The Toyota Hilux: The Vehicular Equivalent of the AK-47

October 16th, 2010

We visited a very reputable used car dealership—that handles lots of Japanese used vehicles—and asked the owner: Why are there so few utes (pickups) available?

The owner of the used car dealership told us, “Well heeled Pakistanis are pretty much outbidding everyone at the used vehicle auctions in Japan. The utes are winding up in Iraq and Afghanistan. It’s because of the war.”

New Zealand Update: Big Nerd, Little Car (2006)

I like the cargo cult effect. Wow.

Via: Newsweek:

As the war in Afghanistan escalated several years ago, counterinsurgency expert David Kilcullen, a member of the team that designed the Iraq surge for Gen. David Petraeus, began to notice a new tattoo on some insurgent Afghan fighters. It wasn’t a Taliban tattoo. It wasn’t even Afghan. It was a Canadian maple leaf.

When a perplexed Kilcullen began to investigate, he says, he discovered that the incongruous flags were linked to what he says is one of the most important, and unnoticed, weapons of guerrilla war in Afghanistan and across the world: the lightweight, virtually indestructible Toyota Hilux truck.

“In Afghanistan in particular,” he says, “[the trucks are] incredibly well respected.” So well respected, in fact, that some enterprising fraudsters thought them worthy of ripping off. The imitations, Kilcullen says, had flooded the market, leaving disappointed fighters in their wake. But then “a shipment of high-quality [real] Hiluxes arrived, courtesy of the Canadian government,” he explains. “They had little Canadian flags on the back. Because they were the real deal, and because of how the Hilux is seen, over time, strangely, the Canadian flag has become a symbol of high quality across the country. Hence the tattoos.”

It’s not just rebels in Afghanistan that love the Hilux. “The Toyota Hilux is everywhere,” says Andrew Exum, a former Army Ranger and now a fellow of the Center for a New American Security. “It’s the vehicular equivalent of the AK-47. It’s ubiquitous to insurgent warfare. And actually, recently, also counterinsurgent warfare. It kicks the hell out of the Humvee.” Anecdotally, a scan of pictures from the last four decades of guerrilla and insurgent warfare around the world—the first iteration of the Hilux appeared in the late ’60s—reveals the Toyota’s wide-ranging influence. Somali pirates bristling with guns hang out of them on the streets of Mogadishu. The New York Times has reported that the Hilux is the pirates’ “ride of choice.” A ragtag bunch of 20 or so Sudanese fighters raise their arms aloft in the back of a Hilux in 2004. Pakistani militants drive through a crowd, guns high, in 2000. It goes on. Nicaragua, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Liberia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq—U.S. Special Forces even drive Toyota Tacomas (the chunkier, U.S. version of the Hilux) on some of their deployments. (Click here for a gallery of Toyota trucks in conflict-torn regions.)

While Taliban leader Mullah Omar reportedly likes to roll in a Chevy Suburban and Osama Bin Laden is said to have preferred the Hilux’s bigger brother, the Landcruiser, when he was able to move freely, most Al Qaeda lieutenants drive Hiluxes, according to a New York Times report from the early 2000s. Even today, says Kilcullen, “It’s a bit of a sign you’re dealing with Al Qaeda when you come across them in Pakistan. They use the twin-cab version, because you can carry people and stuff in the back, and also mount a heavy weapon in the pickup.”

Research Credit: mcantelon

7 Responses to “The Toyota Hilux: The Vehicular Equivalent of the AK-47”

  1. zeke says:

    I can so totally believe this. I’ve owned 4 Toyotas over the years, including 2 of the small pickups and an old Troopy. They were vehicles made to last, to endure serious abuse, and to be relatively easy to fix. They are even tolerably fuel efficient, given the kind of usage to which such vehicles are typically put.

    The Land Cruiser/Troop Carrier completely qualify as another example of bullet-proof vehicles. You see them everywhere in Australia. We spent several months driving through the middle of nowhere, and probably every other vehicle we met in the outback was a white troopy, just like ours. They may be ferociously expensive new, but people treat them more like planes or boats, putting in repairs on these fantasticly functional vehicles that you never would on a typical daily driver. I’ve seen them at panel beaters, getting probably 25% of the body sheet metal and the floor pans replaced, destined to go out and be driven for another couple of 100 ks before (maybe) being retired.

    I’d buy another one in a minute, should I end up in a place where I would need such.

    Zeke

  2. Kevin says:

    I bought a new Toyota “Pickup” (22R-E) in 1993. I drove it until 2000. The only issue it ever had was that it needed a new thermostat ($9) and I replaced it myself. In 2000, I sold the vehicle to my dad. It had 129,000 miles on it when I left the U.S. in early 2006. Original clutch. My dad continues to drive it to this day.

  3. zeke says:

    Interesting. I had a 93 with a 22-RE, and the only thing *I* had to do on it was replace the thermostat. Wonder if it was a model weakness? Given that I bought that particular truck in 2006, and it had all the signs of perpetual abuse, I felt pretty lucky to only have to make one repair.

    I much preferred the 1988 pickup with the 22-R engine. It got slightly worse mileage (~27 highway vs ~30mpg) than the 93, but was much quieter, ran cooler, and was dead easy to work on. It was a great work/commuter hybrid vehicle, carting me 40 miles/day and bearing the brunt of hauling for our DIY house remodel and landscaping work without complaint.

    I only bought the 93 because the 88 got stolen. But from what I’ve heard, either 4-cyl model was preferable to the V6.

  4. Kevin says:

    When I described the overheating problem I was having with a FedEx mechanic, who drove the same type of pickup (we worked at the same FedEx station), he immediately knew that it was the thermostat. He also had the problem.

    As for it being a design flaw, I don’t know, because the replacement thermostat has worked fine ever since.

    Maybe they had a bunch of bad thermostats go through???

  5. rototillerman says:

    The best TV commercials I’ve ever seen, and which still make me laugh out loud, are the Australian “Bugger” advertisements for the Hi-Lux:

    Hi-Lux Bugger Commercials

  6. eyelight says:

    If you can stand to watch ten or more minutes of Top Gear, which I hate, you can see them attempt to destroy a Hi Lux in various ways, but it just won’t die.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVkedyQZfwQ

    And the finale where they place it on top of a very tall building which is then demolished in a controlled explosion that looks sort of familiar from somewhere.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfZDtC9kjVk&feature=channel

  7. Kevin says:

    @eyelight

    My wife’s cousin still drives his dad’s 1986 hilux. Hard, hard miles on that one. All off road/farm use. The body is rusted to oblivion… but it still goes.

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