The Toyota Hilux is a vehicle that is incredibly established, almost legendary, in the Australian 4WD and trade scene.

First introduced in Australia in 1968 as a petrol 4x2 ute, it has since moved through eight model iterations and based on sales figures alone, is clearly Australia’s favourite utility vehicle, with Toyota selling 64,391 units in 2022.

This is 16,912 more than its nearest competitor, the Ford Ranger, and in a market that has been heavily contested with comparable offerings from Nissan, Mitsubishi and Mazda (and to a much lesser extent, SsangYong), and more recently Great Wall, Mahindra, Ineos, and even Mercedes.

The current model Hilux has been around since 2015 and since then has been through two major facelifts, with 2018 seeing the introduction of the Rogue and Rugged X models.

With talk of new top-of-the-range variant due to drop in Australia in September, I was pretty excited when I received a call from Busselton Toyota and was asked to put the new GR Sport dual-cab through its paces on and off road.

 The new Hilux GR Sport is actually country-specific in terms of how the car is fitted out.

Essentially, the car is produced in Thailand and then shipped to Melbourne (in the case of Australia), where a subsidiary of Toyota Australia carry out an additional conversion process to get the model up to the required specification.

In general, the design brief for the new GR Sport was to recreate the Dakar Rally-winning Hilux in a format suitable for road use that the average consumer could buy.

The vehicle utilises the same ‘wide-track’ platform as the Hilux Rogue, but features a modest increase in ride height (15mm).

Track width is also increased over the rest of the Hilux range, to 135mm in the front and 155mm in the rear.

The GR sport is also equipped with four-wheel disc brakes, KYB monotube shocks with a larger piston diameter, a differently tuned front coil/rear leaf suspension setup and no rear sway bar for improved flex offroad.

Other standard features include rated rear recovery points (16,000kg combined), bash plate, rock sliders, oversized wheel flares, and a towbar.

The front grille has also been redesigned for improved approach angle.

Upon collection of the test vehicle, my first impression was that the design team had certainly met the brief; between the oversized flares and the new front bumper the vehicle has a very Baja-esque look.

The wider wheel track gives the car a nice aggressive stance yet is still well suited to the average width of Australian 4WD tracks.

I was a little surprised to see the vehicle come standard with 30.5-inch all terrain tyres given the design brief, but I understand that this tyre choice goes back to a Japanese origin and is based on optimal road performance.

There is certainly enough space in the wheel arches to go to maybe a 33-inch tyre, but this would require removal of the front mudflaps to avoid wheel scrub.

The rock sliders included as standard are particularly impressive.

They feature three mounting points to the chassis rail, with the first one actually bolting to the front cross-member.

I have no doubt that these could hold the entire weight of the vehicle if required.

I also thought the rear recovery points were a fantastic factory inclusion, and although there are none supplied on the front, you can opt for a front bullbar/recovery mount package (the bullbar is needed for fitment of the mounts).

The GR Sport is powered by the same 2.8-litre twin-turbo diesel engine found in the Rogue and Rugged-X models, but it’s been re-tuned to produce better figures, coming in at 165kW/550Nm and mated to the same six-speed automatic transmission (which has also received a tune to support the extra engine power and torque).

Driving away from the Toyota premises the additional power in the engine was noticeable with a quick push on the throttle resulting in smooth acceleration and even some tyre squeal as the ATs tried to find traction.

For the first few days I drove the vehicle around metro Perth, clocking up 229km at a reasonable fuel economy of 10.9L/100km, but not as good as the stated 8.1L/100km.

The automatic transmission is very smooth for most part, quickly finding the correct gear when needed.

A quick press of the PWR button resulted in noticeably faster acceleration, a feature that could be very handy when overtaking on the highway, especially while towing.

The vehicle comes standard with paddle shifters on the steering wheel as well, apparently the first dual-cab to include this – more on these later.

The suspension is very responsive, but I must say it is very firm in the rear, as is the case with a lot of dual-cab utes, which are set up to carry loads.

Unfortunately, even with 100kg of ball weight from my boat and a small load in the tray this didn’t really tone it down much.

Certainly not a deal breaker though – the car was still very comfortable to drive.

Inside the car you get a very high-end finish.

The bucket seats are incredibly comfortable and heated.

The only possible issue I found was with the very high side bolsters on the seat, which make sliding out of your seat difficult and could potentially wear down the bolster over time – Toyota assured me that the bolsters have, however, been thoroughly tested for durability.

The dashboard is sleek and super functional and there are GR logos featured throughout, which add to the sports aesthetics.

The JBL sound system caps off the high-end offering nicely, providing a top-notch audio experience.

A big question many boaties and offroaders would want to know is how well does the vehicle tow?

It comes standard with a towbar and is rated to tow 3500kg.

Mind you, with a kerb weight of 2270kg and gross combined mass of 5850kg, that leaves an 80kg payload, not including the driver.

Still, the vehicle could certainly legally tow 3000kg realistically, including occupants and a medium load in the tray.

To test out its towing prowess I hitched my 1000kg boat (total weight with trailer) and headed down to Walpole for the weekend via the undulating South-Western Highway.

Leaving home with the boat in tow the Hilux was still very responsive with plenty of power.

Keeping the auto in D the addition of the boat was noticeable in terms of shifting patterns, but it still found its gearing well and would come back to coast in sixth gear on the flat sections of highway.

Once I hit South-Western Highway and the many ups and downs, I had to change my driving style to adjust though.

I found that leaving the car in D and using cruise control resulted in laggy changes once you hit the hill and then holding onto the gear too long once you cleared it.

This was quickly resolved by simply flicking the gear shift across to sports mode as the base of the hill approached, which sends the box straight to fourth, and then flicking it back to D once the hill had passed.

I also used the paddle shifters at times as well when needed, which override the gear selection in D and are a fantastic feature.

I can certainly see how these would be very handy offroad.

The 430km run to Walpole saw fuel economy figures of 13.7L/100km, and coming back using the sports shift driving style I mentioned earlier I managed 12.7L/100km; all-in-all these are fantastic towing figures.

Another feature worthy of mention is the reverse camera, which allowed absolutely seamless placement of the tow ball under the hitch; the wheel direction indicators on the screen combined with the super clear vision made this task a breeze on my own.

Bearing in mind that a full-blown off road assessment wasn’t possible due to the requirement of returning the vehicle pinstripe free, I pointed the Hilux in the direction of Peaceful Bay and shifted into low-range 4WD once I hit the beach.

Those of you who know Peaceful will know it’s not a super soft beach, but the higher sections are certainly softer and to make life more difficult for the Hilux, I didn’t bother airing down.

It handled everything I threw at it with ease with the auto holding gears well in D.

Coming back down the beach in high range with traction control off, the Hilux still performed well in the softer sand, although I quickly realised that VESC wasn’t automatically turned off with the traction control; I later found out that you need to hold the traction control button down for five seconds to turn them both off. 

Overall, I was really impressed with the latest iteration of the Hilux.

It is certainly priced at the higher end of the dual cab market, coming in at $73,990 before on-road costs, but this is still in the ballpark of its main competitors.

At its price point I would have liked to see some more high-end features such as an electric handbrake, wireless phone charger and tyre pressure management system, but I guess the actual model is almost 10 years old now, so these are all mod-cons that have come to light during this time and may be something included in the next model.

I think the GR Sport will really appeal to many Australian dual-cab ute enthusiasts who are after a little bit of luxury and more performance in this familiar vehicle configuration.