It’s interesting to consider the trajectory of the Toyota Hilux in the United States. If you were assigning high school yearbook “Who’s Who” titles to vehicles, the little truck that could would clearly be labeled “Most Likely to Succeed.” Hard working, studious, and effortlessly charming, the early days of Toyota truck sales in the U.S. showed you clearly where the company would go with its highly successful Tacoma pickups. The early 1971 Hilux shown here on craigslist supposedly hasn’t run in 30 years, but somehow, it still looks like it’s ready to work. The seller is asking $2,000.
When Toyota entered the truck market in the 1960s, it didn’t make much of a splash. The rare Stout pickup was quite small and perhaps even forgettable, but if you do find one today, a Toyota enthusiast will quickly snatch it up. Regardless, the first run of the Hilux was really when momentum began building for Toyota. Unlike other small truck competitors, Toyota wasn’t trying to market it as a cute runabout that could be used like a commuter car during the wheel and pick up some potted plants on the weekend. Toyota wanted the Hilux to be perceived as a true workhorse, an image captured perfectly here with a home-brew stake-style bed extensions.
Still, these were 2WD trucks with modest powerplants. Yet somehow, the Toyota just seemed tougher, like it was meant for more than simple fuel efficient cruising. Once the reputation for durability was established with the early Hilux models, the rest is history once Toyota began offering 4 wheel drive. With the Hilux a known quantity at this point, sales took off briskly once the Hilux proved itself capable of going off road or driving through mud and snow. To this day, I’m not sure any other imported truck has a shot in heck of ever catching up with Toyota. The interior of this Hilux looks every part of a truck that’s been off the road for 30 years, but its spartan cabin will make it simple to refresh.
The bodywork is fairly rough and these aren’t valuable enough to deserve a full-scale restoration. But you could clean up the interior, replace the tires, find some OEM steel wheels and hubcaps, and call it a day (well, once the mechanical bits are sorted.) Speaking of, in North America, we got the 8R-C four-cylinder engine, which was generally good for 97 horsepower and 128 lb.-ft. of torque. This was the first run of the overhead-cam R engine series, and it represents a nice bump in power over the 12R found in other markets. The seller notes it is close to running but the carburetor throttle plates are seized, so bring a rebuild kit if you plan to buy.
If you really want to see how tough the Toyota Hilux was back in the day, watch the Top Gear episode named “Killing a Toyota” on YouTube. In short, they take a stock early 80s Hilux pickup and do horrible things to it. It will make you a fan of Toyota trucks, no matter what 4 x 4 you currently drive. I’ve had a Toyota 4 x 4 since 2015 and it’s one of the best vehicles I’ve ever owned.
Well, don’t that beat all! There’s proof that someone was as stupid as I was 55 years ago! Right down to the same color!
This is a grim reminder of one of the worst decisions of my life. I thought that, since I was working on and off the ranch, I could buy a compact pickup, put farm plates on it, use cheaper farm gas–legally, and use it to go back and forth to work, and justify the farm use by transporting parts…
Well… That 8RC engine wouldn’t run on Regular; it pinged and detonated on Premium. It wouldn’t start below Zero unless it was plugged in. Anything below freezing and Full Defrost could barely get a six inch peep hole in the driver’s side of the windshield and maybe a four inch in the passenger’s side–your feet froze.
It collapsed a piston at 32K miles and it cost me as much for the necessary parts as parts (and machining) on a Ford 360 V8 (parts over the Fleet Counter at the Ford dealership). And that 360 (’68 Ford 3/4 ton farm truck) had a good 80K mile headstart over the 32K miles. I might add that the Ford parts were readily available while everything for the Toyota, except for the head gasket, took nearly six weeks to come from Japan.
Then there was the reception from the locals. I picked up the mail and stopped by the coffee shop to chat with the guys. The conversation swung toward that small pickup. I guess you could say that there were some vets from the war who fought the Japanese and they weren’t very friendly toward it.
Overall, that was still pretty mild. Simply put, that Hilux left a lot to be desired. I eventually sold it to a local carpenter who used it for a “Gopher Truck.” Strange thing was, he loved it. Of course it never ran very far out of town.
I do have to say that it would plow snow almost as good as any 4×4. Put snow tires on the back, a couple of old John Deere 5020 cylinder heads in the bed (200+ lbs each) and that truck would go through anything.
It had very stiff suspension. I often had a ton of fertilizer in the back and it hardly pushed the back end down.
Now here’s the funny part: That old carpenter passed away some years later and that blue bomb sat in his widow’s back yard for 15 years. I approached her to see if she might be interested in selling it (back to me?!?!?!?) because I entertained the thought of restoring it. She told me that one of her boys wanted it.
And he eventually hauled it away.
Skuttlebutt says that he’s almost got it done!
Now, this truck. It looks like someone has changed the wheel hubs and drums. Those look like five-hole wheels to me. I vividly remember mine had six studs, like a Datsun. I think even a Mazda used six holes. I never attempted to see if Chevy truck wheels would fit but I have to say that they had to be close.
I have definitely mellowed out in my old age and it really wouldn’t bother me to drive around in one today. The builders were just like anyone else; they just wanted to sell you a truck…
Reminds me of the red ’68 F-100 I had, also with a 360. It also had a canopy, and this was back in the 80s. The truck was in fine shape and ran great as long as you kept putting gas in it, which was often. I only sold it because of its inherent thirst. And that was when gas was around $2 a gallon!
67-72 Chevy C10 stock steel wheels are the same as the Toyota 6-lug steel wheels. I have 3 extra Toyota rims that I use exclusively for snow tires and a spare on my 1969 C10
I figured this would hit a nerve with Geomechs, and to be honest, one of the very few I’ve come across that actually had a bad experience. Oh, I’m sure there were others, like my distain for Jeep Wagoneers, but to most in Beer City, it never got that far. Geos experience with the coffee shop was very common. You had to have grapes to pull in the diner parking lot with one of these, sandwiched in-between the US trucks. “Where’s the rest of it”, or “go back to China” or “go eat your foreign car”, with much worse that can’t be said here and if one was broke down, oh boy, that added to the fodder on the CB radio. This will never catch on, we thought, and ate our words thusly.
Geos seemingly only bad experience aside, and I’m sure there were others, the ones that didn’t care what a bunch of beer swizzling, Harley riders had to say, they bought these, and had excellent results. Why, I too had one, my ex-BILs, a bit newer, the one he had trouble finding with 0 options, that truck had 230K miles when I got it, and all my BIL did was oil changes, brakes, tires nothing major,,and I put at least another 10K on it, but was pretty rusty by then, it’s only nemesis. My biggest gripe was it needed a 5 speed, resolved later.
This particular truck, oh, jeez, kill it already, I doubt there’s even a halfway decent one left that this could be used for parts. My experience with several folks that had them,, they were good trucks and surely bought another.
I guess I’m old because i can remember when these things were on the road to me i always thought the turn signals were an afterthought and that’s why they were on the fender that way. with all that dirt in the bed that floor may be rusted out but i wish this was closer because i would be negotiating to get it.
Back in those days it seems there were far more Datsun trucks than Toyotas, at least in my area. It wasn’t until a styling refresh around ’74 that Toyotas started selling like hotcakes. And if you think this rig looks a little weird, you should see an earlier Toyota Stout pickup which is what they were called before Hilux. Its front turn signals were mounted in scoops above the fender.
I was curious what a Toyota stout looked like so i looked it up there were a couple of different body styles. The funny thing is Toyota bringing back the Stout pickup in 2026 aimed at the Ford Maverick pickup buyers. Looks like a sharp truck but it is going to be a Hybrid i believe.
Skuttlebutt says that Hybrid is what it is. I often wonder why the push is for EV or Hybrids when the consumer push is for ICE and mechanical drivelines. It seems like the auto business has got a gun to its head and holding a gun to the population’s head. Anyone I talk to doesn’t have a remote interest to EV and hardly any interest for a Hybrid, yet the builders talk like it’s the only choice you’re going to have.
Working for an International dealer, I hear a lot of speculation over the new Scout. There was obviously enough backlash over the EV ONLY that they decided to install an engine with a generator to give the vehicle an extra 300 miles to a charge. I told the rep, when he was around, that I was ready to sign an order as soon as I saw an ICE with mechanical driveline offered. He said that was NEVER going to happen. Somehow it’s more economical to offer EV plus generator unit which adds more complication to the vehicle. And you have an engine to service…
The original JDM version of this truck had nicely integrated turn signals inserted in the fender ends of the upper grille slot.
However, apparently those lenses weren’t big enough for US regs, possibly because bulbs of the required brightness ran too hot for the lens/housing, so they just mounted these giant signals on top of the fenders for the US market.
My dad had one of these in grey for a few years when I was a wee lad, eventually replaced with a metallic copper-colored ’77 Ford Courier (a rebadged Mazda B-series).
i would not sit on that seat. this thing is scrap metal
This old hauler is just a little too far gone, methinks. Everything looks rusted, dirty or stuck. Or all three. Stuck throttle plate? Eeek. I bet the engine is too. It might be good for parts if someone has a good Hilux of the same vintage, but even then I’d talk the seller down some.
Here’s a tip to the seller. While waiting for that buyer? Maybe run a shop vac through the interior once or ten times, and maybe scrape out that gunk that’s coating the bed? Yikes!