Episode One: The World’s Most Reliable Truck

If Tundras are known for anything, it’s their longevity–and the new Toyota Tundra aims to preserve that reputation with its all-new powertrain: the i-FORCE 3.5 liter twin-turbo V6. Why a smaller engine than the previous generations’ V8? In short, to optimize power, performance, and efficiency. And to better understand how that evolved, we’ll show how Toyota leveraged learnings from Tundra’s legendary 4.7 liter V8—more specifically, the famous million-mile Tundra driven by Victor Sheppard. The story goes like this: in 2009, Sheppard purchased a new Tundra, and then drove the hell out of it. He averaged more than 300 miles a day, and nine years later, the odometer ran out of numbers. So Toyota gave him a new truck, broke down the old one, and studied it. In this episode, we’ll talk to both Sheppard and Toyota engineers to find out what Toyota learned from that vehicle, and how that longevity lives on in the current model.