Toyota Hilux | Video Review | CarsIreland.ie

Published on 29 March, 2017

Overview

Overview

The core function of a Toyota Hilux is work, whether its on the farm, building site or deep in the forest. To deny the Hilux work is like keeping a Border Collie as a house dog. Very unfair. Thankfully the ability of a Hilux to work has not been compromised in any way with this new model. It's still as purposeful and tough as ever.

Clearly Toyota have realised that builders, farmers and tree surgeons still need to pop to the shops, collect the kids from school and make the occasional family road trip. As a result the new Hilux has added some nice family friendly features. In fact its surprisingly nice inside and not that far off a typical SUV. But never forget it's still a commercial vehicle.

There are two models to choose from, a single cab with no back seats and a longer load bed or the more popular double cab. The double cab will seat five in relative comfort but the loadbed is compromised by the extra interior space. The double cab is the only realistic option if you have a family or regularly carry a crew.

Technically there is no boot in a Hilux. But the loadbay is vast and will carry tonnes of stuff, or one tonne anyway. The Hilux can carry 1,050kg in the loadbay, which is about the size of a fully grown bear. Good to know in an emergency. It can tow three times that again with a towing capacity of 3,200kg. Technically known as three fully grown bears.

So, in theory, you could carry five people in the cab, a bear in the loadbay and three more in a trailer, impressive stuff.

When you consider the Hilux is a commercial vehicle the standard options are quite impressive. There are three trim levels available, the standard DLX  gets follow me home headlights, hill start assist, bluetooth & air-conditioning to name a few. The mid-spec SR5 model gets a 4.2 inch touch screen multimedia system, bluetooth, DAB digital radio, steering wheel mounted controls and a reversing camera – Thank God. It also gets cruise control, lane departure warning and road sign recognition.

The highest trim level "Invincible" gets all of the previous plus 18 inch alloy wheels, leather interior, heated front seats, LED headlamps & 7 inch multimedia display. In terms of safety its a bit of a mixed bag, the standard model only attained three out of five stars. If you upgrade to the Hilux with optional 'Toyota Safety Sense' that score jumps to a perfect five stars.

It’s more refined than it looks. The engine sounds a bit gruff, as you’d expect from a work vehicle, and it does get a bit bouncy on rougher roads but other than that it’s really quite pleasant with good feedback from the steering. Under the hood you get one engine, a 2.4L Diesel 24D that produces 150h and claims to do about 40 miles to the gallon. To put that in real world terms it brought me from Dublin to Sligo return which is 400km on half a tank which isn’t bad going. CO2 emissions are 185g a kilometre so the road tax bill should be huge, but because it’s taxed as a commercial vehicle – it will be capped at €333. Starting at a little over €29,000 the Hilux is one of the best value pick ups on the market. Although, an "Invincible" specced double cab version will set you back closer to €40,000.

If anyone remembers the Toyota that TopGear tried to kill that time by driving it through a building, letting it float out to sea and setting it on fire – that was a Hilux. As we all know past performance is not an indicator of future success but Toyota have a hard earned reputation for reliability so the Hilux should be a safe bet.

That Toyota reputation should mean residuals will proove very strong. The Hilux is always in demand and you shouldn't have any problem getting a good chunk of your initial investment back.

Facts & Figures

Sinead McCann

Sinéad is our resident car tester who has the unenviable (-ok, slightly enviable) task of reviewing all the latest new cars to hit the market. You can follow her on Twitter @smcani and on Instagram @whatshedrives