The million mile mark appears to be the purpose of each Toyota truck proprietor. Not less than in idea, and, after all, after High Gear famously tried to kill a Toyota Hilux to no avail. The legendary sturdiness of those Toyotas bonds fanatics by way of make and mannequin 12 months — to not point out segments akin to full-size, mid-size and every little thing in between. Earlier than the Tacoma debuted within the U.S., Toyota bought the Hilux underneath the straightforward Toyota Pickup or Truck identify. And if you wish to see how sturdy the Hilux actually is, take a look at Excessive Mileage Evaluations’ newest video of a third-generation Toyota Hilux that’s achieved the million mile milestone.

Within the video, the narrator explains how this one-owner 1980 Toyota Hilux has been battered by time, and proceeded to mainly sandblast its means by way of 4 many years of use. Effectively, it’s 43 years to be actual, all through which the Hilux has seen competitors in motorsport, rallying up and down the West Coast.

The truck’s roll cage is a testomony to its days as a rally machine, and the rust consuming away at its panels comes from years of bombing down salty seashores. The truck’s general situation isn’t nice, however one million miles tends to do this to a car — particularly because the truck has lived as laborious a life as attainable.

The purpose being the Million Mile Hilux is as far faraway from a storage queen because it will get, which solely provides to how radical the truck is. As in, the Toyota continues to be going in any case this time, nonetheless a functioning, gnarly truck 40 years on, after being leased by the identical proprietor who’s stored it for over 4 many years.

That’s to not say the truck hasn’t had points, nor seen main mechanical work: the truck’s authentic 20R engine was changed by the legendary 22R which upped the displacement 0f the inline-four from 2.2-liter to 2.4-liter. The engine swap wasn’t executed after some catastrophic powertrain failure, however as a strategy to squeeze extra energy out of the truck. Understanding how underneath harassed the 22R engine is to start with makes it sound just like the 20R will need to have yielded a, say, leisurely tempo, which explains the swap.

The engine swap was complemented by a transmission swap, going from the unique four-speed handbook transmission to a five-speed. Though the truck’s main parts have been swapped out, the adjustments do little to decrease how a lot of an achievement it’s to succeed in one million miles. However my favourite a part of all of it needs to be the stable metal wheels the truck is carrying. Engine and transmission swaps are OK, simply so long as the Hilux can preserve these wheels.