Toyota curious about Tundra's four-star showing in crash test

Toyota is a little confused as to how its new full-size Tundra pickup only achieved a score of four stars in the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's test for frontal crash performance. Mike Levine at Pickuptruck.com, who is fast becoming Autoblog's unofficial expert on all things with a bed, spoke with Bill Kwong, a representative from Toyota, this morning. Kwong revealed that Toyota performed its own internal crash testing of the Tundra according to the NHTSA's criteria and the truck repeatedly scored five stars. This no doubt gave Toyota the confidence to predict that the Tundra would receive five stars across the board from the NHTSA, a move that definitely has the Japanese juggernaut wiping a little egg off its face now. Kwong said it will take a few weeks to sort out what contributed to the truck's four-star score, but that they'll determine what it is and fix it as soon as possible.

What's more curious about this whole situation is that the NHTSA reported frontal crash test scores for both the Tundra regular cab and the Double Cab, or what the NHTSA calls the Extended Cab in its results. Toyota claims, however, that the NHTSA hasn't tested the Double Cab yet and therefore its four-star result should be immediately removed from the organization's results website, safecar.gov. While we can't verify if Toyota's claim is true, both the pictures and video released by the NHTSA of the crash tests only show the regular cab model. Based on that, it does appear that the Double Cab, as well as the four-door Crew Max, have yet to be tested. Still, the four-star score for the Double Cab model remains on safecar.gov.



Check out the video of the Tundra regular cab being crash tested after the jump.

[Source: Pickuptruck.com]


Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

Add your comments

Please keep your comments relevant to this blog entry. Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments.

When you enter your name and email address, you'll be sent a link to confirm your comment, and a password. To leave another comment, just use that password.

To create a live link, simply type the URL (including http://) or email address and we will make it a live link for you. You can put up to 3 URLs in your comments. Line breaks and paragraphs are automatically converted — no need to use <p> or <br /> tags.








Autoblog Podcast #153: With Phil Berg

Phil Berg puts his reputation on the line and hangs with the podcast crew.

 
 

Featured Galleries

  • 2011 BMW 5 Series sedan
  • Texas unveils new Vanity Plates
  • Spy Shots: Next-gen Buick Excelle for China
  • 2011 Cadillac CTS Coupe
  • Hyundai 2.4L Theta-II GDI
  • Ginetta G50EV and John Surtees at the Channel Tunnel
  • 2010 Toyota Land Cruiser
  • Quick Spin: Superformance MKIII-R
  • 2011 Buick Regal Live Unveiling
  • BMW Concept 6
  • Zenvo ST1 Details
  • Building an LS9 V8 at the GM Performance Build Center

AOL Autos

Find Your Next Car

Autoblog Video


Autoblog Green

Daily Finance

Download Squad

Engadget

Joystiq

Autoblog Spanish

Switched.com

FanHouse

Asylum