'The new benchmark': Toyota shades Ram 1500, Chevrolet Silverado and Ford F-150 in declaring the Tundra the best of the lot

They might all be remanufactured through Walkinshaw in Victoria, but Toyota has wasted no time in declaring the incoming Tundra as better than the Ram 1500 and Chevrolet Silverado, insisting its product "sets a new benchmark" for the conversion process in Australia.

That's the word from Toyota Australia's Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Sean Hanley, who said the development work that has gone into the Tundra is so encompassing that it shouldn't even be called a "conversion".

"Anyone who refers to the right-hand drive Tundra as a mere conversion is massively underselling what has been achieved here. In this case, it could even be a misleading word," he said.

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"This vehicle sets a new benchmark for reengineering a full-size pickup truck... from left hand dive to right hand drive."

It's true that, like parents, it's likely Walkinshaw loves all of its creations equally, the company chief was quick to suggest the Tundra was the most "in-depth" program the business had ever run, and suggested Toyota's processes has improved the Walkinshaw Automotive Group business.

"The amount of investment and the amount if time that has gone into this program has been by far the most in-depth program that we've ever done," Ryan Walkinshaw told media.

"Working with Toyota has helped elevate our business, and helped push us in a direction where we're now running Toyota minimum quality standards with our engineering and our production lines. It's something that wasn't at a level that we were doing previously.

"Generally, a program with some of our customers would be around two years to do the development before you end up getting to the start of production. It took over three years with Toyota.

"It has been an incredible learning experience for our business."

Billed as Toyota's "ultimate towing machine" the Tundra Limited will be first to arrive (followed by a more luxurious version next year) packing a monster 4.5-tonne braked towing capacity (less than it gets in the USA, but able to be driven in Australia without the need of a special licence), making it the most tow-friendly vehicle in the Toyota stable.

Providing the pulling power is Toyota's i-Force Max engine, which pairs a twin-turbo V6 with an electric motor and a 6.5Ahr nickel metal hydride battery to produce a total 326kW and 790Nm.