Toyota in talks with Arctic Trucks

The standard 4x4 HiLux is a highly capable offroader. Locked in low-range first, the turbodiesel engine will hold the HiLux to a crawl on downhill grades approaching 40 degrees -- without a hint of wheel slip. But imagine how much further bush you could go with the sort of heavily uprated HiLux that took Top Gear presenters Jeremy Clarkson and James May to the North Pole?

Toyota Australia has had one of the support vehicles for that journey out here doing the rounds of promotional events, including AIMS (Australian International Motor Show) and the Canberra Country Music Festival. The vehicle also took part in an expedition to the peak of the Icelandic volcano, Eyjafallajökull (pictured).

With so much interest in the exploits of this particular HiLux, why wouldn't Toyota bask in the vehicle's reflected, televised glory? More to the point, can Toyota Australia capitalise on Arctic Trucks' obvious expertise in more concrete ways? The Carsales Network asked that of David Buttner, Toyota Australia's senior executive director of sales and marketing.

"All that's happening at the moment is there's discussions," Buttner responded.

"We're trying to see what's feasible: Price is important... how we bring them in... do we distribute them through ourselves as an OE part...

"At the moment, it's just a concept study. Quite often you do concept studies and nothing comes at the end of the day, but driven by the interest pre-AIMS, from journalists -- and AIMS itself...

"Even... at the [Canberra] Country Music Festival, just people's interest -- and I know my 25-year old son, who's a four-wheel drive buff; all his mates have seen it, they've all seen the Top Gear [episodes] -- there's a lot of interest in it. We'll look at the feasibility, we'll make a decision once we understand [all the issues]."

Those issues include technical questions. Buttner's colleague Greg Gardner explained to the Carsales Network that the raised ride height of the Arctic Trucks HiLux would create a conflict with ADRs (Australian Design Rules) for non-compliant headlight height. Buttner agreed that ADRs could pose an obstacle that even the Arctic Trucks HiLux may not be able to overcome.

"You look at the concept, you look at what you need to do, what are the compliance issues, regulation issues -- and then you make a decision based on that at the end of the day. But at the end of the day you've gotta be compliant."

How would it pan out, assuming the technical compliance issues can be circumvented, we asked? Would it be an Arctic Trucks agency working alongside Toyota Australia, just as Prodrive did with the TRD brand? Or would Toyota prefer to sell Arctic Trucks equipment as value-added vehicle enhancement parts and kits through Toyota dealers?

"More so as a value add... through the dealers," Buttner responded, but he believes enhancement kits sold through dealers could still bolster the HiLux's image just as readily as a semi-factory operation like TRD.

"It's like an image-enhancer. That sort of thing is very 'nichey'; a lot of people get very passionate about that sort of thing. You've got to cater for the vast demographic profile of your customer base.

"If you can bring that sort of thing in and people can derive some benefit and pleasure from it -- and it helps enhance the brand -- then you look at it seriously."

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