Mint Survivor: 1976 Toyota Hilux SR5 Pickup
This olive green 1976 Toyota Hilux SR5 Pickup is located in Madison, Connecticut and has traveled just 60,000 miles since new. The truck is listed here on eBay with 3 days remaining in the auction. It is currently bid to $7,100 after just 12 bids. The second-generation Hilux, designated as the N20, was introduced by Toyota in 1973 and ended production in 1978. This example appears to be an excellent survivor that is said to be in great mechanical condition.
Covered in tan vinyl material, the two bucket seats sit snugly in the standard cab of this Hilux. Overall, the truck appears to be in excellent condition. The ad shows a lot of close up pictures to indicate that the vehicle is solid and not damaged from rust. The glass and bright work look good. The bed is amazing and must have been covered by a bed liner all these years or it has never been used.
This SR5 is fitted with the 2.2 liter (2,189 cc) inline four-cylinder engine, known as the 20R engine. It was available from 1975-1978 and rated at 96 horsepower from the factory. Future variants of this well designed engine were used in future Toyota vehicles all over the world. The engine sends power to the rear wheels via a 4-speed manual transmission. The seller states that the truck is said to run and drive great. 
The 1976 Toyota Hilux pickup was available with either a short bed or long bed. The long bed was not available in the US until 1972. This example is adorned with the correct stripes. The seller states that the original wheels are wrapped in new Hankook white wall tires. The back bumper looks huge in this picture, but I assume that it is factory.
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Comments
The ’72-1/2 truck (first of this body style,was an RN22 model.
And this has a 5 speed (not a 4 speed).And the long bed didn’t come
out until 1973.This truck has wheels from a ’79 or newer truck.
The long bed rides a lot smoother than the short bed,& I have no
idea why the SR5 didn’t come with a tach.
While having work done on my ’72-1/2 at Toyota of Visalia,I had
a salesman offer me a new SR5 for my truck & a few hundred dollars.
I was tempted,but the only color they came in that year was an ugly
chocolate brown.
These are good trucks for local driving/hauling,but not a lot of
legroom,& if anything his the inside wall of the bed,it shows on the
outside,as they have thin metal on them.If you add some extra padding
to the front of the seat,or raise the front,you can pick up a little more
leg room.
Just looked it up – the SR5 short bed was an
RN23 model.
Thanks for the education
Rear bumpers were not required for pickups then. Dealers commonly added them. That bumper is almost certainly not factory
New Years resolution, New Years resolution,,,,aw, ding dong diddley crap, I just can’t do it, THEY’RE OFF THEIR NUT!! There is no,,,way,,,in ,,Hades, this vehicle is worth 5 figures, I don’t care if it has $10g’s in cash under the seat. I had a truck like this, a ’74, it was my ex-brother in laws he bought new. This was the guy that went to 3 dealers until one would sell him a truck with absolutely NO options. He put almost 240K on that truck, and all he did was tires, brakes, and oil changes religiously every 3K. I think I gave him $100 bucks for it, and was pretty rusted, but I still put another 10g’s on it. Great trucks, no doubt, but way out of line here. Just shows, with all the choices in todays trucks, someone is willing to spend even $8g’s on something like this. Nice.
Well HoA………….of course you’re correct in the absolute sense. But much like last year…..ummmmm..the year before..and pretty much since the internet gave us all fishbowl eyes……….the used car/truck market has become delusional. That said ,there are those that say we’re just complaining. I prefer to think we are just rational, Clearly there are a lot of irrational buyers in the market.
Hang on…if we can wait till they start dying off (gulp! who us?)……….and maintain our driving and vehicle desire levels…we can snag them for pennies on the buck!
In the meantiime keep bringing that sensible midwwestern fount of knowledge to BF!
Happy New and Better Year!
Thanks, man, you know, it’s okay, to be clear, I really don’t want another of these crummy riding, uncomfortable seating, poorly heated tin cans, and it’s going to cost someone big bucks, or what I still consider big bucks, to find out what it really is. They got that kind of money to make a $10 grand blunder? I mean, it’s a years salary for me, IDK, it defies what we consider normal. To me, it’s not so much the birth of the “new normal”, which this apparently is, I can shut that out, it’s the death of the “old normal”, that has me bummed.
I bought a new 1978 short bed SR5 in white. My friend had a brown one. The brown hid some of the rust.
Because of the “chicken tax”, the bed was made by Long Beach Metal Fabricators. It was tinny and rusted quickly. I sold it in less than three years when the right A pillar showed rust bubbles.
Sweet looking truck. I remember when the Toyota pickup looked like this. My stepfather had one like this. This was more utilitarian than today’s Tacoma, which is how I liked trucks to be. Given its mint condition, I’d be willing to pay around the asking price. There’d still be enough money to have an inspection done, make sure everything works like they should, and that the truck is safe to drive.
I bought a new Datsun pickup 3 weeks before I started selling Toyota’s and I asked my salesman if Datsun would be coming out with a larger cab.He lied to me to make the sale but I got revenge when he brought a potential buyer in to compare the Toyota truck and I sold his customer one.Good trucks but small cab at that time.
When I was a boy, my stepfather had a Toyota Hilux pickup truck, similar to this. His was orange, with yellow and black decals. While its cab may not please everyone who drove it, He seemed to fit comfortably in it, and by the time I learned to drive it, so did I. The only uncomfortable factor were the seats. While they were adjustable fore and aft, they didn’t recline, which would’ve helped. They were also damned uncomfortable during the hot summers and the cold winter.
In 1977 I wanted a Datsun King Cab,but ended up
buying an SR5 Longbed because the SR5 had disc front-
brakes,& the Datsun didn’t.
While I’ve always loved Datsun trucks, particularly the PL521, I agree. Disc brakes would’ve helped stop the truck.
Our Toyota SR5 truck had a 2.2 litre 20R engine, a 5sp manual gearbox, and an AM/FM radio.
Can still hear Joe – my classmate from 1st grade – pulling into the high school parking lot blaring ZZ Top thru the speakers of his new 1974 long bed.
This is a nice truck with a nice prized price – good luck with the sale.
Good luck finding a Toyota truck of this vintage in mint condition. By the time I was finished driving my stepdad’s Toyota truck, it was a rusted wreck of a truck. Mechanically, it could’ve gone on forever with careful maintenance, but its body was a rusted wreck.
My family’s first Toyota purchase was a 1977 baby poo yellow longbed. We used it to run a paper route for several years and I learned how to drift on the dirt roads in our part of Missouri in that truck. It’s amazing I (and everybody that rode with me) survived. We finally retired that truck at 177,000 hard miles, it still wasn’t burning oil or ever had the valve cover off. I soon bought a 1981 SR5 4WD, primarily because of how tough that first truck was. The 1981 did not disappoint either.
I had an ’81 diesel that started to rust at the seams at 3 years old in NE Ohio.
I want this one badly. It may be the best one of it’s model in the country and worth it, unless the inevitable cash crash comes.
I have to respectfully disagree with the “cramped” bit. While it’s true that the seats weren’t very comfortable, I found the cabin more than adequate. But then comfort depends on who drives it. If you’re tall, or you have long legs, you might not fit comfortably. But otherwise you could fit comfortably.
As the owner of a mint 79 SR5 short bed, the allure is their absolute simplicity. Yes they are cramped, tinny and on a cool night you could hear them rust, but the utter baseness is what is attractive. I think this is easily worth 10k
I have to respectfully disagree with the “cramped” bit. While it’s true that the seats weren’t very comfortable, I found the cabin more than adequate. But then comfort depends on who drives it. If you’re tall, or you have long legs, you might not fit comfortably. But otherwise you could fit comfortably.
It’s a shame that the diesel powered Toyota truck never caught on. Between the 1970s and the 1990s, fuel economy was a huge selling point for cars and light trucks. I would’ve bought a Toyota Diesel, maybe even a Turbo Diesel, if available.