The Toyota HiLux has been updated and Paul Maric jumps behind the wheel of the 2023 Toyota HiLux SR5 to see if the update is any better! It's now more expensive than before, but is it any better? Only one way to find out!
Hardness tester, noise and lane keeping results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE
More Toyota content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/toyota
More Toyota HiLux content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/toyota/hilux
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior 01:08
Interior 05:05
Infotainment 06:33
Safety 08:00
Practiclaity 09:06
On the road 12:43
0-100 17:43
Driver aids 19:51
Off the road 21:51
Verdict 30:28
We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.
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#toyota #hilux #review
Hardness tester, noise and lane keeping results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE
More Toyota content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/toyota
More Toyota HiLux content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/toyota/hilux
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior 01:08
Interior 05:05
Infotainment 06:33
Safety 08:00
Practiclaity 09:06
On the road 12:43
0-100 17:43
Driver aids 19:51
Off the road 21:51
Verdict 30:28
We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.
Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.
Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1
You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.
Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!
Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!
CarExpert:
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Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus
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#toyota #hilux #review
Category
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MotorTranscript
00:00 G'day, I'm Paul. Toyota has updated the Hilux for the 2023 model year, so I thought, you
00:06 know what, we haven't driven one of these for a while, so let's jump behind the wheel.
00:09 This is the best-selling car in Australia, of all cars, which I think surprises a lot
00:14 of people, this and the Ford Ranger, they sort of tussle for first place constantly.
00:18 This is the SR5, and this also has the Plus Pack, so it is the top of the tree before
00:25 you get to the Rogue, and they've recently updated the Rogue as well, we're going to
00:28 have a drive of that pretty soon. This is priced at just under $62,000 before you add
00:33 the Plus Pack, that's an additional $2,500, and I'll run you through what that includes
00:37 a little later on. If that's too expensive, the entire Hilux range starts off at just
00:42 over $24,000, and it competes with things like the Ford Ranger, the Nissan Navara, the
00:47 Isuzu D-MAX, there's like 12 or 13 competitors in this segment.
00:52 Today we're going to do a detailed review of this car, so if you do want to skip ahead
00:55 to other parts of the review, you can use the timecodes on the screen, or if you're
00:58 on YouTube you can scroll down and use the chapters below, and if you haven't done so
01:01 already, subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon, because that'll tell you every
01:05 single time we review an updated ute.
01:09 Let's chat about design, so you've got six external colours to pick from, all but white
01:13 is going to set you back an additional $675. What about the design? Well look, this has
01:19 been out now for ages, I remember going to the initial reveal of this and thinking, "it's
01:24 not a bad looking ute", and I think today, despite it being out for such a long time,
01:28 it actually still looks pretty good. So they've updated the design a little bit, we've got
01:32 a set of full LED headlamps here with LED daytime running lights and an LED indicator,
01:37 these edgy 3D sticky out bits on the headlights as well, big black grille over here, you've
01:44 got chrome highlights along the top and the bottom there as well, camera down here because
01:49 this update now adds a 360 degree camera, we'll have a look at that one a little bit
01:53 later on.
01:54 Round the side here you have a set of 18 inch alloy wheels, it runs on these highway terrain
02:00 tyres, they're sort of nothing too special and they're not going to be great for off-road
02:04 driving, so if you do want to do any sort of decent degree of off-road driving, you
02:08 probably want to go down the path of a set of all-terrains, but the design looks nice,
02:11 you've got a machined finish on the outside, piano black on the inside there and no sort
02:15 of wheel arch cladding, but these wheel arches are a little bit sort of pumped here on the
02:19 front and the rear as well.
02:21 That updated Rogue model that I mentioned actually sits on a wider track, they've adjusted
02:25 the rear suspension as well, so it'll be interesting to see how that drives.
02:29 Hilux badge up here and then the engine designation there, 2.8 litre diesel.
02:34 Up the top here you have chrome, a little bit more chrome, LED indicator and then a
02:38 camera here for the 360 camera.
02:41 Just like the Ford Ranger I reckon these side steps look a little bit cheap, they're just
02:44 sort of this nasty looking plastic, I wish they'd just give them a little bit more design
02:49 instead of just looking like that.
02:51 Chrome door handles, you get privacy glass over here.
02:55 Sports bar, because you know, sports, and then whip around to the back.
03:00 So around the back here you have a set of part LED taillights, so that section there
03:05 is LED, then you have incandescent in the centre there.
03:09 Now this is interesting, so kind of like on an aircraft where you've got no step zones,
03:13 they've got a little icon there telling you not to step on that because I suspect you'll
03:17 rip that right off, that is just plastic and that feels like steel beneath there.
03:22 Hilux badge here, SR5 because it is the top spec before you get to the Rogue.
03:26 More chrome here, you have a camera built into this little section here.
03:30 It's not centred either, so I'll be interested to see when we put the reverse camera on whether
03:35 it looks a little skewed as well because it is more beneficial when this is centred for
03:40 hooking a trailer up.
03:42 Big Toyota logo there as well, and then you have this section here which you can actually
03:46 step on to jump inside the tray.
03:48 Look, I've got to say, since the Ford Ranger launched, a lot of this stuff is starting
03:52 to look a whole lot more basic because Ford has integrated a side step there.
03:57 In addition to that, on Ford's upper models you get disc brakes on the rear, this is still
04:01 using drums there.
04:02 You also have a brake light integrated here into the tray.
04:07 Let's have a look at the actual tray though.
04:08 So in here it's all pretty straightforward, you don't have a spray in bed liner so you're
04:12 going to have to get your own bed liner installed if you need that.
04:14 There's also no torsion bar on this so it is pretty heavy to lift.
04:18 You get a payload of 1,000 kilos and in addition to that you've got these hooks on the side
04:24 and what about your tray dimensions?
04:25 So the tray comes in at just under 1,600mm long and a little over 1,600mm wide with 1,109mm
04:34 between the wheel arches and finally you have a depth of 481mm here.
04:40 So it is a pretty usable tray but definitely not the biggest in the segment and I don't
04:44 know how useful this sports bar is for tying things down, I think it's more just a design
04:48 element.
04:49 So close that one up.
04:51 Towing capacity is well over 3.5 tonnes.
04:53 Now let me know what you reckon about the Hilux, is it starting to date?
04:57 Do you reckon Toyota needs to start working on a new version of this and getting it out
05:01 there given how much competition there is in the segment?
05:03 Let me know what you reckon in the comments section below.
05:05 So we are inside the Hilux, we will kick off with the key.
05:09 So you have lock, unlock, Panic, Toyota logo down the bottom there, a little bit of chrome
05:15 and then Hilux on the back.
05:17 It's a proximity sensing key so you can leave that in your pocket and then you have a push
05:20 button start just over here.
05:22 I tell you what, this feels so dated compared to some of the new utes in this segment and
05:28 it feels generational because it was built sort of when it was trendy to have utes that
05:34 were very rough and just ready for a work site and ready for all this hard work and
05:39 I mean you just have a look at some of these surfaces, literally all of the surfaces here
05:43 are scratchy plastics except here on the side and on the door as well.
05:48 So I think this theme is well and truly outdated now, especially with the price they're asking
05:53 for some of these dual cab utes.
05:54 You're talking $65,000 odd with the options this has fitted to it.
05:59 This kind of just feels a little low rent for that kind of money.
06:03 But what about your touch points?
06:05 So soft in the centre there and it's soft on the door as well.
06:09 How soft are they?
06:10 Well we've got our durometer, we've tested the main surfaces in this cabin.
06:13 If you want to see how this car compares to others that we've tested before, have a look
06:17 at the link in the description below.
06:19 Now what about build quality?
06:21 This is fairly wonky in the centre there.
06:25 It's not too bad up the top there.
06:27 And our door test, still sounds nice and solid.
06:33 So let's talk infotainment.
06:34 8-inch infotainment screen, it's a colour touchscreen with shortcut buttons on either
06:39 side.
06:40 You've got inbuilt satellite navigation in there as well.
06:43 That all works kind of okay.
06:46 In addition to that, Toyota's starting to roll out this feature across all of their
06:49 cars and it's connected services so you're actually able to connect into the car through
06:54 a phone application.
06:55 It allows you to check the status of the car and all that sort of fun stuff and you can
06:58 see the status of that up the top there as well.
07:00 On the radio front you have AM/FM/DAB digital radio.
07:06 Did notice though out here at the Proving Ground the digital radio doesn't have enough
07:11 reception which is kind of weird because pretty much every other car we test here has more
07:15 than enough reception this far out of Melbourne, we're only like an hour out of Melbourne.
07:19 So yeah, I think it's a little disappointing the signal quality isn't as good in this.
07:23 And that's all plumbed through a 6-speaker stereo, nothing special there either, it's
07:27 kind of okay.
07:28 In terms of your phone mirroring, it is both wired for Apple CarPlay and Android Auto,
07:34 no wireless here unfortunately.
07:36 This is what Apple CarPlay looks like.
07:37 So it takes up that full screen, works okay, tiny bit laggy as you flick through the menus
07:42 but it is fine.
07:44 This is what Android Auto looks like.
07:46 So again, full screen integration, tiny bit laggy there as well but kind of works okay.
07:52 You do also have a tiny little screen there ahead of the driver as well that gives you
07:56 information such as your trip computer and other sort of basic details like that as well.
08:00 Now safety technology, you get autonomous emergency braking with pedestrian and cyclist
08:05 detection.
08:06 It now has blind spot monitoring which is good and rear cross traffic alert.
08:09 You have radar cruise control, you have kind of like a lane keeping assistant that uses
08:15 the brakes because this is still a hydraulically assisted steering rack so it doesn't have
08:19 that sort of e-pass setup.
08:21 We'll test that later on when we go for a drive and see how effective that is in terms
08:25 of the way that it works.
08:26 On the parking front you have both front and rear parking sensors and a 360 camera.
08:30 I'll show you what that looks like.
08:31 So these are the views that you get.
08:34 That is probably the worst camera I've ever seen on a new car.
08:37 That is, I mean I can't even tell what that is but that's looking out the front I think.
08:43 You can see there it is so grainy and impossible to see.
08:46 That's a 360 view, also almost entirely redundant.
08:50 That is looking down on the kerb.
08:52 Again there's no real detail there and then when you put it into reverse, sorry about
08:54 the beeping noise, that is what it looks like looking out the back.
08:57 You can just make out what it says on the suitcase and you can see there as well that
09:00 camera being slightly off centre means all the lines don't really match up with where
09:05 the car is actually sitting.
09:06 Let's head about practicality and we'll start off with your connectivity.
09:09 So you have two 12 volt outlets down the bottom here, a single USB port so if you are doing
09:15 phone mirroring you can't really hook up any other devices at the same time.
09:19 There's no wireless phone charging.
09:20 You do have a power outlet here which is great though so that's a 220 volt power outlet,
09:25 100 watts so not exactly a huge amount of power but it's there anyway just in case you
09:29 need it.
09:30 In terms of storing your phone, where's it going to sit?
09:32 Well you can slot it down the front there where they should have had a wireless phone
09:35 charger or you can pop it in the cup holders or in this sort of centre section if you want.
09:40 Coffee cup, let's have a look.
09:42 So yeah, it fits into there but there's no teeth so it kind of moves around a little
09:48 bit but you do get these cup holders in front of the air vents which I think is great.
09:52 You can slot your coffee cup into there if you need to.
09:56 In terms of your bottles, it fits down there without any dramas but again because you don't
10:00 have any teeth it kind of moves around everywhere.
10:03 It's inside the door too, we'll see if our big bottle fits.
10:08 So it doesn't fit there but it does fit into the door which is good news.
10:14 On other storage you have this centre console here, nice and deep, sort of fairly decently
10:19 sized.
10:20 Glove box over here that's reasonably sized as well and then you have a top glove box
10:24 there which is air conditioned which is great and finally a sun glasses holder up here.
10:30 Now let's talk about your comfort.
10:32 So you have dual zone automatic climate control, you have heated seats for the front row.
10:37 The driver's seat is electrically adjustable so it'll go forwards, backwards, backrest
10:42 will go forwards, backwards, you can lift the front of it, you can lift the back of
10:45 it as well.
10:46 Keep in mind that's part of that optional $2,500 package otherwise it's all manual just
10:50 like the passenger seat.
10:51 In terms of the seats themselves, they have this sort of leatherette material on them,
10:56 comfortable enough, nothing sort of too special.
10:59 Steering wheel offers both tilt and reach adjustment and then on our reach test all
11:05 of this stuff is easy to reach while you're driving.
11:08 Now before I hop in let me show you how this works.
11:11 It's interesting because it's a 60/40 up folding seat so you pull this little lever, lifts
11:16 this section and then you can lift that section as well.
11:19 That gives you a little bit of storage under floor, quite handy.
11:23 Pop that back down, I'll hop on in, we've got a big grab handle just there as well.
11:30 So once we're inside this is pretty cramped in here so knees are right into that seat
11:34 there, toe room is virtually non-existent and headroom is OK but not amazing.
11:40 You have creature comforts like map pockets, you've got these hooks here for your shopping,
11:45 air vents, there's no USB connectivity at all which means there's one USB slot in the
11:50 entire car which is bizarre.
11:52 Another armrest here with two cup holders, no teeth so that rolls around a fair bit.
11:57 You can also pop this inside the door if you want as well.
12:01 Just on carrying kids you've got two ISOFIX points on the outboard seats and then two
12:05 top tether points as well.
12:07 Headrests are also adjustable too.
12:10 Now what about our window test?
12:12 Boom, it goes all the way down.
12:16 One thing I forgot to mention as well, so Toyota replaced the steering wheel lock with
12:21 what they call the ID box and it's designed to be safer and better than a steering wheel
12:26 lock but as we discovered in our car theft video it is actually very easy to override
12:32 this ID box so you can watch that video by clicking up here and have a look at how we're
12:36 able to program a new key for a Kluger without even having the original car key.
12:45 So I've just hit the road in the Hilux.
12:47 Now this is all going to seem very familiar because in terms of drivetrain this really
12:51 hasn't changed at all.
12:52 So it uses a 2.8 litre turbocharged four cylinder diesel engine, makes 150 kilowatts of power
12:59 and 500 newton metres of torque and it's all mated to a six speed automatic transmission.
13:05 What does all that mean behind the wheel?
13:07 I actually really like this engine, it has a stack of punch.
13:11 The pre-update Hilux prior to it getting 500 newton metres really didn't feel like too
13:18 much of a go getter.
13:19 This on the other hand feels confident when it comes to overtaking and when you need to
13:23 get out of there in a hurry it really sort of gets up and moves without any dramas at
13:26 all so really impressed with the engine and gearbox package as well.
13:31 The gearbox is quite responsive when it needs to be.
13:33 I did notice on the way here this morning sort of hunting between the gears at low speed
13:38 it would sometimes just click back and click up.
13:41 I have a feeling a lot of this is to do with the fact that this car is literally brand
13:45 new, we picked it up with 20 kilometres on the clock so it is still very much being run
13:49 in and that's going to translate to the fuel economy as well because the official fuel
13:53 economy is just under 8 litres per 100km.
13:57 We're currently sitting on 10.4 litres per 100km so we're a little over that figure but
14:03 given the car is brand new it still needs a bit more time to be run in.
14:08 Now let's talk about the ride.
14:10 The last update Toyota did to this they actually made a few minor changes to the suspension.
14:16 Look Hilux has always been one of those utes that really needs a load in the back before
14:21 it feels settled and you can tell when you're driving in and around the city that it is
14:25 quite sort of brittle and you do notice a whole bunch of movement at the rear end as
14:29 you're sort of travelling along and that is unfortunately one of the side effects of leaf
14:33 spring suspension, you're going to notice that a fair bit.
14:36 So not really a great deal you can do about it if you don't carry much weight in the tray,
14:40 it is just something you're going to have to cope with and deal with.
14:43 As the speed picks up it is a little bit better but ultimately it is let down by suspension
14:48 that I don't know is firm at times, too soft at other times and just isn't really all that
14:53 well resolved.
14:54 Righto let's pick up our speed to 130 for our sine waves.
14:58 Mentioned this before in our other reviews, it's just a really good indication of what
15:01 body control is like in one of these vehicles and it's something you'll encounter on country
15:06 roads and also when overtaking as well if you're going to hit 130.
15:10 So here we go here, wow, holy crap, that is really not very good.
15:20 It's probably the worst we've ever driven over those sine waves, it just has no body
15:26 control at the top end and once it gets that oscillation it's like a pogo stick, it just
15:30 wants to leave the ground.
15:31 So yeah, despite the ride being like weirdly firm at low speeds it really just doesn't
15:38 have the body control it needs at higher speeds.
15:41 Now in drive modes you don't really have any, you've got eco and power.
15:47 If you stick it in eco mode all of your throttle inputs become very dull and it doesn't really
15:53 sort of do a whole lot.
15:54 Strangely though you also have an eco light down the bottom here that comes on even when
15:58 it's not in eco mode but pop this into power mode, pop the gear stick over here into S
16:05 mode as well, see how this feels with the drive around our track.
16:12 Stuck in that.
16:16 Look we do this in all vehicles including dual cab youth to see how they perform when
16:22 the speed picks up.
16:24 Obviously this isn't a sports vehicle, not expecting it to be amazing but it's just a
16:29 good indication of what the dynamic tune is like.
16:34 Gearbox is actually doing a good job holding the gears here and just giving me the torque
16:39 that I need when I roll into the throttle, it's quite responsive and that 500Nm is really
16:45 sort of punchy when this thing is unladen.
16:48 This doesn't have the ability to be driven in four wheel drive high range on sealed surfaces
16:54 like you can in the new Ranger so you are stuck just in two wheel drive mode.
16:58 If you do switch to four high you need to be on unsealed surfaces otherwise you might
17:03 damage the driveline.
17:04 Alright, back straight, let's roll onto this, let's see what it feels like.
17:14 Still actually has a fair bit of pick up there once it's sort of moving as well, it's not
17:18 entirely disappointing so there you go.
17:20 The engine is pretty noisy once it's up in that red van too so yeah look this obviously
17:25 isn't a sports car and it has a fair bit of body roll but once you really do get stuck
17:29 into it everything happens slowly in the sense that it's quite predictable and it's a no
17:35 surprise place to be driving so yeah look it's not going to set any land speed records
17:39 but it is not too bad once the speed picks up.
17:43 OK, time for 0-100, let's see how this goes, I'm going to pop that into power mode, I'll
17:48 slide that over as well, I'll turn off traction control too and we'll see how we go.
17:54 So I'm going to go to 120 GPS speed because I want to see what this is like for our 80-120
17:59 overtake as well so here we go.
18:06 I'm going to run out of road here before we actually hit 120.
18:18 Alright there we go, that took a long time to get to 120 so I'll pull that up.
18:25 So 0-100 took 10.8 seconds and 80-120 took 7.5 seconds so yeah it seems that when it
18:34 gets closer to that 100kph mark the rest of it happens quite slowly so I might give this
18:39 one more shot loading up a little bit more throttle but yeah 10.8 seconds 0-100.
18:59 OK so leaning on the throttle a little more there, we got it down to 10.5 for 0-100 but
19:05 still fairly leisurely I reckon.
19:07 OK time for our reverse test, let's see how it goes, I've left it in power mode obviously
19:12 so in reverse, flatten the throttle, we go 32km/h.
19:25 By the way, just discovered something, if you switch stability control off and then
19:30 put it in reverse it will actually go faster so watch this.
19:35 It spins the wheels in reverse as well so 46km/h in reverse with stability control switched
19:46 off, it looks like it's an electronic limiter when stability control is still on.
19:53 So it's time to test our lane support system, I'll get this up to 70km/h and then once we're
20:00 there we will see how it performs.
20:03 So typically what we would do here is test lane centring systems, this doesn't have
20:08 any of that technology, it only has a lane departure system that uses the brakes so I'll
20:14 only test this in one lane, normally we would do three outer lanes but we'll see how it
20:18 goes.
20:19 Wow, you can see it there, so basically it grabs that brake to push this back into the
20:25 lane and if I go over here and do the same thing, there it goes again.
20:29 So it's a pretty unsophisticated system and to be honest when you're driving and you accidentally
20:35 veer onto the lane or even deliberately to go around something, you have to really battle
20:40 it to take over so ultimately they just need to upgrade this to an electrically assisted
20:45 steering rack because that will actually help them finely tune those manoeuvres and you've
20:50 seen with stuff like the Ford Ranger, it's able to hold and do its own steering in all
20:55 three of these lanes including the outer banked lanes so this is a fairly old system in comparison.
21:02 Now what's road noise like?
21:04 There's actually not a great deal of tyre noise but there is a fair bit of wind noise
21:07 that comes in around the car but you will notice it if the wind picks up and you're
21:11 driving on a highway as well.
21:12 Now in terms of towing capacity, three and a half tonnes and a turning circle of just
21:17 under 12 metres as well.
21:18 Now let's talk visibility, so being a dual cab you can see quite clearly down the front
21:23 of the car there, the wing mirrors are decent enough sized, they have a blind spot model
21:26 to built into them.
21:28 Visibility out the back isn't too bad, if you do have the centre headrest up a little
21:32 bit it can be a little impeded but it's fine for the most part.
21:35 Did notice as well at low speeds this hydraulic steering is so heavy and if you do have multiple
21:41 movements it can load up a little bit and become even heavier.
21:44 I think they really need to be shifting this to an EPAS system, an electrically assisted
21:48 one to really make it easier to steer at low speeds.
21:52 OK time to do some light off-roading, I'll run you through the specs here first.
21:56 So ground clearance of a little over 200mm.
21:59 In terms of the actual mechanical setup here, so you drive it in 2WD high range on sealed
22:05 surfaces but you can switch over to 4WD high range on unsealed and also 4WD low range.
22:11 There's a rear diff lock that only works in low range.
22:13 You also have hill descent control.
22:15 In terms of your approach and departure angle, you have a 29 degree approach angle, that's
22:18 the angle of the face you can approach before you hit anything at the front of the car and
22:22 a 27 degree departure angle which is the same but in reverse.
22:26 And finally a weighting depth of 700mm.
22:28 So we'll kick off first by going over our offset Mogul in 2WD high range with traction
22:34 control on.
22:35 I want to see how well the traction control system works and how well it gets us over
22:42 the Mogul here when we have a wheel off the ground.
22:44 So it's going to be the driver's side wheel that is first to disappear in terms of traction,
22:49 so there it is there slightly lifted.
22:51 I'll roll onto the throttle, I can feel it shunting a little bit there.
22:55 I'm just staying in the throttle now, go a little harder on the throttle.
23:00 We're not getting anywhere at all.
23:03 I'll try moving the steering wheel a little.
23:07 It's just sitting there.
23:12 It's just pulsing away on that rear side but it's not doing anything.
23:16 So I'm going to turn off stability control, we'll try now again, a little bit more throttle.
23:22 There we go, just with a bit more wheel slip.
23:26 It's actually getting over, come on, there we go.
23:34 Perfect, okay.
23:35 So yeah, all it needed was just a little bit more wheel slip there to get over.
23:39 So yeah, traction control was being just a little too strict there, which is often the
23:44 case.
23:45 We'll come off our concrete Mogul there.
23:50 Perfect, alright.
23:51 So next up we'll pop this into 4WD high range and we'll try going over it again.
23:56 When we go over in the other direction, we get two wheels off the ground here so it'll
23:59 be just a good indication of how again it handles itself with traction control on.
24:04 So we'll try that first.
24:05 So 4WD high range, you flick that over, you can see it engaging up the top there.
24:10 Also turn traction control back on.
24:12 There we go, that is engaged.
24:14 So we're sending 50% of torque to the front axle, 50% to the rear and we'll see how it
24:20 goes now.
24:21 Okay, so it's about this point here where we're going to get the traction control system
24:30 having to do its thing.
24:31 We've got a wheel off the ground just there, lean into the throttle.
24:37 It's still being quite restrictive, I'll give it more throttle.
24:42 I can't flat the board now, I'm not getting anywhere, so I'll turn traction control off
24:47 again.
24:48 Give that another crack.
24:52 All it's doing now is spinning the front left and the rear.
25:00 We're not going to be getting anywhere, so I'm going to have to back off this and put
25:04 it into low range so that I can lock the rear diff.
25:08 That's what I really don't love about the system here with the Hilux, that you can't
25:15 lock the rear diff unless it's in low range which is a bit of a pain in the arse.
25:18 So there we go, so rear diff is now locked, we're in low range, we'll give this one more
25:23 crack.
25:24 This should be enough to get it over because it was just not quite getting there with it
25:30 just in four wheel drive high range.
25:32 So give this a shot, we'll get it back up to where it was which is just there, I'll
25:36 lean into the throttle.
25:39 Now with the rear diff locked, that's much better, a whole lot more effortless, it's
25:45 able to just get traction on the rear end there and move along without any drama.
25:49 So let's head over to our hill and we'll see how it performs with an ascent.
25:55 OK so it is time for our hill, we were here most recently with the Everest and it really
25:59 struggled getting up here.
26:01 So I've just popped this, just left it in low range with rear diff locked, stability
26:06 control is off, we'll see how it goes climbing up here.
26:09 Most of the utes haven't had too many dramas up here so it should be OK I think, yeah,
26:15 no problems at all.
26:16 So I'll be doing the climb once more except the difference the second time around will
26:21 be I'll come to a full stop and then I'll get onto the throttle to see how it goes up
26:24 there but time to go through our mud bog.
26:27 There it is, OK.
26:29 Now hill descent control, so you push this button here, that activates it and then we'll
26:36 see how it goes once we come over this little crest here.
26:40 I can't actually see over the front, let me see if this has, oh it's got this four wheel
26:46 drive camera like the Ranger does, it's like impossible to actually see 'cause it's such
26:51 poor quality so let's see how we go, chuck it over the edge.
26:55 OK, hill descent control didn't do anything, it's just flashing at me so maybe that only
27:01 works in four wheel drive high range.
27:05 So alright, we'll do the hill again in low range with my stop test and then I'll just
27:09 try hill descent control in high range.
27:14 OK so take two on our hill, this time I'm going to come to a stop and we will see how
27:21 well it works here.
27:23 So there's our stop just there, I'm going to roll onto the throttle now, we'll see how
27:27 it goes.
27:28 Oh, no dramas at all.
27:30 God this is so much better than the Everest was, the Everest just struggled immediately
27:34 so that's pretty impressive.
27:35 So we're at the top, I'm going to put this into neutral and put it into four wheel drive
27:41 high range because I think that's how we get hill descent control to work.
27:46 So yeah there it is, the light's gone solid now so we'll give this another crack, see
27:50 if we can actually get that to work.
27:53 Alright here we go.
27:55 OK so hill descent control, see how well this works, I'm out of the throttle.
28:00 Yeah that's not too bad.
28:03 And also not too noisy, it was actually really noisy in Hilux previously, traction control
28:08 sort of biting with hill descent so not too bad there, pretty impressed with that.
28:12 OK let's have a crack over our rocks, I've left this in low range, I'll basically just
28:19 ride the brake with the throttle and we'll see how we go.
28:22 So yeah look on paper this doesn't have as much ground clearance as some of the utes
28:28 but I don't know how they measure some of this stuff, some of them just measure it at
28:32 random places 'cause as we're going over this I can't hear any knocks or anything like that
28:37 which indicates to me that this actually probably has pretty decent ground clearance.
28:42 It's actually surprisingly comfortable over this so I think the trade off there for the
28:45 on road body control is actually really quite good here, it feels nice and smooth and it's
28:51 not throwing me about too much so actually pretty impressed with this over the rocks.
28:59 OK time to do our river crossing, so this has a wading depth of 700mm and it has been
29:06 bucketing down despite how nice the weather looks at the moment in Melbourne recently
29:10 so our little crossing there is pretty much at 700mm so we'll be right at the limit here.
29:17 So I've left it in low range here as well.
29:19 OK let's see how we go, oh yeah that's looking nice and deep so it goes nothing.
29:28 Alright, drop that in.
29:30 Oh my god it sounds like it's floating through here.
29:37 Excellent that is coming through nicely and good throttle feel as well through there even
29:43 though it is quite soft on the bottom so that's great, we'll see what it's like on our climb
29:47 here with these tyres.
29:48 Tell you what these tyres have really surprised me, four highway oriented tyre, actually has
29:54 a stack of traction there so yeah pretty damn impressive that.
29:58 Look I think ultimately the Hilux's biggest downfall here off-road is the traction control
30:03 but given you can switch that off it does everything else really nicely.
30:07 It is a bit annoying having to go through all of these modes to get to low range, you
30:10 have to stop and then go to the next one and also the fact that you can't use the rear
30:14 diff lock unless you're in low range as well I think that's a bit silly but outside of
30:18 that I think that if you did want to go do some proper off-roading and you put some meaty
30:21 tyres on this, this would be fairly capable off-road as well so yeah.
30:31 So the Toyota Hilux, look I could stand here and tell you it's the worst ute in the world
30:34 and people would still buy them because a Hilux buyer will always be a Hilux buyer no
30:39 matter what else is happening in and around the segment but if you're one of those people
30:42 that is actually cross-shopping this with other utes in the segment a lot of them have
30:46 now moved on and this now feels very old in comparison to things like the new Ford Ranger,
30:51 the Isuzu D-Max as well, it doesn't have that refinement and certainly doesn't have the
30:55 technology that we're seeing on some of the new utes on the market so if technology and
31:00 all that stuff isn't really too much of a concern to you, the engine is really nice
31:03 and punchy, it's great off-road if you switch all that other stuff off and you're happy
31:07 with just using manual controls and being a Toyota it's probably going to be pretty
31:11 dependable as well.
31:12 It is a little expensive when you look at what else is in the segment especially V6
31:16 Ranger now that's available around that same price so look that is worth keeping in mind.
31:21 Let me know in the comments section below, I'm really curious to get a better understanding
31:24 of this, are you a Hilux buyer through and through?
31:27 With everything else that's on the market will you still buy a Hilux and if so why are
31:31 you doing it?
31:32 I'm really curious to understand that, let me know in the comments section below.
31:35 If you did enjoy this video please make sure you like it and you share it with your mates
31:39 and if you haven't done so already subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon, let
31:43 us know which other utes you want us to review but until next time, take it easy.