How a $1,000 Toyota Hilux found fame on TikTok
Words: Andrew Sluys
For the last 50 years, the Toyota Hilux has been a staple on Kiwi roads, so it’s little surprise to see the cult-like following that this ute has amassed in this time.
As is the case with these road-going icons, it’s the classics that have the most fans, and in the case of the Hilux, there are plenty to choose from.
But when a young couple from Ōrewa purchased a cheap Hilux to flip, online fame was probably the last thing they expected.
Georgia Winnie and Harry Browne-Sainty’s 1995 LN85 has proven to be a hit on TikTok, amassing almost 100,000 followers since they started posting about it.
“He just brought it home one day and told me we were restoring it,” Georgia said.
As is the beauty of modern content creation, the $1,000 ute soon began to pay itself off with followers, as their videos gained traction.
They started posting in October last year, showing the tedious process of sanding the frame, and then painting the ute on their driveway.
“I’m the perfectionist,” Georgia said. “But we both worked on it. We sanded it together and we’ve both put a lot of time into it.”
They have received help with the project from both local and overseas sources, with a pair of rare replacement seatbelts getting sent from Fiji.
“People LOVE this,” Georgia said. “There are so many car enthusiasts and everyone knows everything about Hilux. If something’s not quite right, someone will tell you that you should be doing it this way.”
Where the Hilux project started as a quick flip, it has turned into much more for Harry, who has since quit his full time job to work on the ute.
He’s now self-employed, although he prefers to describe himself as an “aspiring house husband”
For its first proper road trip, Georgia and Harry threw a dart at a map of New Zealand and decided they’d drive wherever it landed. By complete chance, it hit Palmerston North, home of Toyota New Zealand.
Now they’re taking the dart idea further, with a six-month series that will see them throw a dart at a map of New Zealand and drive the Hilux wherever it lands. They’d love one to hit Bluff, which would mean taking it across on the Interislander and driving the length of the country.
