These are the guys that ultimately make the final decisions from options evaluated by staff engineers. It’s great to see the people behind these critical decisions.
TNGA-F Executive Level Design Engineer Jay Sackett
- Thread starter Wanderlost
- Start date
- Moderator
- #2
Great video! He said "Yes, we have had some issues", and a couple were mentioned. Possibly a reason for the management shift? This gets my attention. It will be sad if we get to a point with Toyota, as with some of the competitors, i.e. never purchase a 1st-year model. Another point of interest to me is he mentioned the leather seats are 2 mil in thickness, as opposed to a typical in the industry 1 mil. Essentially a leather coating on base materials, and he mentioned these materials. Wow, neither of these leather thicknesses are very substantial. Now my curiosity is peaked, how thick is the leather in a typical Lexus product? The reviewer on AutomotivePress uses a paint thickness gauge. It would be great if a similar instrument were available for leather thicknesses, as this is a parameter not generally publicly available. I would love to hear from his counterpart in Japan regarding their production philosophy, as the target of this forum, the Land Cruiser, will be manufactured there.
OP
OP
- Thread starter
- #3
Mike Sweers had his role previously; Mike was promoted to VP of TNGA-F Engineering. These guys are entrenched inside Toyota due to their many years of accumulated knowledge. VPs are far from the execution level of product development engineering.
Jay mentions a 15 year cycle for major design changes, so I would expect some issues with all the Tundra changes; what everyone is watching is how Toyota addresses these issues. The hybrid Tundra powertrain is similar to the LC 250 except for the engine, and I’m not aware of Tundra issues on technology shared with the LC 250. The LC 250 engine has some service experience on other Toyota/Lexus models, so hopefully all the early lifecycle issues will be fixed before the LC 250 enters production.
Jay mentions a 15 year cycle for major design changes, so I would expect some issues with all the Tundra changes; what everyone is watching is how Toyota addresses these issues. The hybrid Tundra powertrain is similar to the LC 250 except for the engine, and I’m not aware of Tundra issues on technology shared with the LC 250. The LC 250 engine has some service experience on other Toyota/Lexus models, so hopefully all the early lifecycle issues will be fixed before the LC 250 enters production.
