It may be slightly late, but the Toyota Hilux Legend 55 will indeed be offered in South Africa. Here’s what we know about this upcoming (widebody!) bakkie so far…
The year 2024 came and went with no sign of a special-edition Hilux Legend derivative (despite some cheeky speculation on our part). Now, Toyota South Africa Motors has finally confirmed that the Hilux Legend 55 – complete with a widebody configuration – is indeed happening.
Revealed in double-cab form (in an interesting new paint colour) at the Japanese firm’s 2025 State of the Motor Industry (SOMI) address at Kyalami in Johannesburg, the new Legend 55 is set to launch as the 5th limited-edition model in this SA-specific quinquennial tradition.
As a reminder, every 5 years since the Legend 35 was released back in 2004, Toyota SA Motors has celebrated both the Hilux’s heritage and crushing sales dominance in the local market with some sort of special Legend model (before the Legend trim became a permanent fixture in 2020).
For whatever reason, the Legend 55 is a year late to the party, with the Legend 50 having hit the market in July 2019 (and the count starting from the Hilux’s local inception in 1969). According to Toyota SA Motors, initial units of the new Hilux Legend 55 are scheduled to be released to local dealerships in July 2025.
Interestingly, Toyota has yet to confirm what’s lurking beneath the Legend 55’s bonnet, though we’re guessing it’s a version of the venerable 2.8-litre turbodiesel engine (whether the motor features the standard 150 kW/500 Nm tune or the likewise-widebody GR-Sport’s loftier 165 kW and 550 Nm outputs remains to be seen).
What we do know, however, is that the Legend 55 will feature a widebody configuration (and “wide-tread suspension”), along with a model-specific styling kit, a revised sportsbar, an underbody bashplate, a towbar, a roller shutter and rubberising for the loadbin.
The Hilux hit the market in South Africa way back in 1969, just a year after debuting overseas. The first limited-edition Legend – the appropriately named Legend 35 – was released in 2004, followed by the Legend 40 in 2009 and the Legend 45 in 2014 (the latter model was “extremely well received by the market”, according to Toyota SA Motors). Then, in 2019, the Legend 50 arrived to mark half a century of the Hilux in SA.
The Legend 50 turned out to be what Toyota SA Motors in early 2021 described as a “massive success”, to the point that dealers ran out of stock for a couple of weeks. In short, the Prospecton plant in KwaZulu-Natal simply couldn’t churn them out fast enough.
With a new-generation Hilux seemingly not too far around the corner, it seems the Legend 55 will serve as a fitting swansong for the 8th-generation version of the strong-selling bakkie. As a reminder, with 32 656 units sold, the Prospecton-built stalwart remained Mzansi’s best-selling bakkie – and indeed the country’s top-selling vehicle overall – in 2024, a title it has now held for more than 50 straight years.
Look out for more details on the Toyota Hilux Legend 55 closer to launch…
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