With AI-generated slop continuing to soar to new heights, social media’s absolutely filled to the brim with fake cars that look just real enough to fool a shocking number of people. However, every so often you experience the inverse — a car that looks like an AI-generated accident but is, in fact, entirely real. Case in point: This is the Toyota Hilux Rangga SUV, and it almost feels like someone at Toyota handed off styling duties to their five-year-old child.
In case you haven’t heard of the Hilux Rangga, otherwise known as the Hilux Champ and Hilux Stout, before, allow me to make an introduction. There’s a whole lot to love about this little Toyota pickup aimed at South East Asia and South America, as it really drills down into the essentials of a truck and seems plenty eager enough to do serious work.
Under the hood, you can spec a 137-horsepower two-liter gasoline four-cylinder engine which seems about slow but hitches to a five-speed manual, a 2.7-liter four-cylinder engine from an old Tacoma that can only be paired with an automatic, or a third option — a 2.4-liter turbodiesel that pushes out less horsepower than a Corolla XSE but the same torque as a V8 BMW M3. Well, when paired with the automatic, at least. When paired with the manual, the diesel gets slightly gelded so the torque doesn’t blow the gearbox to bits.
However, that’s all okay, because the Hilux Champ, or Hilux Rangga, or Hilux Stout, or whatever you want to call it is astonishingly cheap. We’re talking a fully-functional Toyota-built pickup truck on an actual ladder frame for just north of $13,000 at current exchange rates. Granted, that’s in the absolute base trim, but still, you can’t even get a Nissan Versa for that sort of coin. However, the price tag of the base vehicle here isn’t what’s really interesting in this case. Instead, it’s the unusual nature of this Indonesian-market SUV concept that’s actually going into production, according to Indonesian outlet Antara News.
Nobody used to the norms of making cars would ever make a car like this, but yet, here it is. Why does it have two stepped windows that turn the greenhouse into a staircase? Because. Why is the C-pillar so high? Because. Why does it look like a napkin-drawn afterthought? Because. Look, if you’ve ever attempted to take a panoramic photo of a cat, you’ll understand what’s going on here. The Toyota Hilux Rangga SUV concept is just a weird little guy, and there’s something endearing about that.
Because of the need to fit and work with the bulk of a standard cab, the Hilux Rangga SUV concept looks like the sort of car we drew in crayon when we were in kindergarten, a crude yet earnest shape befitting of its proposed $25,000 price tag. Sure, that might be nearly double what the cheapest Hilux Rangga costs, but it’s five figures cheaper than the entry-level Toyota Fortuner that’s popular throughout South Asia and Southeast Asia. It’s not everyday that someone launches a weird three-row SUV, and it’s certainly not everyday that Toyota’s behind it.
(Photo credits: Toyota; Pencils.com )
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I love this thing. It reminds me of a bug in all the best ways.
This is really a continuation of the Toyota Kijang platform, which in South Africa had quite the interesting history.
From 1994 to 2000 it was sold as the Toyota Venture and available with a rear diff-lock.
From 2000 to 2005 is was sold as the Toyota Condor and available with 4×4. It even went racing in the South African National Off Road Championships..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Kijang#Racing
Proud Indonesian here! The Rangga SUV will probably only be available to order as it’s built by a local coachbuilder , it really goes back to the days of the Toyota Kijang Kotak and Isuzu Panther Kotak (Kotak (Ko(dak) Tak(Tactical, replace C with K)) means Cube) where a handful of these coachbuilding companies would buy chassis / cab-only cars and make, double cabs, single cab, vans, blind vans, semi blind vans, box, double cab with boxes. They be making every form imaginable!
It’ll be a full factory-made unit from Toyota.
In Indonesia, the period of outside coach builder modification from ran from 1976 to 1985. From 1986 Toyota began making the station wagon configuration all the way to 2007.
I only learned about the Hilux Champ/Stout/Rannga/Tamaraw relatively recently, and I’m 100% sold on this cheap little workhorse. It seems about as perfect for what it is as it could possibly be, and looks fresh out of fucks to give. Unpainted bumpers, black steelies, exposed nuts an bolts all over the bed, comes in a wide range of white and looks pre-dented… This thing is a pair of sealed beams away from being the best utilitarian vehicle currently for sale anywhere on Earth.
the 2GD-FTV 2.4 TD i4 and a 6 spd Aisin / 5 spd stick combo is the one to go! also available with the 1TR-FE 2.0 Gas engine (Stick only), but is so gutless that they did not give the option to have AC!
and you can have either regular halogens or Bi-LED Projector LEDs with DRLs! not sure sealed beams would fit it’s modernity tho
I was half-joking, the lighting setup seems pretty simple and easy to fix actually – LEDs seem to be making headlight repairs simple again. I do love sealed beams though, I feel like we’ve been through the dark ages of headlight setups ever since the industry shifted away from them, and only since LED tech has become commonplace have we been seeing a shift towards simpler, user-friendly setups.
Some call it ugly, I call it honest.
I need an article where Adrian rants about this thing and then the second half of the post is Bishop saying it’s actually good
The duality of
mandesign.Toyota: The Future of Ugly.
I for one would like to see what Adrian would do to “fix” this one.
I like it. There is no fixing it. Leave it alone.
Yup, nothing to fix here.
Here in upsidedownyland, a ‘Ranga’ used to be a someone with red hair – unsure if it’s still ‘allowed’… either way, can’t be forgotten.
Wow, the 2026 Subaru Outback is even uglier than I thought it would be. /s
Ladies and gentlemen
.. The new 2026 Subaru Tribeca!
Having a 5 year old design your truck is all the rage now, look at the Cybertruck.
Seriously the general shape of the rear body and windows is reminiscent of a Landcruiser 78 troop carrier, which means it may be intentional
Why are the damn wheels and tires so small? With decent wheels and tires, this thing could look pretty rad.
There are plenty on Instagram with Oz racing wheels and proper mud tires. They look downright business.
I like it.
But I think it needs some larger wheels to fix the scale. Make it a washable interior, and I’ll regret not buying it like the Honda Element.
The motorcycle world seems to being thinking globally with their production.
My Kawasaki daily ride came from Thailand one of the sources of that little Toyota utility truck. It is all doable with a little less protectionism on various levels in the North American market. People will have to yell and be heard to get change. Think of the margins, think of the children.
This is the Hilux for the warlord who fires t-shirt cannons and recruits underprivileged kids to fight in his war against….SADNESS by throwing candy to spectators in the annual Eid Al-Fitr parade in Jakarta.
It reminds me of the 1st gen Dacia Logan.
“We need a cheap usable car/truck that don’t need expensive new tooling, try to not make it too ugly”
Still better looking from a functional standpoint that a Cybertruck…and as a Hilux it’s probably going to be indestructible (by modern standards, not the Top Gear Hilux standard).
I wish there was an eye wash station in the building after looking at that…
It looks like product of the MV-1 engaging in relations with its cousin.
Especially if the Matra Rancho has secretly been the MV-1’s cousin all this time
https://media.istockphoto.com/id/136379721/vector/redneck-princess.jpg?s=612×612&w=0&k=20&c=_mqnwVVNVCC7QEnaFJRr9WWJecQstceB9UF3kulZMes=
The bulging fenders with a little square push outs, the wide short dent in the doors, probably for structure, and then the long skinny dent that runs the rest of the length of the vehicle just seems a little design strange probably all for just thin sheet metal strength.
It looks like it was made using Mega Bloks
Next to a Lego Land Cruiser.
It looks like something that would be cooked up for domestic sale in a country with a small internal market and heavy protectionist tariffs, where the designers just threw together something out of local parts at hand and stuck on a fiberglass body to save tooling.
Basically, I’m saying it looks like it could have come from a small player in Brazil in the 70s or 80s, which makes it somewhat endearing. But an odd choice from Toyota
That design is… wow… that really is…
something.
How’s its personality?