Hilux TRD: From beauty to beefcake
Just 300 examples of the Toyota Hilux have given the TRD treatment.
C’mon, let’s face it – in New Zealand’s ute sales war, one of the major reasons why the Ford Ranger is selling better than the Toyota Hilux is because it looks better.
The Ranger is all square-jawed and chunky, whereas the Hilux has more swept looks, particularly at the front where the nose lacks visual substance.
And up until now that situation hasn’t been helped by the fact the Hilux range hasn’t included any model with the necessary cosmetic equipment that would give it a more muscular look.
Ranger has had the Wildtrak, Holden has had the Colorado Z71 and Nissan has had the Navara Warrior, all of which look considerably more macho than the standard models.
But Toyota has had the SR5, which has been all about luxury and appointment rather than beefcake, so from the perspective of looks it simply hasn’t been competitive.
But not any more. Earlier this year Toyota New Zealand launched a Toyota Racing Development (TRD) special edition version of the Hilux, and it has instantly transformed the vehicle into one seriously good-looking ute.
TRD is Toyota’s in-house performance division that develops and produces parts for a variety of reasons – better performance, better handling, race preparation, or just for sheer better looks.
In the case of the latest Hilux, the TRD treatment has been just for looks; to give, as Toyota NZ general manager of sales Steve Prangnell puts it, a bold visual difference to the vehicle. So what’s been done? For starters, the front of the Hilux has been given the works. A matte black honeycombe front grille has been fitted over the top of the standard version, there’s a little bit of black garnish along the leading edge of the bonnet that ties in with the look of the grille, there’s a big black alloy nudge bar, and there are black fender flares.
Adding to the black look are matte black mouldings along the body side, there’s a black sports bar mounted behind the cabin, and the Hilux features 18-inch black alloy wheels that are shod with 265/60R18 Maxxis all-terrain tyres.
Our TRD Hilux was painted white, and with all that black around it really did look a picture. There’s not so much happening on the inside, apart from TRD mats, but the Hilux interior is one of the best around anyway.
One more thing: the Hilux TRD has a motorised ABS plastic hard lid over the rear wellside.
It’s remotely operated too, via a special key that accompanies the remote central locking and start fob.
It’s pretty flash – you just hit a button and the lid slowly lifts up or down. Quite a bit of space is taken up by the mechanism, but there’s still plenty of cargo room, and stuff loaded into the back can be very secure against theft.
This TRD version of the Hilux SR5 can be purchased as a twowheel drive PreRunner model for $53,990 and $56,490 with manual or automatic transmissions, and with 4WD for $63,990 and $66,490 with manual and auto.
Our model for review was a manual, which we were pleased about because it allowed us the opportunity to once again try out the ute’s Intelligent Manual Transmission, which you activate by hitting an iMT button on the centre console.
Once you have done that, the technology detects when the clutch is being operated and the gear lever shifted, and it automatically changes engine revs to ensure the smoothest possible gear changes. That makes the manual model virtually impossible to stall, even when carrying heavy loads at very low speeds.
This technology is particularly noticeable on change-down, because when you depress the clutch and shift the gear lever, all of a sudden the engine revs flare to the perfect rpm for the change before you actually pop the clutch.
No more shift shock, and much smoother driving. It’s great – almost as if you are double-clutching the vehicle.
Under the bonnet of the Hilux is a 2.8-litre turbo-diesel that offers 130 kilowatts of power and 450 Newton metres of torque, and the engine can deliver up to 80 per cent of this torque from just 1200rpm, which means it is flexible sort of ute to operate.
The big Toyota also has Eco and Power modes which offer improved economy or more grunt if required, and these both work well.
Overall, this latest Hilux is a powerful and flexible sort of ute that performs well under all circumstances, so in that regard it easily competes against other onetonne utes on the Kiwi market. My our opinion is that in its standard form it simply doesn’t look quite as good as some of the opposition – particularly the Ford Ranger.
But everyone knows that purchasing such a vehicle is just the beginning of the ute journey, and that almost every new owner personalises their ute with various items of extra specification.
And interestingly, in the case of the Hilux one of the most popular add-ons is the different grille that adds heft to the Toyota’s overall frontal look. You could say it’s a fuller frontal.
The special-edition Hilux TRD – and just 300 of them are being sold in New Zealand – adds to all of that in a big way.
If a few more of them were around they’d help narrow the sales gap with that archi-rival from Ford.