Cars.co.za contributor and seasoned motoring journalist Lance Branquinho put the Toyota Hilux GR-S (GR-Sport) through its paces during the recent end-of-year break. Here’s what he discovered about one of South Africa’s most desired double cabs.
South African upper-middle-class families go on vacation with Toyota Hilux double cabs. I don’t need to tell you that. It’s self-evident.
Which vehicle type and model were you competing with most for the best shopping-mall parking bays during December and the beginning of January? Exactly. A double cab and usually, a Hilux.
The 4-door version of South Africa’s most popular vehicle range occupies more parking space in coastal towns and inland water resorts than any other vehicle. But how good is the Hilux as a leisure vacation vehicle?
I don’t have a spouse, kids or pets to transport during the annual vacation break. My priority is to haul outdoor activity gear… mostly mountain bikes and, occasionally, surfboards. In theory, the Toyota Hilux GR-S (GR-Sport) should be my ideal vacation vehicle: it’s all-terrain capable and has a generous load box. But is it really that good, as a passenger car, when you aren’t stacking the load box with stuff?
FAST FACTS
- Model: Toyota Hilux 2.8GD-6 double cab 4×4 GR-Sport
- Price: R891 400 (January 2023)
- Engine: 2.8-litre, 4-cylinder turbodiesel
- Power/Torque: 165 kW/550 Nm
- Transmission: 6-speed automatic with low range
- Fuel consumption: 8.0 L/100 km (claimed)
- Payload: 800 kg
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Toyota Hilux GR-S in the role of ‘a car’
Despite its popularity, the double-cab (DC) bakkie has several flaws as a family car. And that applies to all DCs, not the Hilux specifically.
However, there are things that the Hilux does differently from its rivals. And some of Toyota’s “tried and tested” (some would say “dated”) features make a lot of sense when living with a double-cab bakkie.
South Africans are deeply image-conscious, especially regarding the vehicles that they are seen to be driving. And during the summer break, the fixation with how they appear in public, well, borders on an obsession. You know exactly what I mean: those crowds of young men who cruise the parking areas and boulevards of coastal resort towns (at 15 kph) in double cabs. Often, their parents’ double cabs.
The double-cab bakkie may have commercial-vehicle underpinnings, but it’s a statement vehicle in the local market. South Africa is one of the few global markets where a rare specification double-cab bakkie can outshine an Italian supercar or the latest Mercedes-AMG. And although the Hilux isn’t rare, the GR-S is.
Appearance and aesthetic interpretation are deeply subjective. I think the current Hilux has an awkwardly oversized grille and those red GR-S fender graphics look, um, terrible. But what do I know? There’s an enormous waiting list for these bakkies, and Hilux remains South Africa’s most popular vehicle.
My opinion of what the Toyota Hilux GR-S is like to travel and live with may, however, be less subjective.
Toyota Hilux GR-S’ power matters, when you need it most
The most headline-grabbing difference between the GR-S and its fellow 2.8-litre Hiluxes is its higher peak outputs (by 15 kW and 50 Nm). Do those slightly higher numbers matter? Of course, they do.
Nobody enjoys long drives to their holiday destination; our country’s highways are fraught with danger (including stationary vehicles, wandering animals and the ill-judgement of road users), especially so during the festive season. When you want to overtake a train of slower vehicles, every advantage helps.
First, the bad news. When you require mild acceleration, such as when cruising around town, there’s no difference between a 150kW Hilux 2.8-litre and the 165 kW GR-S. But, at sustained peak throttle loads, when you are trying to overtake 2 or 3 trucks at 120 kph, the GR-S’s 165 kW makes its presence felt.
The 6-speed automatic transmission is very average. I don’t think you necessarily need the 10 gears that Ranger offers, but 8 gears might be the ideal spread of ratios. I’ve driven examples of every self-shifting bakkie that’s been sold in South Africa since the mid-2000s. None of them has equalled or surpassed the 1st-generation Amarok’s ZF 8-speed transmission for its calibration, smoothness and responses.
Why the Toyota Hilux GR-S’ jagged shift gate is so clever
The Toyota Hilux GR-S’s 6-speed automatic transmission might be average when compared with those of its rivals, but there’s a little bit of Toyota genius to its shift gate.
Most double-cab bakkies with auto boxes have covered shift gates, which is to say the transmission lever moves forwards and backwards in a direct mechanical line. It’s an elegant layout, but not always that effective because you must press a trigger button on the shifter, to move the lever.
Toyota uses a jagged-pattern shift gate, which moves up and down, yes, but also diagonally. Mitsubishi is another brand with a jagged-pattern shift gate, on its Triton. For interior design aestheticists, it looks awkward. But it works so much better than the covered shift gates on most other double-cab bakkies.
Why do I say that? If you drive a double-cab, you are going to do many 3-point turns. It’s a simple reality of a bakkie’s titanic dimensions and poor turning circle, narrow urban roads, and shrinking parking bays. Three-point turns require rapid Drive-Reverse-Drive shifting, and the Hilux GR-S’s auto transmission can be slam-shifted through that jagged-gate pattern without fear that you’d engage the wrong gear.
“But does it matter?” Yes, it certainly does. When you are trying to keep calm and retain optimal posing value while a family in their white rental car impatiently waits for you to vacate the parking bay that they dearly want to occupy, the Hilux’s jagged-pattern gate shifting is an enabler. You can slam that shifter down and it will always find Reverse, without accidentally slipping into Park or Neutral respectively.
It’s the same action when you want to re-engage Drive. You never have to look down or at the digital shift guide in the driver-info display of your sporty silver- and red-accented instrument binnacle. It’s pure haptics. You can feel and know, with intuitive confidence, that you are in the gear you want to be. This is not always the case with some of the newer bakkies, especially those that feature electronic shifters.
Toyota Hilux GR-S: the theft issue
Popularity can be a curse. Successful as Hilux is for Toyota as a business, it has created a theft issue, which is troubling for Hilux owners. It’s the dark side of Hilux’s status as South Africa’s most successful model. It also reveals some of the unhappy aspects of operating a double-cab in the family-vehicle role.
During my time with the Toyota Hilux GR-S, Toyota deployed a security upgrade to counter keyless-start jamming. That meant a visit to the local dealership… during the festive season (sigh). Toyota Tygervalley were typical of the Japanese brand’s franchisees: busy, but comprehensively professional and efficient.
I dropped the Hilux at 07:30 and it was ready for collection by midday. Before I left, the service agent explained all the work that had been undertaken – it was a welcome, transparent human interaction in a world where the service experience is mostly digitising and creating discrepancies of understanding.
Tailgate central locking in the South African context
It is a very South African irony when a lack of features becomes an advantage due to the country’s security and crime issues.
A double-cab bakkie that doesn’t integrate the load-box tailgate into its central locking system, is a fail. You are going to rush and forget that something valuable is loaded under that tonneau cover, and if the tailgate doesn’t lock in unison with your key fob action for the doors, well, it’s a theft waiting to happen.
No, the Toyota Hilux GR-S doesn’t feature a tailgate with central locking. But it’s a win. If remote signal jamming is your fear, the Hilux GR-S tailgate can be locked and unlocked by using a key. As our parents did with their bakkies.
You simply remove the traditional ignition key, which operates the doors and tailgate, from the key fob. And that enables the Toyota Hilux GR-S to use legacy technology to defeat the ebbing tide of (let’s just call it) increasingly technologically advanced automotive criminality in South Africa.
There’s a correct wheel size for bakkies. Trust us.
The Toyota Hilux GR-S validates as a South African all-purpose family vehicle: it’s better than it should be when you need to execute a 3-point turn quickly and charmingly immune to nefarious signal jamming.
But what’s it like to drive? For the reality of South Africa’s depreciating road network: much better than a luxury crossover.
Bakkies should never roll on statement wheels. The current trend towards 19-, 20-, and 21-inch double-cab wheels is a false economy. A generous sidewall beats a design statement every day, or at least within the context of the real-world double-cab driving experience.
The cushioned ride quality, pothole-strike survivability and superior traction for off-road driving (when slightly deflated) make the GR-S’ 265/65 R17 tyres the only ones you should have on a Hilux double-cab.
It’s reasonably fuel-efficient too. After all, you are unlikely to be using the 165 kW power peak all of the time… Driven mildly, and largely unladen, we averaged 9.7 L/100 km over the festive-season test period.
Dislikes
South Africa is a warm-climate country – to put it mildly – and that means that a vehicle’s cup holders get used to capacity on journeys, be they long or short. Especially during summer.
The issue with Toyota Hilux GR-S’ cupholders is their location. If you position a large hydration bottle in the centre console’s right cup holder, you’ll find it obscures the diff-lock engagement button. And that’s not great, because when you need to trigger a differential lock, you don’t want to fumble to find it. In a technically challenging off-road scenario, where the diff-lock might be required in a hurry, you are likely to feel anxious and don’t want to have a bottle obscuring your access to that “magic traction” button.
Toyota should consider moving such a crucial function to a more ergonomic position, such as closer to the ‘wheel. There’s space next to the starter button. Hopefully, the next-gen Hilux’s diff-lock button will be placed there because the cup holders are where they should be/can’t realistically be repositioned.
Summary
The Toyota Hilux GR-S has more power than any other Hilux. It also has clever coil springs and dampers, delivering more compliant ride quality. But curiously, it still has drum brakes at the rear.
For decades, double-cab bakkies had rear drum brakes because they were often used in the utility role. But that is no longer the case, is it?
Bakkies are more powerful and hardly ever loaded to capacity, but they run at high cruising speeds. And that’s where rear disc brakes will prove a genuine benefit compared to drums, which are okay when there’s weight on the rear axle, but not great in all other scenarios. And Toyota knows this, because the Australian specification GR-Sport, which was recently revealed, is fitted with disc brakes at the back.
Not the most expensive Hilux you can buy, but unquestionably the most rewarding to drive, the GR-S is a worthy halo derivative for South Africa’s most popular vehicle range. But it will be even better if the Australian specification becomes standardised on local Hilux GR-S double-cabs later this year…
Priced at R891 400, the Toyota Hilux GR-S is R54 000 cheaper than Toyota’s most expensive Hilux, the 2.8GD-6 double cab 4×4 Legend RS auto. And I don’t know if the latter’s bigger wheels or JBL premium audio system really justify the extra outlay. You can buy a lot of diesel for R54 000…
Related content:
Toyota SA Rolls Out Free Anti-Theft Updates for Certain Vehicles
Toyota Hilux GR-Sport Scores Tougher Looks Overseas
