It was such a glaring exterior “defect,” it boggles the mind how it got past several rounds of quality control.
You’d think after making Tundras in Texas for over 20 years, Toyota would have their truck-making process down to a science, every truck exiting their factory as perfect as the ones before it. But, if this one issue has anything to say about that, such is not the case.
Former Project Management Engineer David Chao, who famously consulted for Toyota, recently took delivery of a Texas-built 2022 Toyota Tundra TRD PRO in his home country of Canada and published a 20+ minute video praising and pointing out the manufacturing “flaws” he managed to find after a quick once-over.
Check out his video below.
Under Chao’s trained and scrutinizing eye, he was able to find one glaring exterior defect, the letter ‘D’ of TRD Pro on one of the hood’s vents was placed backwards!
Here’s what Chao found and directly under that, what it’s supposed to look like on the other side.
“I don’t know how they missed that.” Chao said. “And, to be honest, it’s pretty shocking that the quality control people did not see that the supplier made that mistake.”
That was not the only issue, Chao also found a rubber/semi-hard plastic piece of what looks like weather stripping that was misaligned and, when seated correctly, shows a “jagged edge.”
“Maybe it’s not a big deal,” Chao commented “But, it’s something that Toyota should be able to control and manage better. I wouldn’t expect something like that from a 4Runner, which is built in Japan.”
Chao finishes off the rest of his video with some comments on the rest of the exterior, moves to the interior, shares how it drives, and offers his overall impressions.
Chao’s mostly satisfied with his purchase and overall build quality.
As Chao mentions, these Tundra TRD Pros are some of the literal first few examples in Canada so, he cuts them a tiny bit of slack, just the tiniest because, after all, it’s Toyota we’re talking about.
You can bet your bottom dollar that once this video makes its way to Toyota HQ, that parts supplier’s going to get a stern talking to.
Were you surprised to find such a glaring exterior “defect” on a Toyota truck that starts out at $67,505?
Let me know your .02 in the comments below.
