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- Driving Experience
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- Tech, Toys, & Tools
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- The Big Picture
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To suggest the half-ton pickup truck market is hotly contested would be an understatement of some magnitude, on par with saying “bacon is delicious” or “there was no point to this year’s federal election.” Each of the Detroit Three plow untold millions into the development of these high-volume (and high-profit) machines, perpetuating a continual cycle of “anything you can do, I can do better.”
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All of which makes the introduction of a new Tundra very big news. Our own Clayton Seams sampled the 2022 model line deep in the heart of Texas, not far from Toyota’s assembly plant in San Antonio, saying it “catapults far into the realm of the very best half-ton trucks on sale today.” That’s all well and good in a vacuum, but how does it stack up against the big guns in a head-to-head comparison?
To find out, we strapped ourselves into a 2022 Tundra TRD Pro and a 2021 Ford F-150 Lariat, both equipped with apples-to-apples hybrid engines and crew-cab body styles. While the TRD Pro is off-road focused and the Lariat is better for a night at Gilley’s, the powertrain and cabin similarities of these two trucks are more than enough for a direct comparo at this very early stage of the game.
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It’s worth noting the Tundra in this test was a pre-production model, meaning some of its details don’t wholly represent what an average consumer will find on the showroom floor. In other words, ignore any warning lights or messages on the Toyota’s digital cluster and the scattered bits of wonky fit and finish.
Power
2021 Ford F-150 PowerBoost and 2022 Toyota Tundra iForce Max Photo by Matthew Guy
2021 Ford F-150 PowerBoost Photo by Matthew Guy
2022 Toyota Tundra iForce Max Photo by Matthew Guy
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Toyota has ditched the V8 for 2022, choosing to offer a brace of six-cylinder engine options. Both deploy a twin-turbocharged 3.5L V6, but our tester added electrified hybrid gubbins, juicing output to 437 horsepower and 583 lb-ft of torque. This is mated to a ten-speed automatic and runs just fine on regular 87-octane fuel, thankyouverymuch.
All of which aligns well with the hybridized PowerBoost mill under the hood of this F-150. It also displaces 3.5L from a twin-turbo V6, appended with electrical helpers to produce 430 horsepower and 570 lb-ft of torque. Remember the ‘anything you can do, I can do better’ mantra mentioned earlier? Those extra seven ponies and 13 units of twist is how it manifests itself in the cutthroat truck segment. A ten-speed automatic is on tap here as well. On paper, it’s a draw.
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Driving Experience
2021 Ford F-150 PowerBoost and 2022 Toyota Tundra iForce Max Photo by Matthew Guy
2021 Ford F-150 PowerBoost Photo by Matthew Guy
2022 Toyota Tundra iForce Max Photo by Matthew Guy
2021 Ford F-150 PowerBoost Photo by Matthew Guy
2022 Toyota Tundra iForce Max Photo by Matthew Guy
2022 Toyota Tundra iForce Max Photo by Matthew Guy
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In addition to ditching the octopot, Toyota also binned leaf springs from its rear suspension, retaining a live axle bookended with coils or optional air suspenders. The truck is better off for it, feeling more composed over rough road surfaces than the Ford, especially in our unladen testing. While Ford has certainly improved its leaf-spring suspension over the decades, there is an argument to be made it’s pushed this old-school tech as far as it can go. Ford’s next step is to join the Coil Gang if it wants the type of on-road comfort found in the Toyota.
Despite their suspiciously similar output numbers, the Tundra feels ever so slightly more responsive than the F-150. Toyota downshifts are rapid and seamless when the driver calls down to the engine room for more power. Direct acceleration comparisons are tough absent of a closed course, but sticking with seat-of-the-pants judgements, acceleration seems slightly more robust in the Toyota, largely thanks to its better transmission manners and all its torque coming online 600 rpm earlier. It does, however, have an utterly soulless exhaust note.
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Ford has already been down that particular road, having been a purveyor of twin-turbo V6s in its pickups for the better part of a decade. Your author was unkind in his original assessment of the EcoBoost’s voice, once comparing it to Marilyn Manson screaming obscenities into a vacuum cleaner. I have no idea if Ford read those words, but the PowerBoost engine, which uses the EcoBoost as its base, sounds more like a so-called ‘real truck’ and less like an angry sewing machine than any boosted F-150 in recent memory. Toyota will learn this lesson in due course, as well.
Interior
2021 Ford F-150 PowerBoost Photo by Matthew Guy
2021 Ford F-150 PowerBoost Photo by Matthew Guy
2021 Ford F-150 PowerBoost Photo by Matthew Guy
2021 Ford F-150 PowerBoost Photo by Matthew Guy
2021 Ford F-150 PowerBoost Photo by Matthew Guy
2022 Toyota Tundra iForce Max Photo by Matthew Guy
2022 Toyota Tundra iForce Max Photo by Matthew Guy
2022 Toyota Tundra iForce Max Photo by Matthew Guy
2022 Toyota Tundra iForce Max Photo by Matthew Guy
2022 Toyota Tundra iForce Max Photo by Matthew Guy
2022 Toyota Tundra iForce Max Photo by Matthew Guy
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The pickup truck arms race has long since spilled over from engine bay to cabin, with Ford bringing the goods for 2021 in the form of a new infotainment system and plenty of available luxury features like flat-recline front seats and sumptuous upholstery which, in this tester, is the creamy colour of a Tim’s double-double. Ford clearly read from the Book of Ram for some details – the excellent bottom-centre grip on the steering wheel and dual gloveboxes are prime examples – but has forged its own excellent path in many other areas.
Witness the easy-peasy placement of every secondary control, from audio to ventilation, which manages to blend physical dials and a jumbo touchscreen instead of trading one for the other. The large digital gauge cluster offers up more information than the nightly news, presented with entertaining animations and crisp graphics. And if you can’t get comfortable in these thrones, go see a chiropractor.
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While our Toyota tester was an off-road focused trim, its basic cabin form extends across all models. Chunky rocker switches to control most functions work well, and all have a rubbery and stocky feel. Vents are well-sized to provide ample airflow, and a large centre screen packs an operating system which finally leads Toyota out of the infotainment wilderness. Device charging is perfectly placed for convenient if not distraction-free usage, and the fully retractable rear window is such a good feature that it defies logic why every other truck maker didn’t copy it years ago.
Tech, Toys, & Tools
2021 Ford F-150 PowerBoost Photo by Elliot Alder
2022 Toyota Tundra iForce Max Photo by Matt Guy
2022 Toyota Tundra iForce Max Photo by Matt Guy
2021 Ford F-150 PowerBoost Photo by Matt Guy
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There’s a truckful of positives in the new Tundra, but it does fall short of the F-150 in terms of cargo and utility innovation. For example, Ford offers the integrated power generator, plus items like a tailgate step and available weigh scales, but Toyota is limited to a typical household power outlet and basic tie-down points in its composite box. In fact, if not for the sliding cleat system along its upper box rails, there would be but a quartet of places in which to secure a load.
This is surprising given the effort put into the rest of this truck, doubly so when one considers Toyota has the same hybrid guts with which to create a Ford-style generator. Dearborn also offers tools like onboard weight scales, which sense load levels being placed in the pickup and illuminates its taillights in a bar-graph fashion to let users know how close they are to max load.
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Meanwhile, Ram has its too-useful Rambox storage system, and GM has an abundance of tie-downs plus the corner bumper step. This is all absent in the Toyota. Perhaps these oversights can be chalked up to budget limitations, but short of such a notion from Toyota, we’re left to speculate. Hopefully such features will appear in later model years.
The Big Picture
2021 Ford F-150 PowerBoost Photo by Matthew Guy
2022 Toyota Tundra iForce Max Photo by Matthew Guy
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Styling is unmentioned here because it is a highly subjective category. Suffice it to say, the Toyota’s grille is as big and in-yer-face as it looks in photos, though your author does relish the idea of blazing the grille-mounted TRD off-road light at every opportunity simply to annoy the neighbours. The Ford has a more grown-up appearance, despite having enough chrome up front to fill a bucket.
One’s choice will boil down to outright ride comfort versus available practical features. While the Ford does exhibit a more truck-like road experience than the Toyota, its myriad of useful tools – Pro Power Onboard, the weigh scales, a stout tailgate step – cannot be ignored. As is, it’s simply a more useful machine and at these prices ($80,000 and change) a truck should be able to do everything its owner asks, not just most tasks.
But don’t expect Toyota to leave these gaps unaddressed – nor Ford to leave poor ride quality on the table – for very long. After all, truck-makers are living proof that the schoolyard taunt “everything you can do plus one” is a great way to spur a rival into action.
Keyword: Pickup Comparison: 2021 Ford F-150 PowerBoost vs 2022 Toyota Tundra iForce Max