The All New Toyota HiLux Rogue Charlie and The Magic Ute. We’ve got this mate, for the sake of this article, let’s call him Charlie. Charlie is an accountant, and a bloody good one at that. However he’s the kind of guy that has a hand in just about everything, goes surfing with a bunch of dudes he met at a pub every month. He visits Bunnings twice a week, mostly to browse but occasionally for a snag. When he isn’t making a mess of his latest DIY he is off road finding the best places to ride his Kawasaki.
You’d think he has it all, a cute little house, a dog, a football team to play for and one to barrack for but what he lacks is a double cab ute that suits his lifestyle. Charlie assures us he has driven them all, on road, off road, to and from the office, from practice to the pitch. He is just sick of feeling like he doesn’t have a ute for both the 9-5 and the weekend. A car that is slick enough to impress his future better half but also one he can get lost in the bush with.
Now we should be honest, we always thought he was talking about the unicorn of Utility Vehicles. Then, on one majestical day, we received a call from Toyota. They had a HiLux Rogue for us to test out. Let’s be clear, we knew just about as much of the Tasmanian Tiger as we did the new model to this award winning range.
So we heard them out, they said it was the perfect vehicle for the city slicker that wants to escape the concrete maze and go bush on the weekend. Something that would be a jack of all trades. The HiLux for the any bloke. Once again we thought Toyota were just about as ludicrous as Charlie and his dreams of the perfect ute. Then it his us, smack bang in the back of the head, if Toyota wasn’t lying this could be the realisation of Charlie’s wildest imagination.
The all new Rogue comes with eight-way power adjustment for the luxurious leather-trimmed heated front seats making that city commute the comfiest we’ve ever had in this category. With a stylish, well-appointed interior the new Rogue feels far more like an SUV, Charlie would be off chops with how slick he’d look sitting behind the wheel.
Plus the beautiful 7.0-inch colour touchscreen with sat nav, Bluetooth and digital radio. Can confirm it works, we didn’t get lost and pretty much left a Travis Scott impression on the seats. Just so happens accountants can have good music taste.
Then came the question, with a sleek hard tonneau cover with dust defence kit and marine grade carpet liner (basically just a huge awesome boot) Charlie would have to tow the bikes. Rest easy kind friend, Toyota didn’t skimp on that front with a 3,200kg braked towing capacity. In short, with the tow bar coming standard on the Rogue, it can tow. Concerned that maybe the engine may have been compromised for these amazing additions we were relieved to hear that the reliable beast of a 2.8-litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel engine had remained untouched.
Safe to say, Charlie is beaming from all corners of his mouth now. Turns out that Toyota really wasn’t lying. Now let us not forget that there are many great cars out there in this segment of the market but with the HiLux the number one most sold ute in Australia it’s hard to ignore its market domination. Simply get in and get going without taking the key out of your pocket and drive off into your improved future, Charlie will be and we unanimously agree that at $61,690 he won’t regret it.
