A new 6cyl player in the market?

I agree Ron, Hyundai and Kia have evolved into great companies. Most of the utes currently are fairly ordinary and this should shake them up. It may even cause Hilux to slide even more with increasing competition and better quality , finish and fit. Michael

Ron
Diesel is only one the nose because of the tender noses of green people and their certain focussed activity. Petrol cars burn the same fuel albeit more refined. Electric is great if charged at home by your own solar panels which caused pollution to make them anyway. Anyone who charges their electric vehicle seems oblivious to the fact the pollution associated with it was caused before they got their charge. Their backyard is clean though I suppose.

RMD - No, diesel's on the nose simply because of the diesel soot particles produced, being a big contributor to air pollution and lung diseases.

You don't work work underground without intensive diesel exhaust filtration, utilising highly specialised exhaust treatment systems.

If you've ever been to a major Asian city, you will have seen the gritty air quality caused by diesels and 2-strokes.
China is planning to ban both petrol and diesel engines, by 2040. Beijing air pollution is notorious.

We are fortunate to live in a vast land with low population levels, but we will have to cope with other countries making the rules, as regards the transportation power sources we end up with.

I love my diesels, but like everything, their time has peaked, and better technology will gradually take over.

Cheers, Ron.

Done 15yrs as a contractor on conveyor belts underground/surface etc it still smells like diesel exhaust, has that choking effect in confined spaces, annoys the throat when your underground they might remove the larger particles but still a poisonous carcinogenic gas is emited. Don't know why most mines didn't help the push for electric vehicles instead of production yrs ago.

A fellow I work with said he was doing 240kph in a car sitting sable on the road with his mate right behind him in a Hilux wandering all over the road OH WHAT A D###HEAD.

Batts,

I’d like to see any Hilux doing 240 kph !!!

Macca.

A Hilux doing 240????

I know I'm a bit doubtful as well but he sid he was blown away when he saw it in his mirror. Obviously had a lot of mods , money spent on it if it could get to that speed. It may be less as well depending on how accurate the speedo is.

Another fellow I worked with 10yrs ago ad a TRD Lux he said it tapped out at around 190kph and the way tech has improved since then may be 240kph is possible but more suited for cars.

Yes, TRD had some nice stuff available for my 2007 120 Series diesel (D4D) Prado. Hilux had the same motor, detuned, so no doubt the TRD stuff would do the trick. 240 in a ute, though .....

A speedo that is reading 240kph is probably about 20kmh out.

Basic speedos are inaccurate, and they get a lot worse as they go up the scale.
If the Hilux had been repowered with a worked V6 or V8, it might get close to 220kmh, but not much over that.

I owned a 5 litre HQ Holden in the early 70's with a high ratio diff (2.78:1) and it struggled to get to 220kmh - which was, and still is, especially fast.

I did give a traffic inspector with an E49 Charger a run for his money in the early 70's, over about 30kms with my HQ, before I pulled up, as I was going to run out out fuel if I kept going at the high speed I was travelling at.
This was in the W.A. wheatbelt where the roads are long, and the curves are gentle.

The E49 had 302HP for 1372kgs, and the HQ had around 280HP for about the same weight. I had it over the traffic inspector because it was around midnight, I got a 3km jump on him, and I knew the road like the back of my hand.
It had quite a few sweeping curves which slowed him up, I took them at higher speeds than he was game to. We were both hanging around 200-210kmh.
The E49 was good for about 215kmh. There are few road-going vehicles that can go much over that figure.

However, I've ridden a VFR1100 Honda and saw a consistent 280kmh an hour on that, East of Norseman, long before cops got out there much, and I can tell you, that is a bloody frightening pace.

You get little chance to respond to anything going wrong at high speed, and bends that are gentle curves at 110kmh become horribly sharp curves at 200kmh and above.

The worrying part about the Hilux is the tyres were probably rated for 180kmh maximum speed.

Cheers, Ron.

Not quite as quick as the Koenigsegg Agera RS Ron. Goes 0-400-0 In 36.44 seconds.
Dave. :)

If Hyundai are smart the will repackage that vehicle into a decent off road ute. All the accessories guys will make it happen for sure. Michael

I,d reckon 80% of the 4wds you see in the cities would rarely see dirt. Soccer mums, weekend wannabees, overcashed yuppies etc.etc. They buy the suv/dualcab/wagon etc...prissy it up and just drive around town. It makes you cringe when you see cruisers with chrome 22 inch rims and low profile tyres cruising "the burbs"....

The trend was suv's for a while and they're still popular but wow the twin cab thing has really grown in momentom. The manufacturers are good at playing the game with all the special models, extra features that don't get used and you need GT stripes they help with the dash down to the shops but not always with resale value.

Batts and Bigfish, I’m probably stating the obvious but it seems on my observations a big driver in ute sales is their (often alleged) towing capacity.

You want to tow a biggish van? Utes are way cheaper than Landcruisers.

Guy who lives near me has new dual cab Ranger. Stopped off at the three-letter 4WD store on way home from dealer and spent a heap. I wonder he knows what all the extra weight has done to his towing capacity?

From the look of his van I doubt he will venture on to gravel much. He will be like the guy I saw in Port Hedland caravan park a few years ago wiping the dust off his car. 4WD will be handy for reversing up slopes and not much else.

But each to his own. It’s his money. He probably looks at my slightly tatty Prado with a swag on the roof and wonders how anybody couldn’t possibly travel like that.

Cheers.

Hey rocco2010....your a camper...not a glamper! lol The claimed towing weights (which are 100% bullshit) are definitely the big selling point At the current rate by 2025 we should have a 1.8 litre triple turbo, 12 speed, twincab ute towing 5.5 tonnes of wobbly box....

There towing capacity is one thing but that can be matched by numerous other vehicles
I think their popularity is more so they are such a great multi task vehicle be it for a family or individual
They tick more boxes than any other configuration

It has always puzzled me why Hyundai haven’t entered this market segment earlier. They make a fine vehicle and I expect they will rattle the cage of the usual contenders in this segment which is good for us

When you look at the pictures, and see the positioning of the rear axle, and how much tub overhang of the axle there is, it is just another dual cab ute that will be prone to chassis bending/breaking when heavily loaded.

Macca.

How times have changed, when I bought my Hyundai Terracan back in 2004, many EO formulites bagged the model and maker. Yes it looked like a brick and had low ground clearance but it was a fantastic vehicle on and off road with your standard mods. Back then there was a rumor that Mr H was tinkering with the idea of a 4wd ute but it was just that a rumor. Like many 4wd's straight out of the box they are a bit average but add new suspension and a 50mm lift and you have a decent vehicle. New design looks a bit like a modernised Subaru Brumby

Dunc

Duncan, I am sure many many people here will remember how our fathers sneered at Japanese cars when they first appeared in numbers in the 60s.

And look at how that has worked out.

The first Korean cars were not the best and again the initial reaction of many was dismissive.

A few brands have come and gone. But so have Ford and Holden as manufacturers in Australia, reduced to importers and struggling against the tide.

I knew a few with Terrecans and they were capable indeed.


These days a lot of people seem happy to pay for a Hyundai or Kia sedan or SUV.

There is no reason to think that a Hyundai ute won't evolve into a handy thing.

Cheers

Pat Callinan used to drive the old Kia Sorrento with the low range box. It was a nice car, I had a few drives in one. I was disappointed when they turned the model into a fluff mobile.

I had one of those, Michael H9. It was a great car, towed my CT into all sorts of places down fire trails in the Blue Mountains an elsewhere. A very capable car under-rated by the motoring press which is generally blinded by the big brands. (At the time, at any rate.)

Don't know if towing a biggish van is problem Rocco. Stopping /controlling might be. Saw a jeep v8 towing a 20ft BT last year. Plenty of power but ?
" slightly tatty Prado' Slightly ! . Bit disappointing.
Dave