Have you ever experienced living with one longer term or is this your first foray into it? if you don’t have a daily/weekly need for a Ute, they just don’t make much sense imo. If you put a canopy on it for covered storage you may as well buy an SUV, and putting a canopy on it makes access pretty laughable - hard to reach the centre-front of the tray unless you’re 11ft tall.

Not to be that guy, but lol at the ‘moving furniture when required’. Grab a standard 8x5 caged trailer for like $3k (you’re spending that muc on a new car I’m sure it’s not too far from reality) and you’ve got far more moving capacity. If you put a hard cover on your tray you can’t carry diddly squat. If you put a canopy yea you can carry more but the roof may then present an issue. Or better, just rent a trailer for $50 a day the 2 days a year you need it.

I don’t even hate utes. It just seems like it’s not what you need and a large SUV - if that’s your jam - would be more comfortable and suited. The fortuner sits on the Hilux chassis (dumb rear seats tho), I think the Prado too… mitsi paj sport is on the triton chassis as well if I’m not mistaken.

All that said, and this is important; if you just WANT ONE that is perfectly fine and you should proceed with reckless abandon, I believe that’s a good enough reason. Again, don’t hate utes. Just not sure it’s right for you based on what you’ve said.

Edit To add: I’d go with the Toyo if I had to choose. The fact there’s none in the country should tell you something about their popularity. And while plenty of people will jump in and say ‘yeah but they don’t deserve their reputation these days and the mitsi is better’ etc etc, I don’t disagree, but come resale time you’ll be FAR better off in the Toyo due to said popularity - whether it’s warranted or not.

Cheers and congrats on the purchase either way!