Australia finally gets what we've had for 2 years in America

Gaining back useful payload is why I'd like to have had the Hilux option. I don't much care for the looks of any of them but my hand was forced when my 1991 just wore out. If I wanted to stick with Toyotas and wanted something with reasonably low miles in 2015 that meant a 2005+ truck. It's not offensive to the point that bumpers and dents help make it look better. But everything is getting so stylized, just don't really care if I'm driving something fashionable or not.

They sell about 3,000 200 series per year. But those are huge, leather interior pigs that are in line with what Americans want. The 70 series is more like a 4Runner in size, more like a 1st gen Tacoma or 89-95 Truck in build (thin doors, sparse interior, plain radio, manual everything) so it would surely be a small market.

I don't think Toyota needs to sell 70 series in big numbers but I think the refitting necessary to make it legal (I believe the engine would be the main hurdle, they only put 1VD diesels in the 79 series, which isn't EPA approved) in the U.S. just means it's easier for them to ignore the handful of people that might buy them, which are currently bringing in 25+ year old trucks anyway. I bet they would sell 500 a year for about 3 years by which time the market would be satisfied and that would be it.

Toyota sells all that stuff new on their trucks. Not just cosmetic stuff, either. They'll fit genuine Toyota junk like a winch, snorkel, steel bumpers, second batteries at the dealer for you.

https://www.toyota.com.au/main/hilux/customise

Like this aluminum bar:


Or the steel version:


Or a factory tray:

 

In no particular order...

We don’t have as many nanny devices on our cars as Americans do, I think the hilux is just now getting abs. Hilux is a common fleet car for town tradies and due to cost is likely a young persons first ute. Many are sold in 2wd format for use in town by those that have no desire to go bush. The Mazda is starting to gain a strong reputation as well.

Australia is made up of as much diverse terrain as North America. We have mountains - that actually get snow - rain forest, jungle, open tundra, high and low desert, massive dunes, beaches, and even malls.

Most 200 series LandCruiser sales are in the Middle East.

Toyota has no need to bring the hilux to the states for two reasons, they already have the best selling mid-class ute on the market, and to add all of the nanny rubbish would make it a loser for shareholders. I’ll ignore the stupid “single fuel” test standard that your Detroit auto makers snuck into the EPA regs to stop themselves from bleeding out to the less expensive, more reliable, and very fuel efficient Japanese fleet vehicles that were effectively banned by the single fuel standard.

The 70 series will never be sold as a domestic product in the states, no nanny crap, and just recently a stereo and power windows became an option with A/C always having been optional. They are made for one purpose, to beat the guts out of and to just keep working.

Aesthetics are a marketing gimmick to a degree. We’ve got mental midgets who like to add plastidip and other asinine farkle just like you do. Thing is, they’ve likely been further out bush than allot of the “built” Tacoma’s found here.

Aussies tend to be a bit stingier with their coin than Yanks so you’ll see more trim models available and more owners running aftermarket options for creature features.

I’ve got a Tacoma, no interest in a hilux. I’ve also got a HZJ77 wagon type LandCruiser. It’s a better car than both but was a Japan only model and because Japanese are like Americans it has power everything plus A/C and still sits on the quad leaf spring chassis. It wheels better than my Tacoma that’s locked and on 35s. The introduction of the wife wide nose to the 70s also unveiled the 76 wagon to all available markets.

 

Wire yer trap drongo.


No, really.

 

I had an 85 Toyota pickup. Indistinguishable from the Hilux. similar vintage to the one Top Gear attempted to destroy, except mine had the 22RE American gas engine. Fantastic piece of junk it was. I miss it every day. Modern trucks have too many nannies, that being said I do like the looks of the Tacoma over the modern Hilux.

The NV series Frontier is ugly as sin, the American frontiers while dated, do still look a little better. As far as functionality goes, the vast majority of light pickups sold to the West are mall crawlers.

at the end of the day, if you don't like it, no one's making you buy it. Craigslist and eBay motors among others exist for a reason.

Happy Trails

 

I don’t know the specifics of why the 70 series doesn’t make it here. But many iconic products like the Jeep XJ Cherokee and the 4.0L in-line six were phased out because they didn’t meet increasingly stricter safety regulations, or emissions regulations, or both.

XJ Cherokees sold extremely well for a very long time: they were affordable, simple, well built, capable, clean looking, easy to work on, and they ran forever. A 25-year old XJ still fetches $10,000 to $15,000.

 

Emissions killed that engine, pretty much all that could as you can still find them purring along almost everywhere. Right now I’m near St. Louis and the XJs don’t command that much here but good examples get snatched up fast because they are cheap, reliable, and fun.

When the 70 series was introduced to the rest of the world the US consumers had already moved past completely leaf sprung passenger vehicles do to occupant comfort. I reckon the IH Scout series was likely the last example of a heavy duty leaf spring passenger vehicle for the states. Shame it got nixed as soon as it did.

You can “legally” import 25 year old, or old LandCruisers from offshore and that includes heaps of 70s. I’d avoid one that spent the last ten years in Canada so you at least have a chance of having some metal left.

EDIT: except California, I heard that the loophole for old diesels got corked. Maybe an old petrol would get through but I dunno.

If we end up retiring here in the states then I recon I’ll get a camper converted Troopy to play with but for now I’m content with the 77.

 

I had a ‘93! Same crap. I redid the head gasket FIVE TIMES (under warranty) and finally gave up

 

Yeah......”Legendary Toyota quality and reliability”

In my mind, the offerings are better now than they were then, and those crappy Runners were made in Japan. Goes to show how quickly people forget.

 

True...

People love to shit on Mexico, but my tijuana Taco has been perfect. Absolutely zero build quality issues.

 

I think the vehicle was fantastic otherwise. Great size for the time, great power for what it was. Interior was nice enough to enjoy but basic enough to not worry about really enjoying. It was just the head gasket on that one side, driver side of I remember correctly. It actually took me a few days to find a shop willing to do the head gasket because they were so notorious.

 

I had a '95. Loved that truck... sold it with 95k miles. Not a single problem with the engine.

 

Yeah.....but a fatal flaw nonetheless. Much more fatal, and much sooner after purchase, than any issues people complain about with the Tacoma 3.5, which aside from people saying it lacks torque, has proven extremely reliable. Even the thousands of newbs don’t seem to be able to kill it, save a special few.

 

Well said

 

My head gasket issue popped up around 190k, which to their credit, it’s still pretty good.

 

One point I am trying to make here, maybe to give us modern Toyota owners a bit of hope amongst all the gloom, is that we have great trucks here now that easily rival anything Toyota ever made, or offers elsewhere in the world. It is important to keep some perspective.

The “Coles Notes”

- Toyota specialized in gutless but reliable pickup trucks, with small motors, in the 80’s. Now we have a gutless, but reliable pickup truck with a small motor again. Hooray. They are back to form.

- Toyota Japan sold piles of lemon vehicles to well-meaning people in the 90’s and 2000’s. Honestly, a good portion of the worst vehicles they ever made were produced in Japan, including my old 1972 Celica. Toyota Mexico and Toyota USA are putting out a very good products today that result in very few complaints about manufacturing quality. The recalls we have seen on the new Tacos have not been “fatal flaws”. Mostly annoyances that were dealt with by Toyota.

- The only “miracle”, trouble-free, incredibly well-designed, vehicles Toyota ever made were the 90’s Camrys and Corollas. The rest of their product line has always had some dodgy qualities to it. Even the much exulted 70 series Landcruiser has a list of complaints against it.

- the new Tacoma is a great design, has a nice amount of available trims and options, and is very capable, and inexpensive(?!?!). Controversial statement maybe, but now with them asking $10k more for a Ranger, in a similar trim, the Tacoma is really the budget option.

 

True. I added a couple of small details.

 

Australia is weird, it's like a British Texas.

 

I keep seeing people post about the lack of torque in the 3.5.... I gotta say, y'all are full of antifreeze. In first gear this engine works. It's not a full size, but for what it is, I used mine to drag a 3rd gen Ford explorer down the street a few miles the other day and even up in 3rd gear I could barely tell there was a 6000 dead weight behind me.

 

Wait, you mean you use all those confusing numbers instead of park/drive/reverse?