2020 Toyota HiLux vs 2019

What's the difference?

The SR is a reasonably priced dual-cab ute in the grand scheme of things and it makes sense as a great platform for an accessorised work and/or touring vehicle.

It's not the most refined or most comfortable ute available – with an overall harsh riding nature – but it’s a solid, capable workhorse.

This great all-rounder strikes a good balance between price, equipment levels and being actually built for purpose, whether that’s work or play. 

It’s a basic work truck that’s short on features but big on load-carrying ability, with a genuine one tonne-plus payload rating. However, as a direct result of that, it also has the harshest unladen ride we’ve experienced in a single cab cab-chassis.

So if you’re wanting a genuine Toyota tray, our best advice would be to choose either the heavy-duty steel (HDS) or the heavier ‘industry pack’ (MPHDS) trays. They both weigh over 300kg, which is more than double the weight of our test vehicle’s aluminium tray. You’ll lose the same amount in payload capacity of course, but with a lot more weight permanently over the rear wheels, we reckon the more civilised unladen ride quality would be well worth it. ends...

The SR is slightly upmarket of the base-spec Workmate Hilux, but not by much. 

It looks like a current-model Hilux in the pick-up style, just minus any of the fancy aftermarket-style trimmings you might expect, such as nudge-bars or bullbars and snorkels, because you’ve seen a lot of Rogue, Rugged and Rugged X variants around.

You don’t get the latest trapezoidal grille design found on more upmarket grades and many items are finished in cost-saving black including the grille, lower front bumper section, door handles, mirrors and steel wheels. And there are also conspicuous blank inserts in place of missing higher-grade features like front fog lights and numerous buttons and switches.

Sadly, it also has the same annoying multimedia touchscreen shared by all HiLux models. It quickly turns opaque with fingerprints and simple tasks, like adjusting the volume, can be as distracting as trying to use a mobile phone or tablet while driving, which is illegal of course.

The large door mirrors are well located and there’s ample vision through the rear window with an empty tray. However, you certainly miss a rear-view camera and parking sensors when the window is blocked by a tall load. Comfort is adequate for a single cab and big blokes can find a workable driving position, although reach adjustment on the steering wheel and a large left footrest would be welcome additions.

The interior is basic and user-friendly, with all controls easy to swiftly find and operate, even on the fly. 

The seats are cloth, the floor is vinyl and hard plastic everywhere means the entire interior space is able to cop a work-day or weekend-away muddying without a fuss.

There is a variety of storage options including cupholders, door pockets, glove box, sunglass case and a shallow space behind the shifter for your phone.

The rear seat is a 60/40 split-fold arrangement with fold-down armrest, sporting two cupholders, plus storage underneath.

There are no air vents back there though and mind your head on the protruding grab handles as on previous drives our testers have head butted those on rough terrain.

It’s a well-built interior that’s not flash, but it makes a lot of sense.

The 1570kg kerb weight and 2810kg GVM results in a sizeable 1240kg payload rating. And when you deduct the weight of the 140kg aluminium tray from that, it still leaves 1100kg of load capacity.

It’s also rated to tow up to 2500kg of braked trailer but with its 5280kg GCM (or how much you can legally carry and tow at the same time) the payload limit drops to 1070kg. In other words, to tow  2500kg you only need to reduce GVM by 30kg - a very practical set of numbers for a wide variety of work applications.

The Toyota aluminium tray is (internally) 1777mm wide and 2550mm long. It features rattle-free drop-sides plus a robust rear screen protector, which surprisingly lacks pivoting load retainers at the top on each side which are ideal for ‘book-ending’ long lengths of timber, PVC pipe, copper tubing etc.

Even so, there's heaps of tie-down points. Internally they total 16, provided by aluminium rails along both sides which sit inboard of the drop-sides, with eight holes in each for securing ropes or tie-down hooks. There are also four rope-rails beneath the floor on each side, for external load anchoring if required.

Although it’s a single cab there are numerous storage options, including a bottle holder and open bin in each door, pop-out cup/bottle holders on each side of the lower dashboard, two glovebox compartments (the lower lockable) and an overhead glasses holder. There’s also a centre console unit with an open storage bin in front of the gear-stick and another beside the handbrake, plus two cup/bottle holders at the back.

Our test vehicle was the 4x2 WorkMate single cab cab-chassis with 2.4 litre turbo-diesel and five-speed manual for a list price of $24,990. That's cheaper than Ford’s 4x2 Ranger XL equivalent (2.2L diesel/6-sp manual) at $27,990, but more expensive than Mitsubishi’s 4x2 Triton (2.4L diesel/5-sp manual) at $22,490.

Fitted to our test vehicle was Toyota’s general-purpose aluminium (GPA) tray, with hinged drop-sides, rear window protector frame and mudguards, which costs an additional $1889.95 RRP. So combined with ORCs you could probably haggle a drive-away deal for around $30K.

This worker is as basic as you can get in a HiLux, starting with 16-inch steel wheels with 215/65R16C light truck tyres and a full-size spare. Inside there’s vinyl floors and basic cloth-trim seats, with no rake adjustment for the base cushion, no lumbar adjustment in the backrest and limited reclining room. And the steering wheel is only height adjustable.

However, it does have features designed to make a hard day’s work easier, like power windows and door mirrors, manual air-con, remote keyless entry, non-radar cruise control, 12-volt accessory socket, two-speaker multimedia system with 6.1-inch control screen, multiple connectivity including Bluetooth and steering wheel-mounted audio controls, plus numerous places to put stuff.

The 2.8-litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel engine (130kW at 3400rpm and 450Nm at 1600–2400rpm), a six-speed automatic transmission, a selectable 4WD system and a rear diff lock.

It’s a working truck so don’t be surprised with the very workmanlike engine; it’s not the most powerful thing around, nor the torquiest – look to a V6 dual-cab ute for those measures – but it does the job, albeit in a rather gruff kind of way.

One of the HiLux WorkMate’s enduring strengths is Toyota’s 2GD-FTV turbo-diesel engine. Quiet, refined and willing in response, it’s the smaller capacity 2.4 litre derivative of the 2.8 litre 1GD-FTV designed with lower upfront and operating costs in mind.

The 2.4 produces 110kW at 3400rpm and 343Nm of torque across a broad 1400rpm band between 1400-2800rpm. With automatic transmission, that figure increases to 400Nm, so the 2.4 is clearly a low-stressed unit with long service a priority.

The manual gearbox is only a five-speeder. However, its short 4.3:1 first gear is fine for getting heavy loads underway while its over-driven fifth, combined with relatively tall 3.6:1 diff gearing, allows the 2.4 to cruise comfortably on the highway.

Fuel consumption is listed as 8.5L/100km. The trip computer showed an average of 10.4L/100km after more than 200km of mixed driving, including some low-range 4WDing. We did not get a fill-to-fill fuel-consumption figure on this test, but we have most recently recorded 12L/100km in an SR5.

The Hilux has an 80-litre fuel tank.

Toyota claims a combined average of 7.7 litres/100km but our figure, calculated from fuel bowser and tripmeter readings after 531km of ‘real world’ testing, worked out at 8.9 litres. That was impressively close to the lab-based official figure and excellent for a one-tonner. Based on our numbers you could expect a big driving range of close to 900km from its 80-litre tank.

From the get-go, you absolutely know you’re in a ute. 

Unladen ride is firm, borders on harsh, but that’s no surprise if you’ve spent any time whatsoever in a ute and it’s on par with some rivals.

Ride and handling are pretty good, with its Aussie-tuned suspension (including traditional-ute leaf-springs at the rear) doing a decent job of sorting everything evenly, and it was only ever rattled by very severe bumps, wash-outs, and ruts at lower speeds, i.e. during low-range 4WDing.

For a 1955kg ute that’s 5330mm long, 1815mm high and 1855mm wide, the Hilux is easy to manoeuvre around town and in the bush.

Steering, telescopic adjustable only, is well weighted, with a light precision to it that’s very welcome.

NVH levels are nicely subdued with a real quiet feel to the Hilux cabin.

The engine feels a little underpowered and the six-speed auto is not the sharpest, most modern auto in the ute market, but this combination does the job with minimal fuss.

The SR rides on the optional 17-inch alloy wheels and Dunlop Grandtrek AT tyres (265/65R17).

We’ve never ridden a bucking bull in a rodeo, but our test vehicle’s ride when empty provided a pretty good simulation of it. The leaf-spring rear suspension was so firm and the unladen tray so light, at times it felt like there was no suspension at all, resulting in many hard thumps in the lower back when driving over bumps. And the bigger the bumps, the harder the thumps.

It didn’t take long to become fatigued by this, particularly on corrugated dirt roads and heavily-patched bitumen back roads used during our test. So if you want to avoid the chiropractor, best cure is a decent load over the rear wheels. Therefore this vehicle would be best suited to work applications that require either lots of heavy lifting, or a custom-built tray that's permanently loaded with heavy tools and/or equipment.

Maximum five-star ANCAP rating when last tested in 2015, but without AEB it would lose at least one of those stars if tested now. The vehicle stability control menu also lacks trailer sway control which would be desirable given its GCM. There’s also front and side airbags for driver and passenger.

The Hilux has a five-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty. Capped price servicing is applicable on all HiLux diesel models, for the first three years or 60,000kms up to a limit of six services. The cost is $250 per service.

Five years/unlimited km warranty. Scheduled service every six months/10,000km whichever occurs first. Specific model capped-price servicing of $240 quoted for the first four scheduled services over 24 months /40,000km whichever occurs first.