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
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.