Toyota has announced a new Hilux model, the Rogue—naturally not for us, just our lucky Down Under mates. Along with 140-millimeter-wider front and rear tracks, the Rogue will finally shoulder its way out of the pre-Cambrian muck and be fitted with rear disc brakes, as every competitor has been for at least the last ten geologic epochs.
You might have read my comments on the 2016 Tacoma and its retention of a century-old braking system, along with Toyota’s fatuous justification for keeping them, way back here. The world-market Hilux also remained stuck with rear drums. Now, finally, Toyota has leaped into the latter half of the twentieth century—at least on this version of the Hilux.
Will the Tacoma follow suit? I cannot imagine Toyota keeping up the charade that “drum brakes are better off road” for much longer.
Will an upcoming Tacoma also benefit from a return to a fully boxed chassis, as the Tundra has done (and the Hilux has retained all along)? Or is that too much to ask?