What’s new?

Around since late2015, the current eighthgeneration Hilux is firmly entrenched as a staple of New Zealand’s light commercial market. Not, to be fair, enjoying quite the sales success as is predecessors, as the mantle of this country’s topselling light commercial has been snatched by the Ford Ranger in recent years.

While Ranger’s success may irk Toyota, Hilux’s sales performance remains very strong, with 5786 vehicles delivered to customers in 2020. That result kept Hilux firmly entrenched as New Zealand’s secondtop selling new vehicle of the year. By way of further perspective, one in four new vehicles Toyota sells here is a Hilux, and Hilux on its own accounts for more Kiwi sales than the entire model ranges of companies such as VW, Honda, MercedesBenz, Subaru, BMW and Audi.

There’s change aplenty in the

Overall: ★★★+

Design and styling: ★★★+

Interior: ★★★★

Performance: ★★★+

Ride and handling: ★★★+

Environmental: ★★★

SPECIFICATIONS

Price: $59,990

Engine: 2.8litre turbodiesel fourcylinder, max power 150kW, max torque 500Nm

Transmission: Sixspeed automatic, with driverselectable two, four and lowratio fourwheel drive

Brakes and stability systems: Front

light commercial market just now. Holden’s exit from New Zealand last year means the Colorado — previously one of our topselling utes — is gone. Mazda, with its latest BT50, and Isuzu, with its DMax, now have allnew models on sales, and new versions of the Nissan Navara, Ford Ranger and VW Amarok are set to appear this year.

The ninthgeneration Hilux is still some years away, but in the meantime Toyota has introduced a substantially revised eighthgeneration version.

The facelift, which includes mechanical as well as visual and specification changes, was masterminded across the Tasman, at Toyota’s Melbourne design centre.

This makeover includes visual