Can The 2021 Toyota Tundra TRD PRO Compete With The Raptor, TRX, Or Rebel? [Full Review]

This Toyota Tundra TRD PRO is just under 49,000$ which makes it within 100$ of the most expensive and luxurious tundra you can buy And the door handles are made by little tikes Both hood scoops are fake The steering wheel is the same as you get in a base Tacoma from like 12 years ago The gear stick is from the 90s and the head unit is a dumpster fire By no means is this a luxurious or modern truck and with the TRD Pro kit it starts competing with things like the Ford Raptor or the Ram TRX in terms of offroad prowess. Here’s the good news/bad news. Bad news first, in every measurable way the Raptor and TRX are superior trucks execpt for two - reliability and price. At 50k MSRP you can’t buy a used Raptor with less than 60k miles selling for less than that. Here’s another thing to consider, these TRD PRO vehicles hold their value better than damn near every other truck and why is that? PEOPLE FIEN FOR THEM! WHY? It’s a horribly equipped, basic, inefficient, ancient pickup?! Here’s the reason - owners will actually offroad these things. Think of the Raptor and the TRX as the Lamborghinis of off road trucks. Wildly capable, but they spend more time on Instagram than what they’re built for. TRD owners beat the crap out of them and go overlanding, why? Cuz the trucks can take it. The Toyota Land Cruiser is the go-to offroad vehicle worldwide because it’s capable, tough and bulletproof. The TRD trucks aren’t the fastest or the best to live with, but you can take it out, beat the absolute mess out of it and it’ll still ask for more. So with that, let’s talk about the specifics of the Tundra TRD PRO I’ll add one caveat before we dive in here. At the filming of this video, the next gen Tundra was leaked and the new one looks like it’ll fix a lot of the things I’ve complained about in the opening. Here it is, the Toyota Tundra is a massive beast of a truck It’s got a 5.7L V8 381 hp 401 lbft This is what you want, not the 6 in the Taco (SOUND) Toyota/Lexus V8s are bulletproof 6 speed auto 4WD with electronic transfer case and automatic LSD It’s not fast, it’s huge and it’s beasty - you don’t expect a SUMO wrestler to win a footrace, but that doesn’t mean he’s not in shape Here’s the thing though, none of that stuff I just mentioned is the important bit This is an offroader so it’s nice to have that 4wd system with the transfer case BUT Fox dampers with external reservoirs - for added travel and body control skidplate Rigid fog lights TRD specific wheel and tire package - BBS Forged Now even with all that stuff it’s still missing some stuff from the competition, but that’s a separate video Let’s talk looks, I’ll let you make your own decisions for the most part, BUT Lunar rock Special grille TRD stamping Looks as badass as it is, but I’d have the Army green and if I had a taco id do voodoo blue Interior is basic as hell like we talked about Super spacious Back seats fold up too Front seats are ehh comfy, but have cool stitching In 2020 they added ACP and AA Now let’s get it on the road and see how it does Here’s something ridiculous - LAUNCH! It’s not horribly slow and more importantly it sounds great. Silky smooth V8 power Redline under 6000 6 speed gearbox THIS IS OLD SCHOOL AF - came out in 07….. The Fox dampers make this actually really comfy on the road too The ride is supple and the power rolls on smooth The steering is sluggish, makes this big truck FEEL like a big truck Overall it’s not bad, it’s overly simple, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing Final thoughts* Alright so at this point we’ve been all over this thing. Here’s my consensus. The biggest fault is the age. The new gen for 2021 or 2022 will solve a lot of the equipment and design issues It’ll also solve the fuel economy issue which is abysmal at like 17 mpg highway. (hybrid) Despite all those flaws there’s a lot to like here, especially if you’re an overlander take your vehicle camping. The offroad kit is good enough where you can get most place safely, the interior is big enough so you can get there comfortably and the reliability is enough so you can always get home...unless you run out of gas ----------------------------------- Make sure you're watching the videos all the way through because 10% OF YOUTUBE REVENUE GOES TO THE OCEAN CONCERVANCY!! https://oceanconservancy.org/ Please visit my Patreon to support the channel:   / downshiftmke   Follow Downshift to see what's coming next! Facebook:   / dwnshftmke   Instagram:   / downshiftmke   #TRDPRO #FordRaptor #RAMTRX