Tundra
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- #1
I picked up my 2023 Lightning Pro last night, until purchasing one I had never seen a Pro in person.
I am a little late to the party here, but perhaps this information might be helpful for someone picking up a Pro in the future, as many reviews focus on the higher-end trims.
The Good:
Audio System: I have the Pro, the base model; in past base model pickup trucks (Chevrolet, Ford, GMC, Ram) I have been less than impressed by the stock sound systems, and I was getting this without giving a listen. At first I did not like what I was hearing at all, the tonality was quite off, but then I started doing EQ; and color me impressed things came together. The top-end is not the most detailed, but the mids sound decent, and the lower end impressed me the most. For bass I like musical and accurate rather than loud and boomy. These speakers do NOT have a lot of low extension; that is fine, but with the tuning given the speakers aren't attempting to do some sort of low-mid 100-200hz wannabee bass (looking at you Bose). They go lower than I expected them to, for not having a sub, and they do what they do reasonably well; I actually think I prefer this stock system over my previous vehicles "upgraded Alpine Audio/Subwoofer" system. Additionally there was no "surround sound" nonsense, which I do not find to be additive in most vehicles (hint hint most music is recorded in stereo).
I should probably state my reasoning here, as it may be different than most. By profession I am an audio engineer, I work on a lot of systems and speakers are an integral part of my daily work flow. At my main job I normitively drive an L'Acoustics PA that has no less than 8x KS28's (brown note achieved); in a car system I am not looking for 90+ dBA nor am I looking for vision blurring bass, I tend to be conservative with my volume when driving. At home for my mixing setup I have a pair of high-end coaxial monitors, the monitors themselves extend to 20hz (ie no need for an external subwoofer); I am not expecting a vehicle to be that sort of reference system, I am not using my vehicle to dial in compression or to hear nuances (a listening/mixing room doesn't have road noise!). I am just looking for something decent; something that can play music without it being highly objectionable; something that allows me to be focused on the music rather than being bothered by the quality of the speakers. This stock system achieves that, I am getting what I expect out of a vehicle system, I realize that is a different goal than many others may have.
After a heft amount of EQ: taking back the top-end almost completely, adding a decent amount of mids, and not touching the bass), I think this vehicles system sounds quite decently balanced; no it is nothing astounding, but I don't know that I have a desire to replace it with anything either. The speaker drivers involved are probably horribly cheap yes, but I would like to thank whoever tuned this vehicle, I think they did a tremendous job with the resources they had and they did a good job in the DSP; in other words the tune is good, the tonality isn't, but the tonality is easily adjustable. For a stock system I think it is great, especially for a base model truck.
Frunk: This thing is just cool, I REALLY wish it was manual rather than automated for opening and closing though.
Headlights: They are great, there is a massive deer population where I live and the brights are the nicest I have used. My previous vehicle had fog lights, and I am not missing those on this one.
Heated Seats: The heated seats are incredible on this vehicle, they aren't just for toasting the buns, they actually go up the back as well. A lot of heated seats focus on the posterior area only, or only go up the back slightly. The seats were also powerfully warm; much more so than my previous vehicle. On most vehicles the "high" setting leaves me wanting, in the Lightening I actually had to go to the mid level of warmth after a while. It was glorious!
Screen: The 12 Inch screen feels massive, I personally would not like a larger one, and am especially happy to have more buttons.
The Niggling - granted these may be the gripes of someone who has had a Ram switching brands.
Gear Selector: I know the stick was an appeal to the traditional truck guys, but come on, what a waste of space. Even my previous diesel had a knob gear selector, it worked great and it allowed for more storage space up front.
Rear Storage: The Rear seat setup in the Ram was far preferable for me. I do miss that I could have some storage (floor packets) and a completely flat floor. Granted with the Frunk on this truck, this is a pretty small complaint; it was a super nice place to keep work gloves and ratchet straps though.
Sensor System: I came from a 2015 Ram, and I found those parking sensors to be easier for getting into tight spots than what the Ford has. They both work and I will get used to it, but out of the two I find Rams setup to be more helpful; although Ford gives a middle zone in the back. What I miss most was that my Ram gave spatial audio feedback for distances, as the sensors corresponded to different speakers in the system; so you could tell how close you were and which part of the vehicle it was simply by listening.
The Bad:
Audio/Screen Freezing: When utilizing certain features it caused the screen and audio to both freeze; which is a little unfortunate for a new vehicle. When I went to camera view there was a loud audible glitch for several seconds until it unfroze. I am thinking this is a problem that I may need to get Ford or the dealership to look into, but first I will have to recreate it, currently I am slow charging so I will try to grab some video of the problem tomorrow. It seemed to happen when Andrioid Auto was the source rather than the radio or straight up Bluetooth.
Don't Sell My Data: I noticed in the app, that user data was automatically selected as being sold by Ford and that I had to manually tell them not to do this. Not cool.
Software Update Failure: This is not one I have experienced personally, however I was reading in the manual and have seen user issues where updates have failed, not allowing the vehicle to work. HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?! In my mind there are two acceptable options:
1) The computer has two separate partitions, when an update is needed the update is installed on the other unused partition; if it is successful on the next reboot it loads that it, if it unsuccessful it stays on the first partition; the end user never need know the update did not work. This is how cell phones work, they are not expensive, and I would expect that a vehicle would work this way too.
2) Or you do not have two partitions, but you do have a stable backup. When the new software does not work, the computer goes to the last stable software version; even 20-30 year old computers can do this. This is not hard.
Ford should make one of these options happen; there is no reason this should be a possibility in this day and age. This should be a non-issue.
----
I am super stoked to own this truck and I am looking forward to many miles ahead! As expected, and noted by many others, the software side of this vehicle leaves something to be desired.
Tundra
I am a little late to the party here, but perhaps this information might be helpful for someone picking up a Pro in the future, as many reviews focus on the higher-end trims.
The Good:
Audio System: I have the Pro, the base model; in past base model pickup trucks (Chevrolet, Ford, GMC, Ram) I have been less than impressed by the stock sound systems, and I was getting this without giving a listen. At first I did not like what I was hearing at all, the tonality was quite off, but then I started doing EQ; and color me impressed things came together. The top-end is not the most detailed, but the mids sound decent, and the lower end impressed me the most. For bass I like musical and accurate rather than loud and boomy. These speakers do NOT have a lot of low extension; that is fine, but with the tuning given the speakers aren't attempting to do some sort of low-mid 100-200hz wannabee bass (looking at you Bose). They go lower than I expected them to, for not having a sub, and they do what they do reasonably well; I actually think I prefer this stock system over my previous vehicles "upgraded Alpine Audio/Subwoofer" system. Additionally there was no "surround sound" nonsense, which I do not find to be additive in most vehicles (hint hint most music is recorded in stereo).
I should probably state my reasoning here, as it may be different than most. By profession I am an audio engineer, I work on a lot of systems and speakers are an integral part of my daily work flow. At my main job I normitively drive an L'Acoustics PA that has no less than 8x KS28's (brown note achieved); in a car system I am not looking for 90+ dBA nor am I looking for vision blurring bass, I tend to be conservative with my volume when driving. At home for my mixing setup I have a pair of high-end coaxial monitors, the monitors themselves extend to 20hz (ie no need for an external subwoofer); I am not expecting a vehicle to be that sort of reference system, I am not using my vehicle to dial in compression or to hear nuances (a listening/mixing room doesn't have road noise!). I am just looking for something decent; something that can play music without it being highly objectionable; something that allows me to be focused on the music rather than being bothered by the quality of the speakers. This stock system achieves that, I am getting what I expect out of a vehicle system, I realize that is a different goal than many others may have.
After a heft amount of EQ: taking back the top-end almost completely, adding a decent amount of mids, and not touching the bass), I think this vehicles system sounds quite decently balanced; no it is nothing astounding, but I don't know that I have a desire to replace it with anything either. The speaker drivers involved are probably horribly cheap yes, but I would like to thank whoever tuned this vehicle, I think they did a tremendous job with the resources they had and they did a good job in the DSP; in other words the tune is good, the tonality isn't, but the tonality is easily adjustable. For a stock system I think it is great, especially for a base model truck.
Frunk: This thing is just cool, I REALLY wish it was manual rather than automated for opening and closing though.
Headlights: They are great, there is a massive deer population where I live and the brights are the nicest I have used. My previous vehicle had fog lights, and I am not missing those on this one.
Heated Seats: The heated seats are incredible on this vehicle, they aren't just for toasting the buns, they actually go up the back as well. A lot of heated seats focus on the posterior area only, or only go up the back slightly. The seats were also powerfully warm; much more so than my previous vehicle. On most vehicles the "high" setting leaves me wanting, in the Lightening I actually had to go to the mid level of warmth after a while. It was glorious!
Screen: The 12 Inch screen feels massive, I personally would not like a larger one, and am especially happy to have more buttons.
The Niggling - granted these may be the gripes of someone who has had a Ram switching brands.
Gear Selector: I know the stick was an appeal to the traditional truck guys, but come on, what a waste of space. Even my previous diesel had a knob gear selector, it worked great and it allowed for more storage space up front.
Rear Storage: The Rear seat setup in the Ram was far preferable for me. I do miss that I could have some storage (floor packets) and a completely flat floor. Granted with the Frunk on this truck, this is a pretty small complaint; it was a super nice place to keep work gloves and ratchet straps though.
Sensor System: I came from a 2015 Ram, and I found those parking sensors to be easier for getting into tight spots than what the Ford has. They both work and I will get used to it, but out of the two I find Rams setup to be more helpful; although Ford gives a middle zone in the back. What I miss most was that my Ram gave spatial audio feedback for distances, as the sensors corresponded to different speakers in the system; so you could tell how close you were and which part of the vehicle it was simply by listening.
The Bad:
Audio/Screen Freezing: When utilizing certain features it caused the screen and audio to both freeze; which is a little unfortunate for a new vehicle. When I went to camera view there was a loud audible glitch for several seconds until it unfroze. I am thinking this is a problem that I may need to get Ford or the dealership to look into, but first I will have to recreate it, currently I am slow charging so I will try to grab some video of the problem tomorrow. It seemed to happen when Andrioid Auto was the source rather than the radio or straight up Bluetooth.
Don't Sell My Data: I noticed in the app, that user data was automatically selected as being sold by Ford and that I had to manually tell them not to do this. Not cool.
Software Update Failure: This is not one I have experienced personally, however I was reading in the manual and have seen user issues where updates have failed, not allowing the vehicle to work. HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?! In my mind there are two acceptable options:
1) The computer has two separate partitions, when an update is needed the update is installed on the other unused partition; if it is successful on the next reboot it loads that it, if it unsuccessful it stays on the first partition; the end user never need know the update did not work. This is how cell phones work, they are not expensive, and I would expect that a vehicle would work this way too.
2) Or you do not have two partitions, but you do have a stable backup. When the new software does not work, the computer goes to the last stable software version; even 20-30 year old computers can do this. This is not hard.
Ford should make one of these options happen; there is no reason this should be a possibility in this day and age. This should be a non-issue.
----
I am super stoked to own this truck and I am looking forward to many miles ahead! As expected, and noted by many others, the software side of this vehicle leaves something to be desired.
Tundra
Again the Frunk more than makes up for that though.
