Extended drive: TRD Hilux

[Poetic Justice]

First and foremost, I dont rate myself as much of a writer or reviewer. I'm sure there'd be a couple of people around who are interested in this car so here goes.

Well I've had the privlege of having an extended drive of the TRD Hilux. The model driven was the 4000SL which is the higher in the range (there is also a cheaper 4000S available). Price of the vehicle retail is around $69500 drive away with a set of floor mats. One beautiful thing about such a pricey performance car though... being a ute capable of lugging 1 tonne, it doesn't attract luxury car tax.

My first impression? I'd buy a Maloo, or to a lesser extend a Pursuit. I quite like the VE HSV product, and would probably swing that way over the FPV alternative. The only benefits I can ultimately see from this car is the ability to have a bit of balls, carry your gear and cart the kids around at the same time. So in comparison to utes like the Crewman, Cross 8 or HSV XUV (hideous!) I would definitely pick something like this.

The exterior of the car is rather good. They've done enough on the outside to make on coming traffic know that this vehicle is a TRD and not just an SR5. The front bumper styling, though something that you'll either love or hate, is great in my books. The small details like the design of the grille. If you haven't noticed already, the pattern represents the 'R' in TRD's logo. Move on to the side profile.. and there's mixed emotions. The wheels, much like the FPV's weren't really cutting it. Perhaps this is the extent Prodrive have with the two marque's? Hah. They could have been better, though I will appreciate that because of it's 4x4 nature they couldn't have been too much bigger. Next was the black sports bars... they look great, and fit the theme rather than just the normal chrome found on the SR5 (yet another point of differentiation.) The stripes however, we could probably do without and look like they were shared with the F6X. At the rear you'll find a flat step rather than the chrome step on the SR5 - a nice touch also.

Interior... is probably where I was most disappointed. For me it looks as if the guys at TRD got their hands on the Hilux and said "Well, we'll slap some leather seats in it and colour the leather on the steering wheel and we'll be done with it." The TRD Aurion was a far better effort. In the Aurion they got stuck into the door trims, door spears and leather inserts, where the Hilux was left factory. The other failure, and I suppose I can understand that they really can't just do these things.. but the dash remains the light grey colour. At the end of the day, you have around 5 different colour shades inside the interior of the TRD Hilux, and to me it looks a bit messy and not very well done.

As with most Toyota's, there's no audio upgrade, so you're left with the factory unit. The dash remains the same, and the only insignia of TRD is on the gear knob, the seats and the build plate. Otherwise, it's a Hilux SR5.

Performance? Super. You would look at the 225kw figure and not think much of it, but you should really have a drive of it to make your mind up. It's a rather good setup, and I can tell you I wouldn't want it to be any faster. This car is missing in my opinion one very important piece of technology. Traction control. I'm no sissy, but I don't appreciate taking off from every set of lights twice. Once with no grip, and twice to finally get moving properly - and legally.

The supercharger whine is always a good thing, but there's obviously no V8 rumble backing it up. It's cool, but one wonders if you'd get annoyed with it after a while. Give it a squirt at 60km's and it sure boogies. It doesn't throw you back in the seat like other cars I've driven (notably the BF F6) but it certainly goes hard.

I guess at the end of the day if this car appeals to you it is a good piece of kit. At the price I wouldn't be convinced, but that's probably because I don't need a ute, and these days I don't really care much about performance cars as all they seem to do is promote bad behaviour.

In what scenario would I own one? If I lived back on the coast and, like many other gold coasters, had a helluva lot of cash spare for a good powerful 4 door ute.