Toyota’s newly pimped pick-up has improved performance and road manners, but plenty of hard-working charm and rough-stuff capability remains
Last year, the UK bought about 20% more pick-up trucks than it did sports cars.It’s not such a spurious comparison. Our flatbed market has been running at just over 50,000 units a year since 2017, and the growing trend within it is no longer from better-paid fleet drivers who want a smaller tax bill but private buyers spending their own cash on higher-end, big-power, equipment-heavy, double-cab ‘lifestyle pick-ups’. As a nation, then, we Brits are now just as likely to buy a ritzy pick-up as a versatile enabler of our active, outdoorsy weekends, as we are a drop-top Porsche, an Audi TT or a Mazda MX-5 as a weekend plaything. And you thought Brexit was cause to question our national identity.While it remains Europe’s biggest-selling flatbed, the current eighth-generation Toyota Hilux (launched in 2015) has been missing out on this leisure pick-up trend, which has remained at heart the slightly rough but oh so tough beast of burden it always was. With this new facelifted version, however, it shouldn’t miss out any longer.A new 201bhp 2.8-litre four-cylinder turbo diesel engine is now being offered, and chunky-looking exterior styling revisions have been made to top-of-the-line Invincible X double-cab Hiluxes, which also feature as standard equipment a JBL premium hi-fi (complete with sub-woofer, folks), LED headlights, ambient lighting and two-tone heated leather.
Source: Autocar
