Toyota HiLux

Toyota will not show you a price

Australia's second best-selling vehicle, 36,616 sold to the end of September. Open the HiLux price page and every grade reads:

DRIVEAWAY FROM $

The figure is blank. All five of them. Elsewhere the page says "Driveaway price is currently unavailable". Nothing appears until you enter a postcode and then choose a specific dealership, at which point Toyota tells you "All prices will be shown from the selected Dealership".

There is no recommended retail price at any point, for any grade.

Ford at least publishes a national campaign figure and a postcode estimate. Toyota publishes neither. On the measure of whether a buyer can find out what a car costs before engaging with a salesperson, this is the lowest score we have recorded.

Where we looked, so you can check the places we did not. The model page, the range page, the prices page, the downloadable specification sheet, Toyota's own site search for "list price" and "recommended retail price", and the Toyota Fleet plans and pricing section. None carries a recommended retail price or a list price for any grade. The specification sheet contains no price of any kind.

The dealership part is theatre

We checked whether the price actually varies by dealership, which is what the wording implies. It does not.

An identical HiLux WorkMate came back at $41,702 from Southside Toyota in Woolloongabba and $41,702 from Sci-Fleet Toyota in Taringa. Every other grade matched to the dollar as well.

The number is set at state level. Choosing a dealership does not change it, and the only thing the step achieves is that you cannot see a price without first nominating somebody to sell you one.

What the footnote admits

Toyota's [P1] disclosure says the recommended driveaway price includes 12 months registration, 12 months CTP, stamp duty, and the maximum dealer delivery charge.

Read that twice. Dealer delivery is the one large line on a new car contract with no rule behind it, typically $1,500 to $2,000 against work Auto Expert's John Cadogan puts at around $450. Toyota is telling you, in a footnote, that the advertised figure is calculated on the worst case of the most negotiable item on the invoice.

Which means there is room in it by construction. Toyota has said so.

The same HiLux, five states

Identical configuration throughout: WorkMate 4x2 manual, 2.8L turbo diesel, single cab chassis, Glacier White, no options.

Both ends of the table swap as you go up the range

This is the finding worth the page. There is no "cheapest state to buy a HiLux". It depends which one you buy.

Brisbane is cheapest on the WorkMate. Melbourne is cheapest on everything above it. Victoria charges a new dual cab ute $5.40 per $200 at all values, which is 2.7% of the price and never steps up. Queensland charges a four-cylinder $3.00 per $100 of the list price, which is 3.0%. The Victorian rate is slightly lower and the gap widens with the price, so Melbourne overtakes Brisbane somewhere between the WorkMate and the SR.

Sydney is dearest on the WorkMate. Perth is dearest on everything above it, and not by a little. Western Australia charges 6.5% of the whole value once the car passes $50,000, not 6.5% of the amount above it. The WorkMate sits under that line and the rest of the range sits over it.

You can watch the cliff happen. Perth's premium over Brisbane goes $832 on the WorkMate, then $2,421 on the SR. The car got $16,000 dearer and the Perth penalty tripled.

The spread between cheapest and dearest runs from $1,016 on a WorkMate to $3,226 on a Rogue. On the identical vehicle.

What we cannot tell you, and why

We cannot say what share of that is the government's, because Toyota publishes a single number and will not break it down.

This is not a limitation of the method. Tesla itemises the same calculation completely, down to the plate fee, so it can be done. Ford and Toyota both choose not to. On those two brands the on-road measure is an inference from how the total moves across a border, rather than the answer, and the score is marked down accordingly.

The tie

Every new Toyota carries five years and unlimited kilometres, which is genuinely unconditional. Good, and better than it is usually given credit for.

The seven-year figure is a different animal. Toyota extends engine and driveline cover only to seven years, and only if you keep up the logbook servicing with Toyota.

So "seven year warranty" means two different products at the two best-selling utes. Ford's seven years is the whole vehicle, conditional on dealer servicing. Toyota's seven years is the engine and driveline, conditional on dealer servicing. Same obligation, smaller prize.

One more line in the disclosure is worth knowing, and it is narrower than it first reads. The five-year warranty becomes five years or 160,000km for a vehicle used for a commercial purpose, which Toyota defines as taxis, hire vehicles and vehicles carrying people or goods for payment, including rideshare. A tradesperson carrying their own tools is not in that category. Somebody running deliveries is.

What it can actually tow

Toyota's spec sheet carries all four numbers, which not every maker on this site manages, so the arithmetic can be done properly.

Every 4x4 HiLux has a Gross Combined Mass of 6,300kg and tows 3,500kg braked. Those two figures are identical across all fifteen 4x4 columns on the sheet. Subtract one from the other and the vehicle itself may weigh 2,800kg while towing its maximum.

Kerb weights across the 4x4 range run from 1,830kg to 2,342kg, so:

108kg is one adult and a toolbox. Ten per cent on the ball is a convention rather than a law, and a differently loaded trailer changes it, but it is the figure the trade works to.

That the ball comes out of payload is Toyota's own instruction, not our reading: "actual payload is affected by any added load to the vehicle, including the number of occupants, luggage, accessories, and tow ball download weight."

The GVM upgrade does not help you tow

Some variants offer a GVM upgrade that lifts Gross Vehicle Mass from around 3,065kg to 3,500kg. It is sold as more carrying capacity and it is, right up until you hitch something.

Gross Combined Mass stays at 6,300kg with the upgrade fitted. Every column on Toyota's sheet reads 6,300, upgraded or not. So at 3,500kg of trailer the vehicle is still capped at 2,800kg, and the extra 435kg of GVM you paid for is unreachable.

The upgrade buys payload when you are not towing. At maximum tow it buys nothing.

Against the other four

The heaviest 4x4 HiLux keeps 108kg, which is third of the five dual cabs sold here. A Triton GSR keeps 230kg and a Ranger Platinum 181kg. The Isuzu D-MAX BLADE and the Mazda BT-50 Thunder cannot tow 3,500kg at all with the tow ball weight their own makers allow.

The table, the sums and the five makers' sheets are on What a dual cab can actually tow.

The 4x2 carries more, and only because Toyota rates it to tow less

Every 4x2 HiLux is rated to 2,900kg braked, 600kg below the 4x4. That is the whole mechanism, and it is why the comparison has to be body for body.

Six times as much, for 600kg less trailer. Ball at ten per cent of each, so 290kg against 350kg.

The WorkMate 4x2 single cab chassis is lighter again, 1,700kg on a 5,800kg GCM, and keeps about 910kg. It is a different vehicle from the double cab, so it is not the figure to compare against one.

Toyota's 4x2 GCM is three numbers, not one. 5,800kg on the single cab chassis, 5,870kg and 5,880kg on the two double cabs. The braked towing figure is 2,900kg on all three.

It does not hold for every ute. Isuzu and Mazda rate their 4x2s to the same 3,500kg as their 4x4s, on a GCM 150kg lower, so those 4x2s carry less than the 4x4 rather than more. The segment is on What a dual cab can actually tow.

One caveat on the variant mapping. Toyota's sheet lists fifteen 4x4 columns and we have matched the two ends, a WorkMate single cab at 1,830kg and a double cab pick-up at 2,342kg, but not every column in between. The figures above are the range rather than a per-grade table. The constants, GCM 6,300 and 3,500kg braked, are identical on every one of them.

Source: Toyota HiLux specification sheet, published 28 September 2026, read 25 October 2026. The 4x2 figures are its own 4x2 page, which carries three columns: WorkMate single cab chassis, WorkMate double cab pick-up and SR double cab pick-up.

Running cost, and this is the one

The HiLux is serviced every six months or 10,000km. The Ranger is serviced every 12 months or 15,000km.

That is twice as many visits, for the life of the vehicle, and it is the single largest difference between the two.

Toyota caps the first six services for three years or 60,000km. Ford caps the first five for five years or 75,000km.

Over five years, assuming you drive enough to be on schedule:

Interval, capped price each and what each maker caps are published. Visits and capped total are the multiplication.

Even if those last four visits held at $305, which nothing promises, the HiLux costs about $3,050 against the Ranger's $1,995 over the same five years. That is roughly $1,055 more, and five additional days with the vehicle in a workshop instead of working.

Note the petrol 4x2 is cheaper per visit at $260, on the same six month schedule.

Toyota will not quote this either

Toyota's own service price calculator asks for a registration number or VIN. You cannot use it until you already own the car.

So the servicing cost, like the purchase price, is information Toyota holds back until you have committed. The $305 figure above is published by Penrith Toyota, an authorised dealer, in a full capped-price table. We could not find it on Toyota's own site, and two other dealers we checked publish no figures at all.

Treat it as sound on structure, which several sources agree on, and confirm the dollars with the dealership before you sign.

And the diesel costs more than the workshop

On the Green Vehicle Guide, a HiLux WorkMate 4x2 with the 2.8L turbo diesel and the six speed manual, the configuration priced across five states above, is rated at 7.3 L/100km combined with an annual fuel cost of $2,443 at 14,000km a year.

Over five years that is about $12,215, on top of roughly $3,050 of servicing. Five years all in: about $15,265.

What five years actually costs, across the five best sellers

Every figure below is from the maker's own published servicing schedule and the Green Vehicle Guide's own annual cost, on one basis.

Servicing is each maker's capped prices added up, fuel and energy five times the Green Vehicle Guide's annual figure. No maker publishes a five year total.

A HiLux costs more than three times a Model Y to run over five years, and about twice a RAV4.

None of which says buy a different car. A HiLux carries a tonne and tows 3,500kg and the others do not, and that capability is what the money is for. The point is that the capability has a running cost attached, it is published, and almost nobody adds it up before signing.

Laboratory figures, good for comparing cars rather than predicting your own driving.

The tax line

No HiLux appears to reach the Luxury Car Tax threshold of $80,809. The dearest drive-away we recorded was $80,271 in Perth, and a drive-away figure includes stamp duty, registration and CTP, none of which count toward the LCT value. The vehicle itself sits well clear.

The honest caveat is that you cannot check this yourself, because the LCT value is calculated on the list price plus delivery plus accessories, and toyota.com.au/hilux/prices gives none. If you are optioning a Rogue or a Rugged X heavily, ask for the LCT value in writing rather than working back from the drive-away figure.

Victoria's stamp duty step at $80,809 does not apply here. That step is for passenger cars, and a new dual cab ute is a non-passenger vehicle at $5.40 per $200 at all values.

The wait

Toyota publishes no delivery estimate on the HiLux pages.

Tesla publishes one on the first screen. Ford carries a banner saying some Rangers are delayed without saying which. Toyota says nothing at all. We are not going to invent a figure. Ask which grades are in stock now and which are factory orders, because they are two different purchases at two different prices.