I drove a $53,000 Toyota Tundra pickup to see if it’s on par with Chevy and Ford trucks — here’s the verdict

Matthew DeBord/ BI

The Toyota Tundra is normally the fourth-best-selling full-size pickup truck in the US. The Tundra is aging, but it has a reliable intend that’s up against brand-new pickups from the Detroit Big 3: Chevy, Ford, and Ram. Despite its age, the Tundra is a great pickup that is notably easy to drive and, in an upscale trim parcel, come here for a great deal of plush features.

In the world of the full-size pickup truck, the Ford F-1 50 guidelines the realm. Its perennial challengers are the Chevy Silverado and the Ram 1500.

You could be forgiven if you thought this massive US busines was a trifecta, full stop. But there are other large pickups in the land. And they are worthy.

The worthiest is the Toyota Tundra. While Toyota sells just about 115,000 of these every year and Ford moves close to 1 million F-1 50 s, the Tundra is no slouch when it is necessary to getaways. Among those working in the pickup-truck know, Toyotas are considered more or less indestructible.

You buy the F-1 50 because it’s … well, because it’s an F-1 50. You might own a dozen in a lifetime.

You buy the Tundra if you think you might want to go to your final payoff having owned merely one truck.

That’s an exaggeration, but not far off. You do have to stir some commerces. Trucks from Detroit’s large-hearted three automakers can be lavishly opulent these days, while most Toyota pickups we’ve sampled at Business Insider have been sort of bare-bones.

And then a tasty Toyota Tundra 1794 Crewmax, tip-off the cost scales at about $53,000, shored at our exam center in suburban New Jersey. It was different. Particularly different.

The Tundra has been around since 2000 and has amassed a steadfast following, even as it fails to seriously compete with the big three.( The present generation arrived in 2007 and was updated in 2014, attaining it a jolly old-fashioned platform .) That certainly doesn’t mean Toyota doesn’t take the Tundra seriously. In a week of driving it around — with a neat long run to the Catskills in upstate New York thrown in — I found out why.

Behold, the Toyota Tundra, Crewmax configuration — preferably out of its part in the leafy suburbs of north New Jersey. Matthew DeBord/ BI The competition between full-size pickups is remorseless. Here’s the Raptor high-performance version of the Ford F-1 50. Matthew DeBord/ BI