Five weird Toyota Hilux history facts

Monday, 26 February 2018

Yes, that's a Hilux. Or is it? Note Volkswagen badge on the grille.

The Toyota Hilux has been a mainstay of both Toyota's lineup and the pickup market for 50 years now, as well as being a market leader here in New Zealand for more that 30 years (until that damn Ford Ranger).

But there are probably a few things about the Hilux's early years that aren't so widely known, so today we take a look at five things you probably didn't know about Toyota's iconic truck.

Trekker was created by Winnebago, provided inspiration for later 4Runner/Surf.

Luxury

When Toyota launched the Hilux in 1968, the name was a contraction of 'High Luxury'. So what happened? Well, to be honest, the Hilux was only ever luxurious when compared with Toyota's other pickup of the time - the incredibly basic Stout.

RokeHi was a high-performance version of second-generation Hilux. But without the performance.

**READ MORE:

* Hilux's top five pop-culture moments

* Toyota NZ adds armour to Hilux

* The real-life Hilux Tonka truck**

Stout was Toyota's more (by which we mean incredibly) basic pickup. Sold alongside Hilux for decades.

The Stout had been in production since 1954 and featured such luxuries as hubcaps and windscreen wipers. The Stout started life as the Toyopet RK (it was renamed Stout in 1959) and continued right through to 1989, although some records suggest it actually continued until 2000.

Crown

Current Hilux is a real force. But how did it all start?

Because Toyota already had the larger, tough Stout in its line up, the Hilux was considered a replacement for the Toyota Crown and Corona utilities. So that essentially meant that the Hilux did in 1968 what the Holden Colorado and Ford Ranger have done more recently - replaced car-based utilities with ladder-chassis pickup trucks.

The Crown and Corona were repositioned solely as passenger sedans and wagons, while the load carrying abilities were to be taken care of by the Hilux. Unlike the Commodore and Falcon, the Crown sedan continues in production to this day, while the Corona became the Avensis in 2003.

RokeHi

When the second-generation Hilux was introduced in 1972, it featured a more comfortable and luxurious (relatively speaking, remember) interior. For the first time in Japan, it also featured a 77kW version of the 2.0-litre 18R engine from the US market first-gen pickup, quickly leading it to be dubbed the RokeHi there - a portmanteau of 'rocket' and 'Hilux', because of its impressive performance.

Except it wasn't actually all that impressive. Several road tests at the time found that it had a top speed barely in excess of the previous 1.6-litre domestic model and acceleration was modest due to the increased weight.

Winnebago

The third-generation Hilux appeared in 1978 and by that time Toyota was keen to do a bit more with its pickup, so it contracted a number of aftermarket customisers to build SUV versions of it.

One of those companies was legendary camper manufacturer Winnebago, which added a new fibreglass enclosed rear to the Hilux's chassis to create the Toyota Trekker in 1981, allowing Toyota to get a piece of that sweet, sweet SUV action. The research and development Toyota did with Winnebago on the Trekker led to the creation of the 4Runner, or Hilux Surf as it is more commonly known here.

Volkswagen

Think that the forthcoming Mercedes-Benz X-class is the first Euro pickup based on a Japanese one (the Nissan Navara)? Not even close.

Even if you ignored the Renault Alaskan (again, Navara) and Fiat Fullback (Mitsubishi Triton), then you still have the Volkswagen Taro from 1989, which was a rebadged version of the fifth-generation Hilux.

Volkswagen wanted a pickup and Toyota wanted a bigger piece of the European market, so the two teamed up in an arrangement that would see VW build the Taro in its Hanover facility for sale in European markets.

It failed to really take off, however, and the deal was scrapped in 1997 after sales failed to meet either manufacturers' expectations.