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For all the car-like qualities, the Toyota HiLux remains a faithful worker, down the highway and across the paddocks.
Bruce McMahon road tests and reviews the Toyota HiLux SR.
There was no love at first sight. The HiLux looked a bit soft, the driveline — auto transmission and V6 — sounded harsh, the driver's seat was a touch too high for a taller driver and that bloody seatbelt warning chime was fired up by the least amount of movement.
Maybe it was after years of jumping in and out of diesel-engined utes — once rattling loud but these days quite smooth and reassuring — that the Toyota's V6 felt coarse. Maybe the HiLux's style, inside and out, had gone too fancy-dancy for a work truck; there's even LED sparkles for parking lights. And the single cab-chassis ute looked a little low at the front.
But a week, and a tonne of gravel later, this four-wheel drive SR Toyota had become a handy home-away-from-home. For all the car-like qualities, the HiLux remains a faithful worker, down the highway and across the paddocks.
The HiLuxes were the first of the latest generation utes; smarter and more comfortable and bigger than the last lot. To date Toyota, Nissan (Navara) and Mitsubishi (Triton) have moved on with the Ford/Mazda, Isuzu and Colorado still to follow.
Today the HiLux, two and four-wheel drive, remains the country's best-selling ute although there is a fair whack of commercial business compared with private business in those sales. This seventh generation Toyota ute arrived in 2005 and kept the HiLux name (now 30 years old in this country) moving forward, since then there's been little updates to both style and mechanicals.
By October last year there were 32 variants of HiLux with two and four-wheel drive versions, three cabin styles, three engines, manual and automatic transmissions plus three grades of equipment. The single cab-chassis, four-wheel drive SR HiLux with auto and V6 we tested sits somewhere around the middle of the pack.
Fit-out and equipment
Comfort features range from power windows to a stereo with USB port and Bluetooth compatibility, SR grade also scores a most comfortable four-spoke steering wheel with audio controls. A bonus in the cabin is a couple of dashboard cubby holes for storage. And outside this one arrived with a decent factory dropside tray with wooden floor.
Driving
So off to the gravel shed, load up with a tonne of 20mm stones and head out of town. This settles the ute down. Settles it down quite a lot, plenty of grip at the rear but a little less steering feel up front.
Steady as it goes then and the HiLux, at around 90km/h, is comfortable with the workload. The big hills need some respect, maybe a drop down from fifth and a little more throttle.
But now the driveline no longer sounds rough around the edges. With a job to be done the ute feels and sounds happier. Only the warm smell of brakes on the other side of the big hills confirms there is real work here.
Into four-wheel drive, slow and easy across the creek without a bump or scrape. Up a damp dirt hillside track with a little momentum and time for a beer. The hard work was next day, shovelling off a tonne of rock. By the time the HiLux was headed for home, there was affection for the machine.
Unladen it steered, braked and rode with decent manners. The engine and transmission no longer felt coarse, the back end well-behaved and the HiLux loped along at an easy highway pace. All this cost close on 14 litres per 100km, quite acceptable for the roads and the load.
And so the adventure ended with a little more love... apart from that bleeping seatbelt chime (most annoying when working in the paddock). The HiLux is a pretty decent machine, albeit at a pretty decent price.
Toyota HiLux SR
Price: from $38,140
Body: Single cab chassis
Engine: 4-litre V6
Power: 126 KW/3600rpm
Torque: 343 Nm/1400rpm
Transmission: Five-speed auto, four-wheel drive
Max rear axle capacity: 1600kg
Max towing: 2250kg
