2007 Toyota Tundra

The Setup
The last Big Three-man standing wears a cowboy hat and boots and puffs a smoke. He's a he - there's no anti-chauvinist equivocating here - and he's as tough as he is weathered and beaten. But not beaten down. Not yet. He drives a Chevy Silverado or GMC Sierra, a Ford F-150 or a Dodge Ram. There are some 2 million sold per year, whether the way they're used matches that cowboy image or not. Two big Japanese-brand models would kill for that image and struggle to sell 200,000 big pickups per year between themselves.

Drive the new Tundra and you can't keep the John Ford western image out of your head, mostly because Toyota fosters it. The Tundra is Texas-built and the product of both Japanese and American designers, engineers and marketing mavens who have immersed themselves in ten gallon-hat culture. Drive it unaware of its badges, if you could, and you'd think you're driving the next Dodge Ram. Its long, massive hood qualifies for Nimitz-class aircraft carrier status. Its interior has the space of a Dallas-to-Houston drive, with storage bins that could stow an entire Scion dealership inventory. Interior handles and switchgear and stuff feels as if designed for Andre the Giant, someone bigger than you no matter who you are.

The only thing that might keep you from thinking of the '07 Tundra as an American pickup truck is your own nationalistic prejudice.

The Stakes
Number One. General Motors has sold more cars annually worldwide than anyone else, since 1931. Before the New Year, Toyota announced plans to build 9.4 million cars and light trucks in 2007. GM doesn't make such projections, but analysts predict GM will build about 9.2 million in '07. Toyota sold 112,484 Tundras in 2005 and hopes to sell about 200,000 in '07. If the new Tundra isn't a hit, Toyota won't pass GM quite so easily.

The Competition
Chevrolet Silverado/GMC Sierra: All new for 2007 and the best in the business, Motor Trend's Truck of the Year.

Ford F-Series: Market leader (thanks largely to GM's splitting its pickups into two divisions), with declining sales as its new-for 2004 F-150 ages. Ford has moved its replacement up to the 2009 model year (late '08 introduction). The '97 F-150 design served as the basis for the also-ran last-generation Tundra.

Dodge Ram: Also due for a 2009 replacement. The Ram has long been the most affected by fashion trends of the Big Three trucks, so it potentially has the most to lose to the new Tundra.

{{{Nissan Titan}}}: Will be all-new for 2010. Nissan has sold about 85,000 annually of its V-8-only pickup since its model year '04 introduction, roughly one-tenth of Ford F-150 sales. Not a contender so much as a way of keeping the few remaining Frontier buyers in the Nissan fold when they progress to a fullsize pickup. The next model will be available in a low-priced V-6 version.