Toyota’s been making pickup trucks since 1964 when they introduced the Stout. It was one of the first modern trucks in America following the age of Ford’s Model T Runabout and had a lot of appeal. It was incredibly popular, and Toyota began making a lot more pickup trucks throughout the years. There are a lot of interesting facts about Toyota pickup trucks that highlight the unique history of the brand and its vehicles.
Nearly Unbreakable
The Toyota Hilux, also known more generally as the Toyota pickup, was one of Toyota’s premier vehicles when it hit the market in 1972. They’re high-quality vehicles that also look good and earned a reputation for being “unbreakable.” The automotive show Top Gear would put this tag to the test on one of their episodes. On the show, host Jeremy Clarkson got an 18-year-old Hilux with nearly 200,000 miles on it, and they gave the pickup hell.
Clarkson and the other hosts submerged it in the ocean for five hours, hit it with a wrecking ball, and even set the vehicle on fire. Their last attempt at destroying the vehicle was placing it on a tower they would demolish. They destroyed the tower, and after pulling it out from the rubble, the truck still worked.
Pixar Movies
If you’re a fan of movies or have children, you’ve likely seen one or two Pixar movies in your days. It’s a world-renowned animation company and has released hits such as:
- Toy Story
- Wall-E
- Monsters, Inc.
- Ratatouille
- Cars
- Finding Nemo
While the films are very different from one another, they have a couple of things in common—their signature animation style and the Pizza Planet truck. In Toy Story, the characters go to a restaurant known as Pizza Planet, and Pixar modeled the delivery vehicle for this restaurant on the Toyota pickup truck. It became so notable that Pixar animators began including it as a little cameo in nearly every other Pixar movie released after Toy Story. Out of every vehicle in the world, one you’re almost always guaranteed to find in a Pixar movie is a Toyota Hilux pickup truck.
Toyota Tundra Came From a Lawsuit
The Toyota Tundra is one of Toyota’s most popular vehicles today, and it’s been around for over 20 years at this point. The Tundra has become a staple of the Toyota brand, and many consumers think of the name when they think of Toyota, but Tundra wasn’t the original name of this truck. The original name was the T150 since it was slightly larger than the T100. It was a good name, but Ford sued Toyota, claiming they were trying to capitalize on the Ford F-150 name. Toyota decided to change the name, and the rest is history.
There are a lot of interesting facts about Toyota pickup trucks that make them one of the hottest and best vehicles on the market. New Toyota pickup trucks are of the highest quality, and older ones remain great. However, bringing those trucks back to life takes a little work. At Yota Shop, we understand this tricky process, and we have all the Toyota truck parts you’ll need to make restoring those vehicles easy!