
The 2008 Tundra is an open challenge to the Big Three, who have set the bar in the big-truck market. It is an uphill battle for Toyota to be accepted by American buyers in the big-truck market, but the new Tundra at least makes up for its weak-kneed predecessor. Toyota has given its new-generation Tundra as much marketing support as it possibly can.
But will it be enough?
We’re talking about 70 years or so of learned behavior by truck buyers, so one year in the fray isn’t going to scare the Big Three. For 2008 alone, Ford’s F-150 has gotten a little facelift, the GM fleet has improvements of its own and Dodge has some major discounts at its dealers.
For Toyota to scratch out a legitimate share of the market is an uphill pull that the Tundra’s vaunted 381-horsepower V-8 may just be up to. Right now, it will fight it out with the Nissan Titan for fourth place.
After that, who knows?
Tundra is certainly trying to be something for every sort of truck buyer. There is a choice of three cabs, box lengths, wheelbases, engines and trim levels, resulting in about 31 different versions of the Tundra.
The tested was a Tundra 4X4 with double cab sat high with needed running boards. I told a friend vacationing in the Tennessee mountains not to worry about the snowfall a cold snap might bring — the Tundra and I would fetch her directly off of anything short of Mt. Everest.
And I believed it.

2008 TOYOTA TUNDRA 4X4
Base Price: $38,550
As Tested: $42,833
Fuel Economy: 14 mpg city, 18 mpg highway
Body Styles: Standard, Double Cab, Crew Cab
In The Market: Ford F-150, Chevrolet Silverado, Dodge Ram, Nissan Titan.

PERFORMANCE
I didn’t take the Tundra off-roading after all during my most recent test drive. It didn’t snow in Tennessee, and there was no need in turning a perfectly fine white truck into a brown truck.
But I remembered very well the rather effortless push through the off-road course set up by Toyota during the preview. All of the 4x4s sit high and give drivers and passengers a feeling of superiority on the road or in the woods.
The 5.7-liter V-8 is a monstrous engine, yet it is smooth and performs in unique concert with the overall concept of the new Tundra, which is something of “brutish elegance.”
It’s 10,800-pound tow package certainly indicates brutish, but a ride that is more Lexus-like — due in part to a modified boxed frame that features C-section rear frame members welded to boxed front rails — is more elegant than many of its competitors.

AESTHETICS/ERGONOMICS
After getting past the new Tundra’s rather pugnacious front end, which has a gaping chrome grille as its calling card the same way an old boxer has a flattened nosed, and bulldoggish looks, the real story and comfort starts on the inside where the cab is finely tuned for comfort and, once again, the term elegant comes into play.
But so does high-tech — with a GPS system — and other upgrades that were part of a $1,650 package.
One of my favorite features was the Bluetooth enabled communications system. So, you don’t hook up the cell phone offered by Toyota. Fine. Just set up your cell phone’s Bluetooth and, voila, you’re talking without a handset or a headset. Most of my friends and family were tired of getting phone calls by the end of my test drive.
A comfortable cabin that gives you more reason to be comfortable — and safe — as you drive is a big plus in my book. The backup camera that flashes a view of your what lies at your stern on the GPS display panel is one of those merits, as is the Bluetooth connection.
On the outside, the bulldog is attached to 20-inch — 10 inches in width — tires that give the Tundra a bold stance and some bite to go with its newfound bark.

FINAL THOUGHTS
This Tundra is worthy of calling itself a “full-sized pickup.”