2017 Tundra Rental Review

Y’all are thinking in terms of domestic truck miles.

The Tundra, 2nd-Gen Tacoma, 4Runner, and Land Cruiser are probably the most reliable vehicles in the world. Yes, in the WORLD.

94,000 miles with a domestic and you’re already looking at changing some under hood components (alternator, starter, power steering pump, water pump, etc).

94,000 miles and a Toyota is just getting broken in
I do not agree. It’s a 6 year old truck that has received many different drivers. Very different service than your vehicles. I have also replaced plenty of alternators and water pumps on Toyota’s with under 100K.
 
94k is "high miles"? This ain't 1970 anymore. I wouldn't expect domestic or foreign at 6yr/94k to need much of anything--well, nothing, because that's not old and that's not high miles.

Maybe a battery and of course tires... I suppose brakes too. But beyond that?
You be my guest. Those who live East of the Mississippi sometimes don't get the "wide open" (isolated) places out here-


Two hours (or more) without cell phone service is not uncommon in many, many parts. And yea-I have pulled my trailer through most of them.
 
94,000 miles on a 6 year old rental is a lot. I wonder how many renters it’s had and what type of abuse/stupid things have been done to it. Nothing to do with the brand of truck.
 
You be my guest. Those who live East of the Mississippi sometimes don't get the "wide open" (isolated) places out here-


Two hours (or more) without cell phone service is not uncommon in many, many parts. And yea-I have pulled my trailer through most of them.
In college I took a 10 year old minivan from ME to Yellowstone, through MN (had to pick up friends). Radiator gave out, cracked tank finally gave up--yes, I knew it was leaking when I left, was willing to gamble a bit. Van had a reman motor and trans, as the original engine gave up after 100k. Not sure how many miles on the reman when I left but it was way past 50k, probably not far from 100k.

We took a shortcut and it was a 3 or 4 hour long road--as in, 3 hours between intersections--and gas stations. I was starting to sweat that one... since we saw like maybe 3 or 4 houses in that time! Wyoming has a lot of open space fer sure...

Would I do it again, even in one of my current jalopies? Probably. What's the worst that could happen? No good story ever started out "so I was sitting there eating a salad..."

*

My cellphone usually doesn't work at home, and there's dead zones all around me. Somehow I managed to get by before the advent of the stupid thing, and I suspect I could get by without it if I had to. If I had to travel again like that, I'd just stock my car back up with supplies. Longest I'd have to walk right now is maybe an hour to get cell service, so why bother loading the car up with stuff today?

*

Remind me again, all those new car dealerships, what do they have all those repair bays for? and what's with the deal with "needing" a warranty when buying a car? and all those recalls? They sure sound real reliable to me...
 
A whole lot of thinking in this thread that is, well, interesting...

Am I in the camp that would rent someones personal vehicle? No. Regardless of the deal.

Do I think driving a vehicle with under 100,000 miles in remote parts of the US is crazy? No I don't. Back in the day I drove cars with 200k miles in those same places without a second thought - and no cell phone either... And wouldn't bat an eye at it today either...

And could the fan boy ism for Toyota be any stronger in some? Between running a fleet of hundreds of domestic full size trucks (where I can count on one hand the number of times items have had to be replaced one poster claims are routine before 100k miles, or point to my own personal fleet with 4 domestic trucks that required none of the services described...

Does that make me a denier that Toyota's can be reliable? No. Never said that. But the size of the local Toyota repair shop would baffle me by the way some people seem to think they are...

Tundra's are decent trucks. Its OK to think so, and they check the boxes for many. When I bought my truck in 2016 (2016 F150 2.7 Ecoboost, which has gotten a new battery and will be getting brakes this week - that's it, at 100k miles), it reminded me of my mid 2000's domestic truck. And that floats some people's boats.
 
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11 Tundra CrewMax LTD 5.7 4wd.
113k. Love my truck. Got to drive my friends 21 GM 1500 this weekend.
The Tundra just feels more solid, for lack of a better term.
My accountant wants me to buy a new truck but I just can't let this one go.
Putting the 3rd set of tires on it this week.
15 mpg isn't great but beats $70k.
 
15 mpg isn't great but beats $70k.
That is what my gas 1 ton gets with full floating axles, 4.10 gears and my payload is 4047lbs.
I will never own another half ton truck again. I tow too much now with the parade float and the travel trailer. Almost 6000 miles last year.

Back on topic. 94,000 miles? I would drive it and not be worried. I have to think about the fleet vehicles out there that take that kind of or more abuse and keep going. Guys are now picking up Caprice PPVs with over 150,000 miles on them and 15,000 to 17,000 hours on them. That means they usually have 5,000 to 7,000 hours idle time on them. Guys drive them everywhere. We all know police cars get hammered. I guess it is what your comfort level is.
 
Back on topic. 94,000 miles? I would drive it and not be worried. I have to think about the fleet vehicles out there that take that kind of or more abuse and keep going.
That’s different because fleet vehicles are theoretically supposed to have a formal fleet maintenance program with strict controls in place for its operators. Turo is a different ballgame altogether.
 
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Lots of paranoia here...first off 94k for 6 years is pretty near average mileage. Secondly, I would trust that truck at least twice as much as I trusted the 65k mile 3 year old Rogue I got from Enterprise a year ago.
 
That’s different because fleet vehicles are theoretically supposed to have a formal fleet maintenance program with strict controls in place for its operators. Turo is a different ballgame altogether.
Fair enough, but I would suspect in 94,000 miles with regular oil changes and transmission service it may have needed tires and brakes. I can't imagine much else going wrong on a modern vehicle.
 
Y’all are thinking in terms of domestic truck miles.

The Tundra, 2nd-Gen Tacoma, 4Runner, and Land Cruiser are probably the most reliable vehicles in the world. Yes, in the WORLD.

94,000 miles with a domestic and you’re already looking at changing some under hood components (alternator, starter, power steering pump, water pump, etc).

94,000 miles and a Toyota is just getting broken in
The more I read this the worse it gets what domestic vehicle needs all that at 94,000 miles? I need to run out and tell the 97 K1500 and 05 Buick the need to start breaking stuff, not to mention the Malibu and WS6 both approaching 90,000 miles. John most of your post are well thought out and very well stated, but I think your Toyota bias is showing. Fine to be bias, but you also have to realize when somethings are just incorrect. Based off your comment I should be in the poor house and doing work every weekend with the cars I have owned or do own.
 
Fair enough, but I would suspect in 94,000 miles with regular oil changes and transmission service it may have needed tires and brakes. I can't imagine much else going wrong on a modern vehicle.
Not entirely applicable to this thread, but it sounds like you have never owned a Stellantis product. 🤣
 
That’s different because fleet vehicles are theoretically supposed to have a formal fleet maintenance program with strict controls in place for its operators. Turo is a different ballgame altogether.

Having worked for a small municipality, I can tell you that theory and practice are two different things.

They blew up the diesel engine in a Ford chassis ambulance because they didn't know that the oil needed to be changed every 250 engine hours, not 5000 miles.

Warranty DENIED.

(That whole experience made me lose whatever respect I might have had for local AND state government in Virginia...)
 
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The more I read this the worse it gets what domestic vehicle needs all that at 94,000 miles?

Even in the 80s they weren't that bad...I have a 1984 Chevy Cavalier wagon with 91,000 miles on it and all of those parts are original. The water pump needs to be changed, however, it's got a little bit of wobble to the pulley. The only underhood parts that have been changed since I resurrected it from it's 10-year slumber in my dad's garage are the radiator and the hoses. Also needed a fuel pump to get it going again. And it needs a new heater core. I have no doubt that the heater core and radiator leaking is due to the coolant last having been changed (prior to my changing it) sometime in the 80s or 90s...
 
One thing I forgot to mention in my original review, the audio system was abysmal!! I mean one of the worst I've heard no Bass, settings didn't help much.

Anyone else that owns a tundra experience that?
 
I've had good success with Turo. Rented a Miata in Hawaii and couldn't be happier.
I liked my Turo rental 2018 Camry Hybrid but found the fees to be pretty high. What they advertise is quite a bit less than the final bill. I actually got the Camry instead of a Jeep Grand Cherokee I had originally planned on for that reason alone. In the end it was a good decision because gas in the Seattle area was a fair amount higher than in Central Texas. I paid 5.25/gal to fill it up at the end but it took less than 2 gallons after driving it around the San Juan islands all day - 58.5 MPG observed on dash.

If I had to do it all over again I probably would prioritize the Turo closest to the hotel we were staying at. We dropped quite a bit of money on the Uber getting to the Turo person's house and back.
 
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