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It might have started out life as the bizarrely-named Toyota Stout, but the Toyota Hilux has become the number one choice for tough no-nonsense pick-up drivers.

 

All this passed Stuart Milne by until Top Gear highlighted its indestructibility by drowning, crashing and attempting to kill it by caravan. Now he reckons its one of the greats.

 

Sitting down for my weekly dose of Top Gear one Sunday, I was confronted by scenes of Jeremy Clarkson piloting a knackered old Hilux.

 

What ensued was one of the best series of features the TG team had thought of.

 

Jezza crashed the big red pickup into a tree, drove it down steps and even tethered it to a slipway in the Bristol Channel – the world's second largest tide – and the thing simply refused to die.

 

But that wasn't all.

 

They dropped a caravan on it, set it on fire and even parked it on the roof of a high-rise tower block…and demolished it.

 

Yet even after picking out of the rubble, the Hilux started – and was capable of driving into the Top Gear studio, much to the delight of the crowd…and me.

 

The following morning I clocked on at Auto Trader Towers and set about searching for one as a cheap, reliable kickabout to partner my expensive and unreliable Japanese supercar I had dumping oil on my driveway.

 

But I was astonished at the prices. There wasn't much available for less than £1,000, but my budget was less than half that.

 

And even though I tried to persuade my girlfriend it would be the ideal car to ferry bits of a new kitchen between B&Q and our flat, she was having none of it.

 

Truth be told, Top Gear awakened a part of me which had loved them since playing with the Hilux-inspired Transformer toy, Trailbreaker – and later Marty McFly's longed-for black pick-up in Back to the Future.

 

I love the Hilux's rugged charm, and that it can even cut it in a Premiership football ground's car park with a few choice bits bolted on.

 

And as it’s a Toyota, it simply won't break – not even if you chuck it off a 240-foot block of flats.

 

In fact, it's not unknown for them to clock 300,000 miles; the equivalent of 12 times around the world.

 

Since its launch in 1969 more that 12 million Hiluxs have been sold around the world, and the likelihood is most of them are still running.

 

As a modern icon, the Hilux is up there with the best of 'em, and long may it continue.

 

Fancy a bit of Hilux action? They start at about £500 for a big mileage model, through to more than £30,000 for a brand new one. But you'll never need to buy another.

 

 

L.A.T.W.O.T. video of the week

 

The Kiwis have a way of advertising cars – who else would have thought of a couple of cows stealing a Hilux…

 

 

 

 

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Read previous Look at the Wheels on That columns

 

Top Gear week:
Top Gear - essential facts
Trackside - Who is the Stig?
Slide show: Top Gear
The Return of Top Gear