Real pick-me-up

Toyota’s new truck gets more toys

Try to break a Toyota Hilux pick-up and you’ll break first – because they’re virtually indestructible. The Japanese firm has been making them since 1968 and since then over 18 million have found homes on farms, building sites and in Middle East war zones.

Pick-up sales in Europe have, er picked up, over the past few years and that includes the UK.

But Toyota was not selling as many of its trucks as it would have liked, so the Hilux has had a facelift. First of all Toyota has added the option of a punchier diesel engine.

Volkswagen showed the way with its V6-powered Amarok which made rivals, including the Hilux, look a bit weedy.

The new engine is a 2.8-litre four-cylinder diesel that produces 201bhp and 500Nm of torque. That last number is what really counts.

The old 2.4-litre engine is still offered, but the Hilux we’re driving has the bigger lump up front.

An automatic gearbox is an option but ours has the six-speed manual.

Our Hilux is also in top spec Invincible X with double cab body. All models are 4x4.

Equipment levels in the Invincible X are pretty impressive. Dual zone air-con (where different sections of the vehicle have their own temperature), leather seats with heating for the front seats, and a nine-speaker JBL sound system. You could be in an expensive German saloon car until you start driving – but the Hilux is a working vehicle and you can’t expect it to be smooth.

However, Toyota has done a few things to make the Hilux more comfortable. Chassis engineers used to put a load in the bed and then fit springs and dampers that coped with that weight – fine until the truck was running empty. It was then too stiff and bounced around on the road.

So the engineers have now set the vehicle up to ride reasonably comfortably empty – reasoning, probably correctly, that few people actually load their pick-ups to maximum capacity, which is a payload of 1,010kg in the case of the

Hilux. One of the great appeals of pick-up trucks, apart from making you look windswept and interesting, is they’re very good at towing.

The Hilux can tow a braked trailer weighing up to 3,500kg.

But a posh interior, phone mirroring and a ding-dong hi-fi doesn’t change the fact you’re driving a vehicle with leaf springs, live axles

and a ladder chassis. Old fashioned in other words. Toyota builds these things to last and those components are the best option.

That it rolls around corners and has steering with little feel is beside the point.

Like complaining a Porsche has just blown your Massey-ferguson tractor away from the traffic lights.