2023 Toyota Hilux GR Sport review: daily use dune-buster

GR-branded Toyota pick-up gives a taste of the Dakar

Toyota Hilux GR Sport

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There can’t be many kinds of car that have not been reviewed within the pages of this title as it moves towards its centenary next year, but there’s a bit of me that’s hoping this is the very first pick-up to earn its place here, if indeed it can be thought of as a car at all.

But then this Toyota Hilux is the first to receive the same ‘GR’ badging now found on the phenomenal little GR Yaris, Supra and GR86. It was also a machine calling itself a GR Hilux that I watched bludgeon its way across the Saudi desert in January to successfully defend last year’s Dakar Rally victory, so I guess there’s some sort of connection there too.

The Hilux GR Sport differs from lesser Hiluxes not just in appearance – it has a bespoke grille, wheel design and exterior trim with sports seats and some truly terrible carbon-like garnish – but in specification too, thanks to unique monotube dampers and firmer suspension settings. Yet you can still dump a tonne of stuff in the back – which is what I did – and tow the maximum 3500kg allowable by law.

For such a rough and ready design – think ladder chassis and leaf springs – it was surprisingly well-behaved and fast, quiet and comfortable enough for daily use. Certainly its modern-day refinement would kill that of an old Land Rover Defender. In its own rugged, honest and effective way, I found it rather charming. AF

Toyota Hilux GR Sport

• Price £39,940 (excluding VAT)
• Engine 2.8 litres, four cylinders, diesel, turbocharged
• Power 201bhp at 3000rpm
• Torque 368lb ft at 1600rpm
• Weight 2125kg
• Power to weight 95bhp per tonne
• Transmission Six-speed auto, four-wheel drive
• 0-60mph 10.7sec
• Top speed 109mph
• Economy 30.0mpg
• CO2 248g/km
• Verdict Chunky and cheerful.

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