Model years › Toyota Tundra

2006 Toyota Tundra

Complaints about this year name frame far more often than the model's other years — 36% of them, about 22× the usual rate of 1.7%.

NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.

What the complaints were about

• frame — 36.1% of this year's complaints, against 1.5% across the model's other years (23.6×).
• rust — 29.7% of this year's complaints, against 6.8% across the model's other years (4.4×). Owners wrote it as: rust, frames, frame rust, coating.
• bags — 21.8% of this year's complaints, against 4.4% across the model's other years (4.9×). Owners wrote it as: bags, air bags, amount time, time recall.

Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.

Also unusual this year

• rust — 20% of complaints, 15× usual
• rusted — 14% of complaints, 35× usual
• air bags — 17% of complaints, 11× usual

What owners wrote

FRAME RUSTED, TOYOTA WILL NOT REPLACE. NEVER SENT ME INSPECTION NOTICE, THEY SAY I MISSED MY OPPORTUNITY. NOT HAPPY, DISABLED AND ONLY TRANSPORTATION. COVERED FOR A CERTAIN AMOUNT OF TIME, BUT WAS NEVER NOTIFIED.

The frame has rusted so badly that the sway bar mount disengaged from the frame. Brought it to a Toyota dealership and confirmed that frame recalls were performed on earlier models with the same issue . However my year did not qualify.

Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.

Recalls for this year

• 19V741000 AIR BAGS
• 22E002000 SUSPENSION Fixed free of charge.
• 14V743000 SEATS Fixed free of charge.
• 16V065000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
• 15V286000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
• 16V396000 SEATS Fixed free of charge.
• 15V285000 AIR BAGS
• 09V223000 EQUIPMENT Fixed free of charge.

Showing 8 of 13. The rest are on NHTSA's site.

Own a 2006 Toyota Tundra? What happened to yours?

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How this was worked out

Every year of the Toyota Tundra was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.

This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.

Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.

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