TOYOTA Hilux Review

We'll start this chapter with the part we liked the most about what the Hilux has to offer for your collar, be it blue or white. The car can sustain long trips at highway speeds from the human point of view.In other words, it is comfortable enough for you and your passengers to be able to use for long distance trips, if this is necessary.

You can clearly see that this is a whole, it's greater than the sum of its parts - a car that was designed from the ground up to be rather civilized. Thus, the soundproofing, the seats and even the suspension, are all at a level that spells "decent".

By the way, if you attend a wedding in a Hilux and you decided to steal the bride while the groom is not paying attention, we can assure you that she won't complain about the ride.

The same assets get a new meaning when you're using the Hilux to work and/or on rough terrain, as it acts like an efficient tool that handles the rough parts so you don't have to. It's a pleasure to work when you have such a lucrative environment that keeps your body in good condition so your mind can focus on other, more important things.

The 2,982 cubic centimeters of the engine are split between four cylinders, with the game being played using a turbine. The result? 171 hp at 3,600 rpm and a 360 Nm (265.5 lb-ft) between 1,400 and 3,200 rpm.There are some of you who will laugh after reading the following paragraph as it will seem as belonging to Captain Obvious, but there are also some of you who will file the info included in it under "new".

Getting to the point, we'll tell you that we were asked why the output figures of Toyota's D-4D 3.0-liter engine are in the same league with many four-cylinder oil burners that come with a displacement of two liters, being used on passenger cars. The answer is simple - reliability. This kind of engine's ability to withstand abuse, poor fuel and servicing and all sorts of extreme conditions is a backbone for the Hilux's indestructible vehicle status.

Underneath the car, where the real battle goes on as long as the wheels are spinning, we've got a typical modern pickup setup, which means double wishbones and coil springs for the front axle and a solid axle with leaf springs for the rear one.

Of course, betting so much on the reliability card has both advantages and drawbacks. For example, you might not be the kind that appreciates the fact that the Hilux requires you to use a lever to engage low gear. You also have to stop the car in order to do this, while some systems that use buttons allow you to do this wile on the move. However, Toyota's recipe is more than proven to not only make the car more durable, but also reduce service cost and time when this is finally necessary.

Our test car was no redneck, but a rather a trained technician who had gather multiple diplomas over the years. Using the best equipment level available, it managed to be utilitarian only when you wanted it to, as far as this chapter is concerned.

Now don't expect a Head-Up Display that can show how many horses you'll feed by using what you're carrying at a given time, but we did enjoy certain features that made life aboard easy.

We have to start with the automatic air conditioning system, a valuable feature in this class and we'll go on with the rear view camera, which meant that the rugged tow hook was only to be used on the fields, not on your neighbors' cars, 17-inch alloy wheels, as well as with the cruise control system.

As far as the ICE part is concerned, our test car used a Toyota Touch system, which besides the 6.1-inch touch-screen, albeit a resistive one that's not exactly top-notch, offers Bluetooth and USB connectivity and moves the air in the cabin using six speakers.

We were also pleased by the steering wheel, which was multifunctional, covered in leather, just like the gear shifter and offered height adjustment.Moving on to the safety part, we have to tell you that this was the only equipment level that offered stability control and Electronic Brake Distribution & Brake Assist features.

The result of all the aforementioned gifts the factory had offered to our test vehicle? Although it was a workhorse, you really didn't feel much different to a decently-equipped hatchback from this point of view.

Like any car model in the world, the current Toyota Hilux has been crashed on many occasions, but none of the impacts took place as part of an official safety test, so we can't tell you how the vehicle behaves in such a situation.

Thus, we'll have to move on to the active safety area, where we'll mention that the fact that our test car used the best trim level available really matters, as this is the only one that includes stability control and Electronic Brake Distribution & Brake Assist features.

If all else fails, and let's hope that this paragraph will never make it into reality, you'll have to rely on the vehicle's rigid structure that allows it to tow up to 2.5 tons (5,000 lbs), the 211 mm (8.3 inches) ride height, as well as on the two frontal airbags, side airbags and curtain airbags.

The good thing is that tarmac doesn't scare the Hilux at all and it handles open road speed situations with ease. Even when you exagerate, it won't punish you too hard and you have time to correct your errors. Of course, the ladder chassis, height and weight of the car mean that it's best to stay withing the speed limits if you want to make sure that your bullbar doesn't meet its match on the side of the road.

While the Hilux's total production figure of over 14 million is truly impressive, it won't earn it a spot in the Guiness World Records book, but if somebody went through the unimaginable hustle of generating a piece of statistics that would show how many of a car's units that left the factory are still on the road, we're pretty sure the Hilux would get a big champagne bottle.

And this reliability covers a very large bouquet of work... and travel assets, so the Hilux gives you plenty of goodies and assures you that you'll be able to enjoy them for a long time.

Like we said, this is a car for work and travel and since we've covered the first, we'll go on to the latter. The Hilux is a blue collar vehicle that makes you feel white collar even inside the city. It somehow manages to kick and punch while wearing a tailored suit and it trades its gardening gloves for white ones and viceversa with ease.

Of course, the refinement shown for the class it belongs to was also supported by the fact that our test car used the best trim level available and the 3.0-liter engine, not the 2.5-liter one. Translated into bank account language, this meant EUR35,410 (USD45,185).

We have to explain that the Hilux did get a bit left behind in the way it makes you perceive it, as it doesn't seems quite as modern as it should. We're not talking about the tech side, but about the feeling the cabin gives you.

We tried, we really tired to write this review without using the "this pickup feels very car-like" cliche, but we can't let this out, because it's the truth - the Hilux is easy to drive. When it's not wearing its work clothes, the Hilux is civilized enough for any kind of trips in the contemporary world.