Toyota Hilux vs MINI Cooper [2014-2018]

I'm smitten by pickup trucks and their versatility. So, there's no second guessing what I chose when the Toyota Hilux made it to the line-up of the fourth edition of CarWale's annual off-road day. In fact, it was the only massive pickup amongst SUVs here. To cope with the bulk, it has a 2.8-litre turbo diesel engine producing 200bhp and 500Nm of torque. All this power is routed through a six-speed torque converter automatic to the four-wheel-drive system. The latter gets High (H4) and Low (L4) range paired with electronic 2WD/4WD control. Despite the length, it has good approach (29.22degree) and departure (26.36degree) angles and runs on stock Bridgestone tyres (265/60 R18). Let's see how it performed.

The Mini Cooper S JCW (John Cooper Works edition) represents the absolute best of what Mini has to offer, taking advantage of the extra power and a more ostentatious design over the standard car. The JCW edition also happens to be the most powerful hatchback one can buy in India, making it jolly exciting. However, at well above Rs 40 lakhs, it’s hardly a good value. In fact, for the same price you can buy a VW GTI (a full-on hot hatch) and a Polo GT TSI (a pseudo hot hatch) and still have plenty of change to turn them into complete monsters.

To celebrate what we have left, we gather a bunch of true-blue 4x4s every year and give them hell!