>>509852545
I've agreed with most of what you posted so far especially the part where modern engines suck because trying to squeeze every last drop of power to get better emissions and mileage to the point they are very complicated, error-prone and hard and expensive to fix.

>generally do not know any better.
But Hilux becoming a meme is for a reason, not because of "people that don't know better".
Our army uses these as a non-armored general purpose vehicle because they are extremely reliable. If I needed a truck I'd definitely buy one, driving these during my service and also seeing how they can take a beating at hands of conscripts convinced me of its superiority.
Note though that this is 10+ years ago and I don't know if they fucked up the car since then, but at least models around 2010 were simply excellent.