2008 Toyota Tundra

"It will take you on the back roads with the ability of 4WD and the comfort of leather, but will also keep its lane at a good clip through twisty mountain roads. While no 'city-goer,' its cushy seats, parking assist, and great visibility give it a fighting chance in all terrains." The biggest challenge with the Tundra? "Finding parking spaces large enough."

The answer is in: The new Toyota Tundra is now ready to take on any American-made pickup truck -- on all levels.

The launch of the all-new Tundra was a seismic event for the industry; with dimensions and performance that finally matched its Detroit rivals combined with Toyota's manufacturing and marketing muscle, here was a Japanese truck that finally looked a serious rival to F-150, Silverado, and Ram.

People say they want a Tundra diesel, well with that much torque, who needs a diesel?

5.7L V-8 pulls hard, plenty of interior space for both passengers and gear. The thing's huge!

Dash ergonomics, odd window lock switch, fuel mileage, towing feedback, and the thing's ginormous!

In the 6700 miles or so we've had the truck, the Tundra's averaged 13.8 mpg in congested Los Angeles traffic, with a best on-highway cruise in the high 16s and the worst, a heavy-hauling slog back from Las Vegas with a team of sport bikes in the bed, touching just under 11 mpg. No doubt the six-speed transmission helps for highway cruising, but we've discovered if you want the good mileage from this engine, stay in the right lanes and hum around 60 mph.

It was in our work-duty testing that the Tundra first started to catch our attention, with the 5.7-liter V-8 Limited CrewMax Tundra running miles ahead of the competition, with and without a loaded trailer in tow (note our performance analysis in the story and the Tundra's winning Performance Score). The Tundra proved itself a star player in plain dress (Double Cab Tundra Grade, 4.7-liter V-8; $27K) as well as fully decked out (CrewMax Limited, 5.7-liter V-8; $47K). When dressed down, the front bench seating allows for a column shifter and work-truck dash with a dual glovebox and hidden center storage compartment under the center seat. Our fully loaded model had supple leather captain's chairs and a huge center console storage bin, large enough to hold a few laptops and serve as a filing cabinet. The CrewMax model, with its extended passenger cabin, offers a sliding rear seat with drop-forward and slide-forward capability.

Sure, there's been other regular-cab sport trucks like Ford's SVT Lightning and Dodge's SRT-10 Ram, but this Tundra stomps 'em both, handily, in the 0-to-60 test by almost a half second. The Tundra dashes to 60 in 4.4 seconds making it faster than your car, if you're driving a Mustang GT (5.1), Dodge Challenger SRT8 (4.6), Jaguar XF SC (4.90), Audi S5 coupe (4.5), or BMW 135i (4.6), and as fast as our long-term 2006 Porsche Carrera S.

Only a couple of bolt-on parts transform an already hefty Toyota 5.7L V-8 engine into a screaming banshee.

With its full-size Toyota Tundra, Toyota has finally unleashed a no-holds-barred, light-duty truck that shows no deference to those from Chevy, Dodge or Ford. The Tundra doesn't just run with the big dogs. It is, plain and simple, one of the biggest.