Pick of the tough guys
MORE MUSCLE FOR TOYOTA’S HILUX
Even my chronic business sense would have been able to have worked this one out. The Ford Ranger is the best-selling pick-up truck in the UK, with 80 per cent of those sold fitted with an engine that produces more than 175bhp. Powerful pick-ups sell, in other words.
Toyota’s offering is the legendary Hilux, a machine so rugged and unbreakable that one once survived in the hands of Jeremy Clarkson on a trip to the North Pole.
Problem with the Hilux is that its 2.4-litre diesel engine only produces 148bhp. The doorway to sales joy? Slot in a more powerful engine. And so here we have the eighth generation Hilux, fitted with a new 2.8-litre four-cylinder diesel engine that produces 201bhp. Job done, prepare the order books.
Toyota has taken the opportunity to facelift the Hilux and also, along with the new engine, introduce a revised version of the Invincible X spec level. The current 2.4-litre engine is standard in the Active, Icon and regular Invincible models but not in the Invincible X.
Toyota has really hit the spot with this latest incarnation of the latter. The facelift has transformed it into a much more aggressive and sporty looking model than its predecessor.
There’s chunky black bumpers and grille surround, wheelarch extensions in black and LED headlamps.
Inside we have a JBL stereo as standard, ambient lighting and two-tone heated leather seats.
Only a double-cab body is available in Invincible X spec but you do have a choice between six-speed manual or automatic gearboxes. We’re driving the latter.
The new 2.8-litre engine kicks out its 201bhp between 3,000-3,400rpm and a decent 500Nm of torque from 1,600rpm. The engine sounds gruff at full throttle but hey, this is a pick-up truck, not a family hatchback. And you can always crank up the excellent JBL audio system to drown out the noise.
We drove the Hilux both on the road and over an off-road course. Popped into lowrange the brawny Toyota can tackle most that you can throw at it.
The six-speed automatic works well off-road and pretty well on it. The shifts aren’t particularly fast but that’s offset by the gearbox not constantly shifting up and down trying to select the right gear.
For all previous generations of the Hilux, Toyota’s engineers calibrated the suspension with a load in the back. That’s fine, but it means that when the vehicle is empty the stiff springs make the ride harsh and can also create a pogo effect.
For this Hilux the spring and damper settings have been chosen to suit an empty load bed.
The result is a noticeably improved ride on the road. Not quite as sophisticated as the Mercedes-benz X-class or Volkswagen Amarok, but then those two are no longer in production.
The Invincible X is, like most double cab pick-ups, spacious in the back. The view out from the driver’s seat is excellent and it’s easy to get comfortable in the seats.
I wouldn’t shirk from doing a long trip in the Toyota. That’s the thing with modern pick-ups – while Land Rover and other makers of 4x4s fantasise about farmers all buying their 50 grand-plus machines, in reality many like the practicality of a pick-up truck and the acceptable level of comfort that they offer on the road.
Add to this, particularly in the Hilux’s case, extreme ruggedness and toughness and you can see why 50,000 pick-ups have been sold in the UK each year since 2017.