Truck Yeah! Australia’s performance trucks vs America’s
By Billy Ho
The Rugged Truck
Australia’s best selling vehicle is the mid-sized Toyota Hilux truck, it is in sales terms, what the Ford F-150 is to American vehicle sales. It is, however, a rather bland truck that is is more purpose and practicality over style. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, just not you would consider when looking for a performance-minded truck.
Enter the Rogue, the Rugged and the Rugged X.
Toyota now has tougher looking versions of HiLux: Rogue, Rugged and Rugged X to sit above SR5. Looks like last year's Tonka concept previewed new grille, bumper and heavy duty tow points. No more grunt, weird names. I was hoping for more, but they'll still sell a tonne of them. pic.twitter.com/U9obp45mz1
— Joshua Dowling (@JoshuaDowling) January 10, 2018
Toyota is looking to up the ante on their Hilux outside of their TRD models and has added some rugged terrain accessories. While customers will get some added equipment, the Rogue, Rugged and Rugged X will still employ the 2.8-litre Turbo Diesel engine available for the Hilux. The power outputs are decent (174hp and 332 lb-ft of torque) if not rather uninspiring.
It’s probably the least fun option you can opt for considering that the upgrades are more cosmetic changes than anything else. With prices expected to exceed USD$43,000, it’s by far the most economical, if not boring option.