I eliminated the Fortuner SUV as I would never need 7 seats and my heart wanted something unique.
BHPian Dhruv Shetty recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
Hilux owner here. Here is why I bought it:
I travel a lot with my cycles, both locally within Bangalore and out of station fairly frequently. Locally about 2 times a week at least to take my bike to the outskirts, out-of-station trips are about once a month. My wife and I own 5 bikes together 2 MTB, 1 gravel and 2 road bikes.
When it was time to replace my 2013 Jetta TDI MT (as I own 8th Gen Honda Accord V6, I found that the Jetta is inferior in all attributes except fuel efficiency). I wanted something that
would suit the life of adventure. Desired attributes were:
- Offroading capabilities, I don’t want to worry about poor road conditions in remote locations. Not really interested in off-roading otherwise
- Transport 2 adults + kids + bikes + other gear. Will never need 7 seats only cargo capacity
- Maximum reliability, I don’t want to think twice about going anywhere.
The above requirements left me with the Fortuner, V-Cross, and Hilux. I eliminated the Fortuner as I would never need 7 seats and my heart wanted something unique.
My top contender was the V Cross as it was cheaper. During the drive I was disappointed with the power, it felt significantly weaker than the Jetta and had quite a bit of turbo lag. My wife found the body movements to be excessive. But we booked it thinking that if we want a pickup we need to live with the compromises. During this time we test-drove the Hilux and were pleasantly surprised and really found the premium over the V Cross to be worth it contrary to popular opinion. Here is why:
- The power difference is a lot in the real world. I really feel it is faster than my Jetta TDI in real driving conditions due to the 500Nm of torque. The combination of size and power is unnatural
- The body movements are much more contained in the Hilux my wife was happy with the ride. We just found that the rear was just a little stiffer than the Fortuner.
- The price differential against the Fortuner is reasonable for what is on offer
- Lastly a few minor points, Toyota has a larger service network and the V Cross is 1 generation behind the global model, additional equipment in the Hilux
I have had the vehicle for 4 months now and just recently completed a 27 days road trip to Bhutan my observations so far (skipping some points already known about the Fortuner):
- AC and heat rejection glass are excellent, you would know if it is 25C or 45C outside
- My wife suffers from motion sickness, 10min in a taxi on a ghat road can make her puke. For some reason she never had motion sickness in the Hilux, I really don’t know why. Now this is her favourite car.
- Very capable highway cruiser, 1000km in a day didn’t tire me all
- After loading cargo with a gross vehicle weight of 2.8 tonnes, the ride becomes excellent and still, you will fly fast with almost all vehicles on the road with a dab on the throttle
Having said all the above I would just say I am lucky that Toyota decided to launch the Hilux here because it makes sense for very few use cases in India.
Concluding with a picture.
Keyword: Upgraded to Toyota Hilux from VW Jetta: Here's why I bought the pickup