The Toyota Tundra CrewMax received only 4-stars for driver and passenger safety, the same as the regular cab version in the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration test back in March.
What makes this confusing is that only a couple of weeks ago, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) gave the 2007 Toyota Tundra Double Cab its highest rating, "G" (good), for front-end crash testing. Some might say the IIHS is a tougher test than the NHTSA testing.
Toyota spokesperson Sam Butto told pickuptruck.com, "There's nothing specific we're going to do with the current truck (yet) but we're always looking to continuously improve the safety of all our products."
Toyota is standing by its 4-star rating from the NHTSA with no set plans to upgrade the CrewMax any time soon, but the company has engineers looking at potential factors that could have lead to the upsetting 4-star rating.
The CrewMax may offer a bigger transmission, larger brakes, more cabin room, and a larger towing capacity compared to its competitors, but with a less-than-perfect safety rating, other manufactures are already using that fact to their advantage when it comes to marking their vehicles. The 2007 Chevrolet Silverado, 2007 Dodge Ram, and 2007 Ford F-150, for example, all have 5-star ratings in the same class.
Source: PickupTruck.com, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration