Toyota Tundra closer to Australian showrooms, vetting process for first 300 customers coming soon

The first 300 Toyota Tundra customers in Australia – who will conduct real-world test drives for up to a year before the US pick-up gets the green light for local showrooms – are likely go through a vetting process and be required to lease the vehicle before handing it back at the end of the trial.

The Japanese car giant is taking the unusual step – before approving the vehicle for Australian showroom introduction – because it has never before appointed a third party remanufacture one of its vehicles on such a massive scale.

Toyota Australia says it wants to leave no stone unturned to make sure the locally remanufactured right-hand-drive version of the Tundra meets the company's global quality and durability benchmarks.

Demand for the Toyota Tundra is expected to be off the charts given the early success of Ram Trucks Australia and Chevrolet locally.

Ram sold more than 6000 vehicles in Australia last year, and Chevrolet delivered more than 2300 pick-ups – despite each brand having only about 50 dealers.

Toyota Australia has a network of more than 230 dealers – and a vast audience of diehard fans who currently own a Toyota HiLux or Toyota LandCruiser, some of whom may want to upgrade to a US 'full-size' pick-up from the US.

While the right-hand-drive Toyota Tundra program is yet to get the final green light, if approved it is expected demand will initially exceed supply, hence the need for a vetting process for the first 300 real-world trial vehicles.

Toyota and its local engineering partner, the Walkinshaw Automotive Group – the former parent company of Holden Special Vehicles – have already been working on the right-hand-drive Tundra remanufacturing program for more than three years.

The lengthy process has taken at least twice as long as the engineering programs for right-hand-drive Ram and Chevrolet, which are also completed by the Walkinshaw Automotive Group on behalf of their respective US pick-up brands, which now operate in separate assembly facilities in Melbourne.

In an interview with the sales and marketing boss of Toyota Australia, Sean Hanley, the high-ranking executive told Drive the company will soon announce the vetting process for the first 300 Toyota Tundra trial vehicles – which will be the first showroom-ready saleable examples, not prototypes.

"We are about to launch internally our criteria for Toyota Tundra (test fleet) customers," said Mr Hanley.

"Because they will be part of the initial trial process, in a managed environment, we expect (the vehicles) will be leased via Toyota Finance, Toyota Fleet Management or through Toyota Australia."

Mr Hanley said while there will initially be a production run of 300 customer-ready Toyota Tundra pick-ups for the real-world trial, not all 300 will go to private individuals. Some will be held back for fleet evaluation, dealer training, and media test drives.

"So it's not going to be a full 300 vehicles to the public, but ... in the next few months we are working on that selection criteria. At this stage, we expect they will be full lease vehicles because this is actually a trial for us and we want those cars back."

Once the real-world road tests are complete, the first 300 Toyota Tundra pick-ups are expected to be checked and/or refurbished and sold as used cars via Toyota dealers – or back to customers who were part of the trial.

Toyota has not yet outlined detailed criteria for the first 300 customers, however the company has previously said it is keen to get feedback on the vehicles in a range of challenging conditions – off-road, towing, hot and humid climates, and cold climates.

"For the people who are lucky enough to pick up these vehicles, there will be a requirement for feedback, to attend sessions with (Toyota experts) and our regional offices to give us feedback, to tell us about the car, the performance," said Mr Hanley.

"This is the first ... full conversion Toyota had ever done outside of a Toyota facility. So we want to be sure the whole process meets our very stringent quality and durability standards."

When asked if the right-hand-drive Toyota Tundra program was progressing well, or whether it could be cancelled at the eleventh hour, Mr Hanley said: "There are a lot of technical and quality gateways that we still have to get through.

"Based on everything, the work we've done, the huge support we've had from Toyota North America, the huge support from (Toyota Japan), the massive amount of work done locally in product development and engineering, we're very confident.

"But what we want to be really confident about is that the 301st vehicle, the first one sold to a customer (after the 300 vehicles in the real-world test fleet), will be the best quality you could possibly have and the closest to (factory) quality manufacturing of any car on the market."

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