Up Close With The Hilux

While working in South Africa recently, I had access to a Toyota Hilux. Very nice truck. It is pretty much the top of the line truck there as far as size. The Detroit Three don't have a presence in the truck category. Everything there is European based. All the same car lines you see in Europe are present here.

The Hilux is a different truck than our second generation Tacoma. It is more of a work truck. Here is why: It has a fully boxed frame and FIVE leafs in the rear suspension!

Here are the pics. Apologies for the quality, they have obviously been taken with a cell phone camera.


All metal box. Tailgate was beefier due to all metal construction.




Here is that five leaf suspension. Thing rode very rough as befitting a truck with a heavy duty suspension. No "gentleman's ride" here.




Here is the fully boxed frame.




Rear view.




Truck had the 4cyl motor. The only letdown. But with their European sensibilities, V6s are not very common.




Front view.




Side view. This truck is a looker.




Another view of the frame.




Inside view. They drive on the left side of the road in South Africa. This truck was a standard, and the shift pattern was the same as vehicles in North America. The layout of the pedals is also the same as North America. The radio had the power/volume button on the right side. Turn signal was on the right. A few times I hit the wiper control when intending to turn.

 

awesome, thanks for the post. I would definitely buy one if it was available

 

Fucking awesome.. I love it.

Why doesn't toyota sell them in North America??
We would love the Hilux here.. (Not 4 door, but access cab) and in the bulletproof diesel flavour.

 

Great pics, thanks!

There are a few things I like about the Helux, but I honestly prefer the looks of the Tacoma more.

What were you doing in South Africa? Also, what were the other truck manufacturers there. You said mostly european...

 

Getting used to driving on the left side of the road was very interesting and challenging. Here is a video that I made about driving in South Africa.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNsWxTQdWZw



Went on a safari while down there. We used a Toyota van that is very common for shuttles and for transit. These vans are everywhere in South Africa.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yz4e_AwQ8Rc

 

I work for EMD. We manufacture diesel freight locomotives. A company in SA had a contract to build 50 of our models for the SA market. I was there training people to test and commission them for five weeks.

There were also a few diesel models of this truck running around. THAT is definitely the one to get!

Incidentally, there was ONE Ford F250 there, and also a Beautiful Pontiac GTO running around down there. They were left hand drive and obviously imported.

 

Other common pickup trucks: Isuzu, Nissan, and Mitsubishi. There was also larger tandem axle delivery and dumper trucks by Toyota, Mitsu, Hyundai, and Kia.

Also, all the manufacturers had little car-based pickups that looked like mini ElCaminos. They were also a common work truck.

This is a common one, known as the Ford Bantam:

 

Quote: The layout of the pedals is also the same as North America.

Wherever you are in the world the pedals will be the same, regardless of whether it's a left or right hooker.

 

What Mitsubishi, LS200? they're popular in England, look quite cool but are a complete POS apparently.

 

And then there was this cute little thing:


Here is the logo on the front of it. See if you can figure out what make it is. I don't know!

 

United Federation of Planets?

 

A bit off topic but I would like to know what is the reason for creating the right hand drive vehicle? Would anyone know the cause of this?

 

Thanks I wasn't finding aything good. Particularly like this quote “Visitors are informed that in the United Kingdom traffic drives on the left-hand side of the road. In the interests of safety, you are advised to practise this in your country of origin for a week or two before driving in the UK.”

 

To summarize the last paragraph of Lsocoee's quoted article - it's downright dangerous to overtake (or rather look for an overtaking opportunity) when you're driving a left hand drive in a left side of the road country. You have to have almost all of your car exposed to oncoming traffic before you can see if it's clear or not.

About 50 yrs ago trucks in mainland Europe used to have lights at the back so they could signal to the driver behind if it was clear to overtake. Especially useful if it was a right hand drive car (say from England) in a right side country (say France). Especially dangerous if the driver wants to play tricks...hence it was outlawed.

 

Most of the roads leading from the ferry terminals in England have got signs remionding you which side of the road to drive on to remind recently-arrives foreigners to be on the left.

Really, it's not that different. The main issue is roundabouts that people can't get to grips with. Fortunately there are very few roundabouts in the US - so when I moved here I had no problem. Oh yeah, and being allowed to turn right on red - to quote Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson 'America's only useful contribution to civilized society'.

 

I like the idea about preacticing in your country of origin for a week or 2.

Sorry officer I was practicing for when I visit the UK.

 

http://www.globalchana.com/

http://www.chinacarforums.com/changan_automobile.html

 

Thanks for the pics! Looks very interesting, and not something you see everyday.