Maybe it’s better that way.
You won’t find the new Toyota Hilux in the United States. The Tacoma is close, but with different bones, the trucks aren’t necessarily plug-and-play when it comes to tweaks. In other words, if you’re sitting in your Tacoma outside a coffee shop in Virginia reading this and dreaming of making it a GR Sport model with imported parts, keep dreaming.
Perhaps that’s for the best, because these two Hilux Revo GR Sport models made for Thailand are … curious. Actually, the Hi-Floor version isn’t bad at all. Hi-Floor is just a trick way to call it four-wheel drive, which means the Lo-Floor is – you guessed it – two-wheel drive. Toyota says both trucks embody more of a sports car nature, both in appearance and to a certain degree, performance. Flashy graphics and an updated nose with a body-colored grille and special wheels are common to both models on the outside. Similarly, a GR makeover inside sees plenty of smoke-silver trim, red stitching, and GR branding, among other things.
Gallery: Toyota Hilux Revo GR Sport
From there, we draw attention first to the GR Sport Lo-Floor for two reasons. In a world where burly off-roading pickups are king, seeing an actual street truck from an automaker is a neck-snapper. The two-wheel-drive Hilux GR Sport wears a modest body kit with side skirts and it has black trim, as a sporty truck should. It also rides on lowered suspension, 23 millimeters to be exact. That’s nearly a one-inch drop all the way around, and yet, the truck has enough wheel gap to drive a Yaris through.
That’s the other less-flattering reason the Lo-Floor has our attention. We aren’t necessarily fans of larger-than-life wheels, but the 17-inchers on low-profile tires are hilariously out-of-place for this truck. Plug in something a bit bigger, drop it a little more, and it could be the Toyota Tacoma X-Runner replacement we’ve been waiting for.
As for the GR Sport Hi-Floor, it also gains a few extra items. On the outside you’ll find fender flares, a black sport bar with LED lighting, step boards on the sides, and an upgraded suspension with new monotube shocks. It also has a wheel upgrade, but these are more appropriate 18-inchers with higher-profile tires. They still look a bit small on the Hilux, but it’s clearly the more proportionate of the new GR Sport models.
The GR Sport Hi-Floor and Lo-Floor join a plethora of Hilux models already available in Thailand. Pricing starts at 889,000 THB for the Lo-Floor, with the Hi-Floor starting at 1,299,000 THB. Translated to US currency, that currently equals about $27,000 and $40,000.
Source:
Toyota Thailand via Autoblog
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