Toyota Hilux: Legend in name and nature

There are signs that you are getting on in years; discovering you were already on the verge of becoming a teenager when the venerable Toyota Hilux bakkie made its local debut is one of them. Being someone who uses motor vehicles rather than is besotted by them for their history, I had to turn to Google to determine the relevance of the Legend 55 designation to the Sand Beige-coloured double cab that was delivered to my home a few weeks ago. I found it referred to “a 2025-26 special edition celebrating 55 years of the Hilux in South Africa, featuring distinct styling, improved comfort and a 2.8 GD-6 engine with 150kW/500Nm.

Priced from R728 000 to over R1 million, it is a final, well-equipped iteration of the eighth generation Hilux. I’m neither an anorak nor petrolhead but this doesn’t mean I’m clueless when it comes to the eternal debates conducted on barstools or around braais about which are the best bakkies and off-roaders for difficult southern African conditions. Indeed, as someone who lived in Namibia for several years and spends a lot of time in the bush, it would be impossible to avoid such passionate discussion.

Everyone has their favourite brand and one’s partiality to one or another has everything to do with those with which they were most comfortable or familiar in their formative motoring years. In Namibia, you were either a Land Rover (old-style Defender) or Toyota (Hilux or Land Cruiser) fan. You held your view and from it you could not be budged… think Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates, Castle Lager or Black Label. There was no such thing as “horses for courses” while, in truth, a Hilux was a bulletproof farm or business workhorse and the Landie, especially the long wheelbase version, was the precursor of today’s ubiquitous all-terrain sports utility vehicle.