Volkswagen Taro

The Volkswagen Taro was a one-tonne compact pickup truck introduced in January 1989 by Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles to fill a gap beside its half-tonne Caddy and one-tonne Transporter ranges. It was a rebadged fifth-generation Toyota Hilux, fully engineered by Toyota, in a partnership that gave Volkswagen a pickup it lacked and gave Toyota a larger share of the European utility market. The first Taros were assembled in Hanover, Germany, from 1989 to 1994 as two-wheel-drive regular-cab trucks with a 2.4-litre diesel engine. In September 1994 an extended-cab four-wheel-drive version built at Toyota's Tahara plant in Japan was added. The arrangement ended in 1997 because sales met neither company's hopes, and the Amarok later took the Taro's place in the Volkswagen range.