Watch A Seventh-Gen Toyota Hilux Truck Launch Into The Air After Losing Control

Before we dig into the video below, we first need to state that both occupants of the Toyota Hilux survived the crash. They were extremely lucky to walk away from such a gnarly accident. They live to drive another day, and thanks to Dash Cam Owners Australia, we now have the perfect footage to illustrate a few inherent flaws in the old-school ladder-frame pickup truck design.

The vehicle you see below is a seventh-generation Toyota Hilux, which has a reputation for snap oversteering. It's simply the result of having almost no weight over the rear axle, leaf springs, and dampers with an agricultural setup.

The eighth-generation Hilux also failed the Moose Test spectacularly, and Toyota quickly devised a fix. The electronic stability control was updated, and Toyota changed the recommended tire pressure settings.

On early seventh-gen Hilux models, ABS was an optional extra. Fancy active driving systems like traction and stability control only became available later during the pickup's 11-year lifespan, and even then, those systems were extremely rudimentary.

If the 2023 Toyota Tacoma was in the same position, its stability control would have nipped it in the bud.

At least you can see the person behind the wheel knows what they're doing, but the truck was too far gone in this case. Instead of braking, you can see the driver steering into the skid and keeping the power down. Well done, sir or madam.

This brings us neatly to tires. You'd be surprised how often we have to talk people out of buying knobbly mud-terrain tires simply because "they look cool."

Yup, it's true. People put muds on their city-bound off-roaders because they like the aggressive tread pattern. There's a good reason manufacturers put all-terrain tires on all but their most hardcore off-roaders. Mud-terrain tires are useless on wet tarmac.