Toyota Hilux Invincible X
The popularity of the four-door pickup is a mystery to Charlie Flindt, but could he finally have found a machine that will change his mind?
If anyone can make the four-door pickup concept a success (I decided as the Hilux arrived in the farmyard), it’ll be Toyota. Surely it would be able to come up with a machine without all the familiar failings that plague so many others in this increasingly popular genre – failings that make its popularity a complete mystery to me.
A quick glance revealed all the usual ingredients: a stylish four-door cabin mounted on an agricultural ladder-frame chassis, with a chunky load area sitting behind it. Have a snoop into the rear wheel arches, and there are the usual leaf springs. So far, exactly as expected. Climb in, and the interior is anything but agricultural. It’s plush, comfortable and well put together. The dashboard is a model of clarity, although some of the buttons are a bit out of the way and a challenge to read. Some of them relate to driveline, so could be better sited. But, as is the way with these pickups, it could be the interior from any smart saloon car. It’s a million miles from the vinyl flooring and bare metal of yesteryear.
I’m afraid it all goes downhill from there – almost literally, once you’ve raised the seat to counter the straight-leg driving position. The view out gets better, of course (my test car had no ‘tilt’), but you now drop out of the cab rather than climb.
The really sad news is that despite its world-beating technical brilliance, Toyota has failed to crack the leaf-spring dilemma. A drive through the farm lanes leaves the back end shuddering and bouncing. And even slow work off-road sent me searching for some sort of setting to soften things. One thing you can’t fault is the four-wheel-drive system, mainly because the late summer presented few challenges for it. But its simplicity will always be a favourite in country circles.
Talking of circles, beware the Hilux’s wide turning radius. Yes, it’s a common feature with these pickups, but a moment’s forgetfulness at the end of a long day nearly made a mess of a 17thcentury wall and a front wing, although I suspect the wall would have come off second-best. I wish I could praise the A-road manners, but the suspension doesn’t improve, and the big diesel roars like a bullock getting its first Tb-test jab when you ask it to push on. Switch to Clarksonesque ‘PWR’ and it roars like a bullock when the newbie vet has to have a second go. The happiest place for the Hilux seemed to be in a jam on the M3, when the auto could happily creep along, and you could survey the roadworks for anyone actually doing any work. (There were none.)
Luckily, it was while I was in the jam that the diesel particulate filter decided to do a regen burn-off. As the large sticker said on the door, you must avoid dry grass and flammable material while this nonsense goes on. Good thing I wasn’t in my stubbles. The mystery of the four-door pickup’s popularity just got deeper.
The simplicity of the four-wheel-drive system will always be a favourite in country circles