re: Anybody drive a Tundra?

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Automakers often brag about the towing abilities of their pickups, encouraging shoppers to believe that their vehicles could safely pull almost anything.

The towing claims are effective, moving heavy metal in the single most profitable product segment in the auto industry.

They are also highly dubious. All but one pickup manufacturer refuse to follow standardized towing-capacity tests they all agreed four years ago to adopt for 2013 models -- test procedures that would lower the towing capacity ratings they now claim.

Instead, automakers follow their own test regimens and advertise claims that could encourage customers to push their vehicles beyond safe limits in terms of stopping and control.

The years-long industry effort to develop a voluntary, verifiable, common towing standard is stuck -- trapped by automakers afraid to disarm unilaterally in the middle of a pitched pickup PR battle.

The SAE's J2807 towing test standard, adopted by automakers in 2009 and scheduled to go into effect for all pickups in the 2013 model year, now is being followed in the segment only by Toyota.

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