Saturday, 31 October 2026

Ramble about the 2022 Rogue

 


I believe at the start of 2022 Toyota was selling a different Hilux Rogue and Luxxy Trucksie is significantly different to those early 2022 Rogues.

For those that don't know the late 2022-2025 Hilux Rogue and the Hilux GR sport have a 145mm (roughly 6 inch) wider track than other Hiluxes and an approximately 20mm (roughly an inch) extra lift.

For convenience I am going to call her a "2023 Rogue" or "widetrack Rogue", because that's how most people identify this variant of the Rogue.

According to the federal Road Vehicle Descriptor her variant code is GUN126R-DTTHXQ-M0.

So I'm a happy chappie. I've been wanting a 4WD for a while, and been researching them for a couple of years. Earlier this year I had back surgery after which my chronic back and leg pain got a whole lot better, so this seemed like a good time. 

As far as I know - and I am by no means an expert - these 2023 Rogues and the GR Sports are the only Hiluxes that came with the wider track - at least in Australia.

The Rogue came with the same engine as the rest of the N80 Hiluxes as did the GR Sport, but the GR Sport's engine has been tuned to deliver approx 10% more power and torque - 165Kw and 550nm as opposed to the 150KW and 500nm of the rest of the 2.8L dieso N80s, including the Rogue.

The Rogue and the GR Sport have longer axles, CVs etc to accomodate their wider track and their shock absorbers are located outboard of the chassis rails, giving them that wider stance.  With other Hiluxes the shock absorber is inside the chassis. As such many of the standard N80 parts related to the final drive and the chassis won't fit the Rogue of GR Sport.

Luckily the Rogue seems to be one of the more popular models on the Aussie roads, so I don't expect to have too many issues getting parts.

Although the new N90 (released late 2025) Hiluxes has a Rogue in the range and a Rugged X to replace the GR Sport neither of those models has the wider track. For some reason Toyota elected to revert to a single track width range. Apart from the interior trim and the stereo/head unit and external accesories (tub liner, tub rolloer, bars there really doesn't seem to be any real difference betweent the top of the line 2026 models and the 2026 SR5. Sure those distinctions are nice, but there doesn't seem to be any difference in dynamics/performance/off roadability. I guess Toyota is saving those differences for a mid life update.

So for now the late 2022-2025 Rogue and thte GR Sport are somewhat unique amongst Hiluxes, being both a little higher and considerably wider than all other models.

It was widely reported in the Aussie motoring media that the 2022 Rogue was probably the best driving and handling Hilux ever up until the N90 series. Apparently the N90 series feel much better on the road at least from the SR5 model and up. I'm not sure how the N90s compare to the N80 2022 Rogue and GR Sport, but a number of reveiwers suggested that unless people really needed something the N90s offered the N80 2022 Rogur or GR Sport might be a better option - that 145mm wider track and suspension tune featuring prominently in their discussion.

Suffice it to say I think the 2022 Rogue is probably a reasonably desirable Hilux - if you desire Hiluxes.
I certainly found it desirable.

It wasn't my intention to get a Rogue, I was more looking at an SR5 or an SR if I were to get a Hilux at all. But my inner tight ass made it more likely that I would have bought a Mitsi Triton - probably GLS, a GWM XSR or maybe Tank 300 PHEV.
But I saw Luxxy on carsales.com.au and the tightass bargain hunter in me saw a lot of value in her.

Luxxy's previous owner M was an experienced 4WDer and a qualified mechanic who I understand had worked at a major national 4WD engineering and retail firm as a fitter and I believe is a fleet operations manager for companies that operate fleets.
In short he knows a lot more about vehciles than most of us will, and he is a mad keen 4WD driver.

M spent a fair bit of coin on Luxxy, fitting her out to be what we in 'Straya call a tourer.
Essentially a vehicle fitted for travelling most places and camping or towing a caravan/camper trailer, but capable of going most places on or off road/track, but not specifically designed for hard wheeling.

So the vehicle I am buying will be essentially M's dream build. And in my opinion, M has mighty fine taste - although I would have preferred red. So what did M do to her?

He built this beautiful vehicle, his dream build based on his decades of  4WD and touring experience.
Then his life situation changed and Luxxy would be sitting unused in his driveway while she depreciated and he paid her off. So he decided to move her on.

Now M's dream build is pretty much my dream build. But I never would have built her.

I wanted a Hilux and I wanted a tray/canopy. The difference is I would never have spent the money to put the tray/canopy on her.

Essentially even if I have the money I am too much of a tight ass, the expense of a build like this is too extravagent for my psyche.

I would have bought an SR or SR5 at best, or more likely a Triton or GWM and added added a bullbar and a winch, maybe a light bar or driving lights and eventually either a roller toneau or a tub canopy, and maybe a second battery and fridge and maybe some drawers and that would be it. Not a dream build, but a sufficient build.

However seeing Luxxy for the price being asked - I was sorely tempted. At first I thought it was too good to be true. Must have been a scam. The vehicle was a little over market price for that model, year and kilometres, but only a little over and it had all these mods and accessories - maybe 25-30% of the vehicle price included mods and accessories. In other words I was getting a tens of thousands dollars of mods essentially for free.

Mods and accessories I would really love to have had but would probably never bought.

It was over my ideal vehicle budget, but looking at the value and utility of the build knowing that I'd be spending way more than the premiun M was asking just building my basic build.

So I started a conversation with M and eventually arranged a viewing.

I spoke to M and found out his reason for selling and my gut told me he was not scamming or trying to rip me off. In fact I felt like he was getting the raw end of the deal, but he seemed happy to sell.

M seemed like a very genuine and nice bloke. My gut told me I could trust him - I'm neuro atypical so I have trust issues, having been scammed before and not picked it up until too late.

Furthermore because M was a qualified mechanic in the earlier part of his career and a experience in the offroad industry and been 4WD/ing for years and looked after a fleet I felt the build would be done right.
I believe he'd done the work himself to high standard or would engage people he trusted and had the experience to assess their work.

In other words it was a build I felt I could trust, and looking at and discussing the build it all made sense, seemed well reasoned and looked like it had been well built and well looked after.

The components were not all top shelf, especially the 12V house battery, but they all seemed adequate and the imporant parts the DCDC and main charger were well known and trusted brands so I didn't feel like I was going to get a charging fire.

And there was lots a fusing and lots of split tubing conduit and the routing looked sensible (mainly following factory wiringg routes) and zip tied at regular intervals.

The vehicle had been dealer servicing as a base, with some additional minor servicing by M for bits Toyota missed or does not include in their services - the catch can, greasing the Dobinsons shackle pins eyc.

So I messed around with finance for a week or so. The finance company wanted to settle on Friday "else the interest rate would change.

Friday was the start of a long weekend that M had arranged to go away for.

So M signed the sale invoice, and the finance company paid M on the Friday, but that was only around 5/7ths of the deal.

So M took Luxxy for his last trip and I held on the the other 2/7ths of the cash until I took possession.

For me that was a really long long weekend.

On the Tues after the long weekend I took possession of Luxxy and paid M the balance.
I had to hire a trailer, because she came with 4 jacks to lift off the canopy, the ladder rack for the tray, the original wheels and tyres as well as the original Toyota suspension.

And that was that. I was the very proud owner of Luxxy Trucksie.

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Ramble about the 2022 Rogue

  I believe at the start of 2022 Toyota was selling a different Hilux Rogue and Luxxy Trucksie is significantly different to those early 202...