Tundra
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F-150
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Tundra Safety: Tundra has offered side airbags and side- curtain airbags as standard equipment since 2006. Other standard safety features include:
* 3- point seatbelts in all seating positions
* Emergency Locking Retractor (ELR) on driver’s seatbelts
* ELR/ALR ( Automatic Locking Retractors)
* Front seatbelt pretensioners with force limiters
* Advanced Airbag System for drive, from outboard passenger
* Child-protector rear door locks
* Child Restraint System
Toyota’s safety system is a suite of sophisticated technologies designed to help the driver maintain control of the truck and avoid accident. These include Vehicle Stability Control (VSC) with Traction Control (TRAC), 4- wheel disk Anti-Lock Brake System (ABS), Electronic Brake-Forced Distribution (EBD) and Brake Assist (BA) and are standard on all Tundra models.
Tundra refinements: While luxury packages can draw attention in the showroom, the customer base is quite narrow. Toyota continues to focus on the core needs of the pickup truck owners by offering a wide-ranging and customer-friendly selection of models and options.
Toyota’s Limited trim is no slouch in the luxury department. It offers leather upholstery, 10-way power driver seat, premium JBL sound system, DVD navigation, rear-view camera, automatic dual-zone climate control, Optitron gauges and available rear-seat DVD entertainment.
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How Ford safety compares: The new F150 will have standard front seat-mounted side airbags and Safety Canopy side-curtain airbags. Ford continues to offer safety devices for the driver front passenger, including adjustable seatbelts, ALR, ELR and different airbag deployment levels.
Ford says the new F-150 has segment-first standard AdvanceTrac with RSC and Trailer Sway Control. AdvanceTrac is Ford’s electronic stability control and RSC stands for Roll Stability Control. Trailer Sway Control is an extension of AdvanceTrac with RSC that looks for yaw motion in the truck to determine if there is trailer sway, then may apply brakes and reduce engine power to correct the situation.
The Anti-Lock Braking System (ABS) is also standard.
How Ford refinements compare: Ford appears determined to capture the high-end luxury pickup market. Ford’s marketing strategy for the next generation F-150 pickup appears to emphasize that one size will not fit all. Or three or four. Ford is already touting the wide range of choice that will be available when the truck goes on sale this fall.
Ford will offer 35 choices of models which do not include additional choices between 4x2 or 4x4 and different engine transmissions combinations. Nor does it include any special editions that might come along, like the Harley Davidson edition, or a performance model like the old SVT lightning.
The newest F150 model level is the Platinum which will include additional insulation, a laminated windshield and different carpeting that have been added for noise reduction.
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More is better
There used to be a common perception among many pickup enthusiasts that race-engine technology wouldn’t hold up in a truck engine. Those fancy aluminum blocks, dual overhead camshafts and four valves per cylinder were too complicated and flimsy for a truck guy. They wanted iron construction, single camshaft in the block and familiar two vales per cylinder. Toyota certainly has silenced the critics with its stellar engine lineup in the Tundra, especially the available 5.7-litre i-Force V8. An engineering gem, the i-Force features advanced power train technology that well-financed race teams envied only a few years ago.
Here’s a quick look:
* Aluminum block and cylinder-head construction
* Dual overhead camshafts (DOHC)
* Four valves per cylinder
* Sequential electronic fuel injection
* Electronic throttle control
* Sophisticated engine-management computer
* Toyota Direct Ignition (TDI)
* Dual independent Variable Valve timing w/intelligence(VVT-i)
* Super-Long-Life engine coolant
* 4-into-2-into-1 engine coolant
* ULEV II emissions rating
* Acoustic Control Induction System (ACIS)
The four-vales-per-cylinder features seems to be the key “high-tech curse” that traditionalists distrusted. The advantages to this cylinder-head arrangement are indisputable. The four valves- two intake and two exhause- are arranged in a cloverleaf pattern for greater airflow in and out of the cylinder. This design also allows a central location for the spark plug to help ensure even firing throughout the cylinder. Even diesel engines, the paragon of durability, are set up with four valves per cylinder because airflow is key to engine performance.
The next benefit of four vales per cylinder is dual overhead camshafts. By dedicating one camshaft directly above the intake valves and one directly above the exhaust valves, the valve action is very precise, even at higher engine speeds. When implementing variable vale timing, DOHC allows changes independent of each camshaft for flexibility in improving performance or fuel economy.