Will SA see a Toyota Hilux Legend 55 in 2024?
Every 5 years since 2004, Toyota South Africa Motors has released a special-edition Hilux Legend model. So, it’s that time again … but will Mzansi see a Hilux Legend 55 in 2024?
It’s become a tradition, hasn’t it? Every 5 years since the Legend 35 was released way back in 2004, Toyota South Africa Motors has celebrated the Hilux’s heritage (not to mention its crushing sales dominance in the local market) with a limited-run Legend model. So, will 2024 see the reveal of a special new Hilux Legend 55?
Well, while it might seem like a no-brainer, the answer is anything but cut and dried. In fact, back in July 2019 when the Hilux Legend 50 was launched, there were murmurs that it would be the last of its kind. The apparent reason emerged in October of the following year, when Toyota SA Motors detailed its updated Hilux range, complete with a new – now permanent – “Legend” trim level.
Today, nearly 4 years later, the 45-strong local Hilux portfolio includes as many as 16 Legend-badged derivatives (on the extended- and double-cab body styles), including 5 variants of the flagship Legend RS. But will that stop the Japanese firm’s local division from rolling out a special-edition Legend 55 – replete with model-specific styling tweaks and the requisite badging – to celebrate 5-and-a-half decades of the Hilux nameplate in South Africa?
Well, we asked Toyota SA Motors whether it had any intention of launching a Hilux Legend 55 this year, perhaps to see off the current generation of the venerable bakkie. The company’s official reply was “we don’t comment on future product plans”, though it added: “we would, however, like to remind our customers that we have a Legend RS that is currently the halo model in the Hilux line-up”. So, that’s not a firm “no”, then…
As a reminder, the Hilux hit the market in South Africa way back in 1969, just a year after debuting overseas. The first limited-edition Legend – the appropriately named Legend 35 – was released in 2004, followed by the Legend 40 in 2009 and the Legend 45 in 2014 (the latter model was “extremely well received by the market”, according to Toyota SA Motors). Then, in 2019, the Legend 50 arrived to mark half a century of the Hilux in SA.
As an aside, it’s worth keeping in mind that Leon Theron, Senior-Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Toyota SA Motors, revealed to the media in early 2021 that the Legend 50 range was a “massive success”, to the point that local dealers ran out of stock for a couple of weeks. In short, the Prospecton plant in KwaZulu-Natal simply couldn’t churn them out fast enough…
So, with that in mind and an all-new Hilux not too far around the corner (tipped for a global reveal in 2025, in fact), something along the lines of a Legend 55 would surely serve as a fitting swansong for the 8th-generation Hilux. Since the local market has just welcomed the new Hilux GR Sport III, however, we’d speculate that any such model would follow only in the latter part of the year (perhaps even to introduce the current Hilux’s final update, as revealed overseas earlier in 2024).
Of course, whether any such celebratory special-edition Hilux model will wear the Legend 55 badge – and thus keep this SA-specific quinquennial tradition alive – remains to be seen…
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