Hard-core Toyota HiLux GR Sport confirmed for Oz

Toyota Australia has confirmed an “exciting” new GR Sport variant will be the belated replacement for its discontinued Toyota HiLux Rugged X in the second half of 2023.

That means Australia’s top-selling model range will be without a flagship – or ‘apex off-road variant’, as Toyota calls it – for another year or so.

In the meantime, the updated Rogue will be the range-topping version of the upgraded HiLux range announced last week, but pricing is yet to be revealed and it won’t arrive in showrooms until around November.

For now, the SR5+ dual-cab 4x4 pick-up ($58,680 plus on-road costs for the manual) is the top-of-the-line HiLux, although its price tag will rise by $1250 to $62,430 when the updated ute range lands in October.

Toyota Australia ceased sales of the HiLux Rogue and Rugged X in May, when the two priciest versions of Australia’s most popular new model were pulled from sale because local orders exceeded supply from Thailand.

The range-topping Rogue and Rugged X dual-cab 4x4 utes have notched up over 17,000 sales since their Australian release in 2018.

Confirmation of the HiLux GR Sport comes as Ford rolls out its all-new Ranger line-up including a MkII Raptor priced above $85,000, Volkswagen prepares to launch its even higher-tech new Amarok, Nissan expands its homegrown Navara Warrior tough-truck range and Mitsubishi plots a locally developed Raider model to top its Triton line-up.

The latter is Australia’s third most popular ute behind the HiLux and Ranger, and will be replaced late next year by an all-new model, which will form the basis of the next Navara and be crowned by a hard-core Ralliart flagship – potentially with hybrid power.

Meantime, a new-generation Toyota HiLux is not expected to surface until at least 2024 and it’s not certain whether it will be available with V6 power in the form of the Japanese brand’s new 3.3-litre twin-turbo diesel.

No details have been revealed about the 2023 Toyota HiLux GR Sport, which leaves room for a full-blown next-generation GR HiLux, but it will offer more than the old Rugged X’s off-road wheels and tyres and more aggressive visuals.

The first HiLux GR Sport should at least adopt the updated Rogue’s 140mm-wider wheel tracks, 20mm-higher ride height and upgraded suspension and brakes, which Toyota claims will “aid off-road ability while also improving on-road performance”.

To accommodate the wider track, Toyota has extended the front suspension arm and stabiliser bar, and adjusted the shock absorber angle to improve its efficiency.

The Rogue’s mechanical overhaul is even bigger at the rear, where there’s a longer axle, the dampers have been moved further outboard towards the wheels and a rear stabiliser bar has been added for the first time on a HiLux.

Toyota says roll rigidity has been enhanced by 20 per cent as a result of the suspension changes, “improving steering feel when cornering and changing lanes”.

The upcoming Rogue’s other mechanical upgrade is ventilated rear brake discs to replace the existing drums “for enhanced braking performance”, while a new 17-inch front brake rotor is an inch larger than before.

The revised Rogue also brings wider overfenders and mudguards, and the front body extension has also been widened better integrate with the front bumper.

Whether or not Toyota Australia’s new HiLux GR Sport flagship brings a powertrain upgrade remains unknown, but the fitment and local testing of a 165kW/550Nm version of its current 2.8-litre turbo-diesel – as seen in HiLux GR Sport model revealed in South Africa in February – could explain the delay.

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