Junkyard Gem: 1979 Toyota Longbed Pickup

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Toyota began selling trucks in North America in 1964, when stout 1900 appeared on our streets. The Stout never caught on here, despite its cool name, but a more civilized little Toyota pickup proved to be a lasting bestseller on our side of the Pacific: the hilux. from today Junkyard Gem It is an example of the first model year of Third generation Hiluxhe retired in Colorado after more than four decades of hard work.

Toyota began selling the Hilux in the United States under its local market name in the late 1960s, but dropped that name here during 1973. After that, the North American Hilux became known as the Toyota Truck. So the correct model name for this truck is Truck.

In keeping with that naming tradition, Toyota later called MasterAce Surf the Toyota Van in North America. Nissan and Mitsubishi also called their mid-engined Vanette and Delica pickups the same on our shores (the nissan van and mitsubishi van). Unfortunately, the Corolla was not renamed the Toyota Car for the US market. In any case, most American Hilux owners refer to their trucks as Hiluxes these days.

The second generation Hilux sold very well here, and its reign spanned from 1972 to 1978. Because so many were sold and held together so well, I I still find a few second generation Hiluxes during my trips to the graveyard.. The larger third generation Hilux was sold here for model years 1979 to 1988, and proved to be so indestructible that you will still see them everywhere in the non-rusty regions of our continent. The last new Hiluxes sold in the United States were 1995 models, after which the Tacoma dropped them for good.

This Truck has the 2.2-liter SOHC 20R four-cylinder engine, which was rated at 90 horsepower and 122 pound-feet. The US market Celicas of this era it has the same engine.

The 20R and its 2.4-liter successor, the 22R, remain legendary for their reliability. This is a genuine Warlord Grade engine.

I bet this Truck got an impressive number of miles over its lifetime, but Toyota used a five-digit odometer here, so we can’t tell if it has 59,008 miles or 659,008.

The emissions label under the hood tells us it’s a “49-state” vehicle, not originally sold in California.

1979 truck buyers could get an automatic transmission, but I’ve seen very few equipped like that.

This one has the optional five-speed manual transmission, which was considered special enough for Toyota to advertise it on the tailgate.

There is some rust, but nothing too serious by 1970s Japanese vehicle standards.

This Fujitsu TEN The factory AM/FM radio would have been considered a frivolous luxury in most late 1970s work trucks.

could you believe air-conditioning in a small truck of this time? That is very unusual.

Why are you here? A truck this size would be considered too small and underpowered by most potential buyers these days, and then there’s the fact that few American drivers can operate a manual transmission. Maybe something expensive broke in the drivetrain and that was all he wrote.

will at least go to the shredder with a $20,000,000 Daffy Duck bill on the board.

Rides like a car and runs like a horse.

A tough new truck that knows how to take it easy.

What makes soccer players number 1 is what makes Toyota trucks number 1. So it says Forrest Gregg.