Text and photos by Chris Van Hoven
Toyota gets a head start in the pickup race with a refreshed Hilux line spearheaded by the Hilux Conquest. The Conquest will serve as Toyota’s flagship variant in the Hilux lineup, featuring aesthetic changes, convenience upgrades, and some minor tweaks inside.
The Toyota Hilux Conquest gets a redesigned front end that emphasizes a more rugged look. A large, upright grille with a high-gloss hexagonal panel dominates the fascia, with a restyled bumper that features a new foglamp design. The Hilux Conquest gets projector LED headlights with LED daytime running lights to complete the aggressive front end. Over to the side, it features side mirrors, step boards, and door handles in black, complementing its large 18-inch wheels on 265/65/R18 tires. Moving on to the rear, the Conquest gets some added details such as matte black tail light garnishing, a redesigned rear bumper, a metallic roll bar, and a standard bedliner.
Inside, the Hilux Conquest remains largely unchanged, save for some minor tweaks to the center console and a slightly improvedsix-inch touchscreen display which supports Bluetooth, USB and Aux-in connections. The most important change to the interior of the Hilux is its new keyless push-button start/stop, with smart key functions. The 4x4 Conquest variant get seven airbags, ABS, stability control, traction control, hill-start assist, and trailer sway control, while the 4x2 variant makes do with 3 airbags, ABS, and EBD.
Powering the 4x2 Hilux Conquest models is the same 2.4-liter 2GD-FTV turbodiesel engine that outputs 150 hp and 400 Nm of torque for automatic transmission variants, with a slightly bumped down 343 Nm of torque when paired with a manual transmission. The 4x4 Conquest variants are powered by Toyota’s 2.8-liter 1GD-FTV which produces 177-hp and 450-Nm of torque paired with an automatic transmission, which again gets a slight torque decrease to 420-Nm when paired with a manual transmission.
The Hilux Conquest comes in three colors: Freedom White, Attitude Black Mica, and Nebula Blue Metallic. As for pricing: theConquest 4x2 M/T is priced at P1,311,000; the Conquest 4x2 A/T at P1,386,000; Conquest 4x4 M/T at P1,615,000; and the Conquest 4x4 A/T at P1,745,000.