Overview of the Toyota Hiace
This Japanese mid-sized light commercial vehicle, which dates back to the late 1960s, remains a favourite with Australian businesses.
The latest, fifth-generation model has been around since 2005, so is getting on a bit though was given safety and fuel economy improvements across 2015 and 2016. The latter included the addition of a diesel particulate filter.
The Toyota HiAce features a cab-over-engine van design that is rare these days and is available as a regular cargo-focused van, a Crew variant that carries extra people, or even a 12- or 14-seater minibus.
TOYOTA HIACE GENERATIONS (SINCE 2005)
2005-present
RUNNING COSTS
Fuel Consumption
2.7L 4-cylinder petrol: 9.8 to 11.3 litres per 100km
3.0L 4-cylinder turbo diesel: 8.1 to 9.2 litres per 100km
= Highly economical.
= Good economy.
= Average fuel use.
= Heavy consumption.
Servicing
Every 10,000km or 6 months, whichever is sooner. Each service currently costs $180 (petrol) or $240 (diesel). Toyota HiAce parts and equipment can be found on Gumtree.
SIMILAR MODELS TO TOYOTA HIACE
Ford Transit Custom
Hyundai iLoad
Renault Trafic
Volkswagen Transporter
WHAT TO LOOK OUT FOR: TOYOTA HIACE (2005 ONWARDS)
The HiAce bucked Toyota tradition a little by actually suffering a few design-induced faults.
The most serious ones were all to do with the turbo diesel engine, while the petrol-powered version seems to be much less trouble. By no means a widespread problem, there have been enough piston failures in turbo diesel HiAces to call it a trend.
Those in the trade suspect that it's a piston design problem, but there's also a reasonable rate of injector failures with this engine that could be a contributing factor.
The advice from some workshops is that the injectors should be changed every 100,000km as a precaution.
The life of the fuel injectors will be shortened by a HIAce that is used for heavy towing. But a vehicle that has been filled with dirty fuel can also be a problem as the contaminants won't be tolerated by the small tolerances inherent in the injector design.
