It’s now six generations since the modest HiLux pickup from Japan caught the attention of the South African public in 1969, and the latest beasts truly live up to the name. The Spartan cabins and basic technology of those early days have been transformed to luxury palaces bristling with gadgets. Hard cross-ply tyres have been replaced with magic carpet radials; the basic monochrome bodyshell is now a shimmering feast of upswept curves in pearlescent hues. Hell, in one of these you even feel pretty sharp taking the garden refuse to the local dump. And that’s the point. Bakkies, and double cabs in particular, are no longer just workhorses, they are bought with the intent of doing everything from lugging furniture to attending a wedding. They’re the automotive equivalent of a Leatherman: one tool, many functions. They might not do everything exceptionally well, but they will do lots of things pretty efficiently. That about sums up the Hilux. It’s a real Leatherman, not one of the cheaper clones. So it lasts. Almost everyone has owned one, or knows someone who has. It’s the ubiquitous bakkie, and along with the Corolla, one of the success stories of the local auto industry. It’s also so much part of our cultural history, so woven into the fabric of thousands of apocraphyal and otherwise stories, that it has become its own advertisement. Quite literally, it has even been a Legend in its own lifetime.