Advertisement

Here's Our First Look at the 2022 Toyota Tundra

Photo credit: Toyota
Photo credit: Toyota

It’s the Space Jam half-ton hauler. Every wacky shape exaggerated, each insane detail fighting every eccentric flourish, and all behind a giant grille upon which a whole herd of cattle could be simultaneously barbecued. Someone at Toyota designed the 2022 Tundra large pickup, but it looks like it came out of Warner Bros. Animation. Pure Looney Tunes.

Daffy Duck, this is your truck.

After an image of the new Tundra “leaked” from a dealer meeting, Toyota tweeted out an official photo of the new TRD Pro version of the stupendously stupendous cargo mover. Those of us hoping for a return to the restraint and tasteful confidence of the first-generation Tundra have been betrayed. Instead, Toyota has doubled-down, tripled-down and septupled-down on cartoon culture and big rig-style intimidation. It’s the second-generation truck with additional styling rabies. If this sort of thing is you bag, here’s the baggiest. This Tundra TRD Pro is so vast that those 285/65R18 Falken WildPeak A/T tires look lost in the wheel wells.

ADVERTISEMENT

As an aside, doesn’t “WildPeak” sound like it should be the name of Cannabis dispensary in Boulder, Colorado? Just saying.

The black A-pillars leading back to black surrounds on the greenhouse give this particular white truck the angry husky puppy look. The LED light bar embedded in the grille is an interesting touch, but the camouflage pattern cast into the front bumper and wheel surrounds is borderline psychedelic. The amber marker lights atop the grille indicate this TRD Pro is so wide that they’re legally required, as in Ford’s F-150 Raptor and the Ram 1500 TRX. But since Toyota released zilch info with this photo, for all anyone here knows, those ambers may be a cynical affectation. Which isn’t really a demerit, because when it comes to cynical affectations it’s hard to beat using an ampersand in the name of a publication.

There are no interior shots. No information on whether the tail end is suspended on the long-rumored coil springs and not a word about the twin-turbocharged, 3.5-liter V6 “i-Force Max” engine that’s definitely (more or less) coming. How many gears are there in the transmission? Eight? Ten? Sixteen? Toyota ain’t saying. Will there be a hybrid version? Maybe. A diesel? It’s not beyond the realm of possibility? Or maybe there will an energy transference orb installed under the hood that turns good feelings and chill vibe into mechanical motion. Toyota just won’t cough up the details.

So enjoy this photo for what it is. Ponder what function those black plastic pieces on the hood could conceivable have. Go to all the other sites strewn about the Internet who are speculating about this same photo amid obsessive ignorance. Go ahead, you’ve read this far already, blow the rest of the day making things up. Because Toyota ain’t talking.

The new Tundra should go on sale… um, er… in the near future? Meanwhile, Space Jam: A New Legacy opens on July 16th both in theaters and on HBO Max.

You Might Also Like