New Toyota HiLuxes don’t come along every year, and now, as the ninth generation of HiLux is being launched, we’re still left waiting for an all-new one.

It seems crazy – and no other manufacturer, other than Toyota, would be prepared to continue with such an ageing model, even if it has been heavily revised and refreshed. No matter how much tweaking and refining you do to an existing platform, chassis and body shell, the fundamentals of the structure remain the same. 

By that, I mean the hard points where the body and suspension mount to the chassis, and the overall dimensions of the passenger cell, remain relatively unchanged – and that’s exactly what we’re getting with the “new” 2026 HiLux.

Sure, it looks different and has more tech and features, but essentially it’s the same vehicle it’s replacing – and when it comes to the HiLux, that’s not a bad thing.

Having spent time recently driving a dozen of the latest and most popular midsize 4×4 utes sold in Australia, the previous HiLux was still up there as one of the best despite its age and lack of some features. To me, the HiLux still feels like the most solidly constructed and best put-together ute in this class – the one least likely to start falling apart after years of hard work and rough use.

Punt any ute over harsh terrain a bit quicker than you really should and you soon get a feel for how solid it is and how it will stand up to the test of time. In my experience, and to this day, the HiLux still feels like the toughest option out there.

The HiLux might not be the biggest, most comfortable or most tech-laden ute on the market, but it feels like the one that will do the job the longest, leaving the others in its wake.

Is this perceived toughness enough for Toyota to keep its position at or near the top of the sales charts in Australia? We’ll have to wait and see. With the tsunami of new and refreshed ute models coming to market in recent years – and more on the way – many of them bigger, plusher and more feature-packed than the Toyota, it’s likely to be a hard road ahead.

But the HiLux has been putting hard roads behind it for more than 50 years, and I reckon it’ll still be doing it long after many of these new utes have fallen by the wayside.

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