:
Toyota already is offering significant incentives and deflecting quality concerns, issues not usually associated with a vehicle launch by Toyota.

Yet sales are off to a strong start. Toyota sold 17,727 Tundras in May, more than double the number of the previous model.

"I felt like I was a king again driving that truck," said JoAnn Cook, 66, a soft-spoken policy rater for an insurance agency. "I felt like if somebody got in my way, I could tell them to get out of my way."

The '07 Tundra, Toyota's first true full-size truck, has been pitched as a pickup for true truckers, owners who depend on their trucks for hauling, towing and working.

Early data, though, suggest that Toyota loyalists have led the initial sales boost. If Toyota wants to reach its sales goal of 200,000 Tundras this year and expand on that number next year, the company will need to steal more customers from Ford Motor *** General Motors Corp. and the Chrysler Group's Dodge, experts say.


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