A pristine 1982 Toyota Hilux has been named as the winner of the 2024 Hagerty Festival of the Unexceptional, which celebrates ordinary family cars from the 1970s through to the 1990s.

The event, which has been held at Grimsthorpe Castle in Lincolnshire since 2021, marked its tenth anniversary this year. It was founded to highlight vehicles from 1969-1999 that would never be seen at the likes of the Hampton Court Concours d'Elegance.

This year's winning Hilux is owned by Mitch Lewis, who bought it from an elderly lady who used it on a strawberry farm. The machine had around 10,000 miles on when Lewis purchased it, and it has since added another 10,000. Lewis noted that the machine still has small dents from the hit of strawberry punnets in the bodywork, but otherwise it took “just a wash” to ready it for the event.

On his win, Lewis said: "I was expecting one of the lower prizes at the very best. I didn't expect first. It's a lovely car, my pride and joy. And I love it." 

Jon Bentley, who served as one of the judges this year, said: “Most Hilux’s get used and abused and ultimately scrapped, but here is one which has actually been preserved during life on the farm.

"It did a lot of work but has been treated very gently. And so despite the fact all of its contemporaries have disappeared, here is one in all of its perfect, prestigious condition. Therefore the exceptional has survived and become unexceptional.”

The judges, which included Autocar editor-in-chief Steve Cropley, summarised it as “surely the best one in the world”.

This year's festival attracted more than 4000 people, with around 2000 cars in attendance. The Hilux was chosen from a list of finalists that included a Zastava Yugo, a Volvo 145 and a Vauxhall Nova. 

Second place went to Amy Jaine's Renault Clio, while the Retro Repmobile prize was given to a Nissan Primera that originally came from Hanover in Germany. Highly commendable mentions were given to a Fiat Panda, Citroën Visa and an Austin Metro.

On the festival itself, Bentley said: “The whole point of the show is just cars being preserved which are actually very ordinary, everyday. You wouldn't normally think to preserve them, so they just tend to quietly disappear. But luckily there are groups of enthusiastic people who actually preserve all these things that were once very humdrum. These are not cars that are aspirational, they're not like a Ferrari or Lamborghini or something. They just live forever.”

The festival first ran in 2014 at Whittlebury Park in Northamptonshire and has been held every year since except the pandemic-affected 2020. Previous winners include a Nissan Cherry Europe GTi, a Morris Marina, a Vauxhall Astra, a Proton Saloon and a Daihatsu Applause.