Toyota Hilux GR Sport Review: A Tough, Capable Truck – Just Don’t Be Fooled By The Badges

It’s easy to judge the Toyota Hilux GR Sport by what it’s not. After all, see GR badges on a Toyota and you’ll immediately think of things like the rally-bred tearaway GR Yaris, or supremely balanced rear-drive GR86. So when you hear about a GR-badged Hilux, you might be tempted to think it’s some dune-bashing, knobbly-tyred maniac, especially when Toyota’s original press release on this truck quoted Nasser Al-Attiyah, the rally raid hotshot who’s thrice driven race versions of the Hilux to Dakar Rally victory.

Truthfully, though, that’s an optimistic and largely unfair approach. GR Sport isn’t the same as a full-fat GR.  It’s basically a sporty-ish trim level and Toyota’s far from the only company to do this – M Sport, AMG Line, R-Line, ST-Line, N-Line, Bakerloo Line… they all dress up everyday cars in costumes inspired by their manufacturer’s proper performance badges, and sell in droves as a result. Apart from that last one.

And in all fairness to Toyota, it’s done more than slap on some badges and call it a day. The GR Sport has a specific suspension setup, with monotube dampers and stiffened front coil springs. It has an angry front grille, nestles front occupants in a pair of leather-and-faux-suede sports seats, and is filled with flashes of GR’s signature red.

This one’s just been superseded by an updated version, aptly named the GR Sport II. That takes things even further with a wider track and a 20mm suspension lift, plus noticeably more aggressive styling. That, though, is powered by the same 2.8-litre turbodiesel four-cylinder as this outgoing version and uses the same slushy, resolutely old-school six-speed automatic.

That engine makes 201bhp, which sounds meagre, but because it’s a big diesel, it’s all about the torque: 369lb ft of it. It’s enough to haul 2340kg of truck to 62mph in 10.7 seconds and on to 109mph, but in the mid-range, where it actually matters, it feels strong and eager. You should manage MPG in the high 20s, too – maybe even cracking 30 if you’re careful.

Towing capacity and payload are a bit out of our wheelhouse, but for what it’s worth, the GR Sport will haul up to 3.5 tonnes and carry a further tonne in its bed – the former pretty much on a par with the best in class, the latter a little bit down on some rivals.

The gearbox isn’t like most modern autos – it’s slow to shift, and liable to bang out an unexpected downshift and cause a sudden flare of revs as you’re slowing for a bend. You get paddles, but there’s not much point in using them – pull one, and there’ll be enough time for Oasis to break up and then reform again before any cogs are swapped.

There’s little point trying to dress up the rest of the GR Sport’s driving experience: it’s a pickup truck. The retuned suspension is supposed to have improved on-road drivability, and while the handling is a teeny bit sharper than you might expect, it’s still the sort of thing that requires you to frantically wind on lock when manoeuvring around car parks. Again, this isn’t a huge criticism – it’s entertaining to build up momentum and hustle it along, much as you can in an old-school Land Rover Defender.

Expectations around ride quality should be similarly tempered. It has leaf springs at the back, so, especially with an unladen bed, you’ll be getting jiggled around plenty. Rear passengers will be particularly aware of this. Refinement is reasonable most of the time, though. The engine is rough and vocal under acceleration, but tolerably hushed at a cruise, and for such a big, slabby vehicle, it does a commendable job of suppressing wind noise.

Up at motorway speeds, it’s fairly truck-ish. You’ll have to make lots of little corrections, and the wheel begins wriggling about in your hands once you hit 70-ish. The seats are impressively comfy, though, and long runs are entirely doable.

The rest of the interior is – once again – as you’d expect; that is to say, functional. You have big, chunky switches, a big, chunky gear selector, and a big, chunky wheel. It’s designed to be robust and durable, but there’s enough niceness in the GR Sport to make you feel like you’re not driving around in a Portakabin.  I could live without the tacky carbon fibre-effect trim on the dash, but I suppose Toyota’s got to do something to set the GR Sport aside from other Hiluxes inside.

Naturally, where the GR Sport feels at its happiest is out in the sticks. Find one of the few dirt roads in Britain you can drive down, and it really embodies the Hilux’s long-standing reputation for granite-like toughness. With selectable four-wheel drive, a locking diff and low range, it should be up for some more serious off-roading, too.

This first iteration of GR Sport is technically off sale now. The GR Sport II, though, which doesn’t fundamentally change much, starts at £49,750, or £41,523 if you’re able to reclaim the VAT – this is a commercial vehicle, after all.

There is no shortage of rivals in the toughened-up, ‘lifestyle’-geared truck market these days. The Ford Ranger is offered in both £42,660 Tremor and £48,420 Wildtrak guise. Sharing a lot with Ford’s truck is the VW Amarok which, in beefy PanAmericana trim, is a lot pricier at £58,434 including VAT, but does have the added bonus of a grunty V6 engine.

If looking extra-tough is your thing, you could also spend a few grand more on an Isuzu D-Max with a full overhaul by Arctic Trucks – the firm that prepared Top Gear’s Polar Hilux. The GR Sport seems to occupy a bit of an awkward middle ground among competitors, then, but you are paying for that reputation for ironclad toughness.

By all measures, the GR Sport is a very good pickup: robust, capable and just plush enough to not punish you for using it as a normal car. But is it a bit ambitious of Toyota to try and link it directly to its V6-powered, Dakar-conquering rally raid Hiluxes? In all honesty, yes.

Even a company as enthusiast-friendly as Toyota, though, can’t turn everything into some high-performance toy. The job the GR Sport aims to do – offer a touch more sportiness to an otherwise very utilitarian product – it largely does well. It certainly feels a little old-fashioned in places, but given the Hilux’s reputation for unbreakability, that’s almost a good thing.