Two weeks with the new Toyota HiAce V6 petrol auto van.

[Dr Smith]

In case anyone is remotely interested we had the chance to hire for two weeks a new HiAce van auto with the 3.5L V6 petrol while our Transit Custom was in a panel shop. While my staff spent most of the time in it I took it home for one night with also a full day behind the wheel.

Straight off the bat….a party group at happy hour in a pub would drink less, I’m talking struggling to get 400km out of a 70L tank with an average over 15+ L/100Km with payloads loads between 200-300kg in mostly urban driving at an average speed that showed 28km/hr. Yes there was the odd spirited driving as how often will a “white fridge” on wheels come across your path with over 200kW?

The official fuel econo figure is 12.0L/100km but unless you live on a freeway and only drive on a freeway it will never get remotely close.

Our Transit Custom gets to 700+Km every time with a 75L tank, yes it’s a diesel obviously however our Budget dealer didn’t have any diesel models of the new HiAce. Toyota quotes 8.2L/100Km for the HiAce 4cyl diesel auto. (Transit Custom auto real world, mostly urban/city driving is a bit over 9L/100Km after 64,000km with us)

On the other hand, the whole powertrain combo is silky smooth, traditional torque converter auto mated to a free-revving engine which I’d say is easily the best combo of any van on the market provided you own a petrol station.

The cabin is spacious, everything easy to find and use although I couldn’t find how to turn off the voice warning’s on approaching schools, rail crossings etc…louder radio volume fixed that.

The load area is smaller than most lwb vans and the two cut-outs for internal steps at the side sliding doors takes away too much load width just behind the front seats as well.

The internal floor to roof height is also lower than expected and we couldn’t place the hand trolley upright like in the Transit Custom either. The rear load floor is also a fair bit higher than the Transit Custom and it becomes more obvious after a day of loading and unloading.

No rear barn/wings doors also stops forklift loading and means we would could never use one on a full-time basis unless you only use Euro pallets as an 80cm wide pallet will easily fit through the side door opening, as it will in any competitor van in our market.

So, in summary, great to drive, less real world usable rear cargo space then Custom, Trafic, and Transporter while lastly in petrol too expensive to run for a daily delivery van.

PS. No perfomance figures were recorded because we were too busy laughing when the brain-dead tried overtaking on the inside when they realised their lane was ending...

[danzvtil]

I rented a diesel one not long ago, pretty flash for a work van. I loved how the auto stop would give you a journey total of stopped time, kind of egging you on to better it next time. But yes, the overbearing voice warning when you exceed the limit by 1kph was too much, I couldn’t find if it was switchable.

[Giant Cranium]

The company I work for has about 50 of each of the new hiace and transit. The ones who drive the transits don’t want the hiaces and the ones in the hiaces want the transits

[Bossxr8]

I wonder if we will see the all electric transit thats due in the uk next year here? They are also going into production in the us, alongside the v6 ecoboost transit.

[John 13]

Originally Posted by Bossxr8

I wonder if we will see the all electric transit thats due in the uk next year here? They are also going into production in the us, alongside the v6 ecoboost transit.

I wonder when we will see electric/battery single cab work utes. Makes sense to me many trade/work/farm utes never leave town/farm and would generally do less that 100 Kms a day, even could be charged on building sites. Certainly weight and space for battery unlikely to be a problem. One issue could be limited market, while these tray backs etc. are common in Australia I have observed that they are rare in UK - Ireland and possibly in general throughout Europe.

[Franco Cozzo]

What I gleamed from this is that I should replace my VS Caprice with a new Toyota Hiace van because it's more powerful and uses the same amount of juice

I cut my teeth on Mercedes Sprinters, the previous model Hiace was absolute junk with ergonomics and a PITFA to work on, I'm actually rather interested in the new Hiace, it looks mint and it's a big step up in ergonomics.

I was trying to talk work into buying a new 3.5L V6 Hiace for obvious reasons but we ended up with the RG Colorado instead lol

[Bossxr8]

Originally Posted by John 13

I wonder when we will see electric/battery single cab work utes. Makes sense to me many trade/work/farm utes never leave town/farm and would generally do less that 100 Kms a day, even could be charged on building sites. Certainly weight and space for battery unlikely to be a problem. One issue could be limited market, while these tray backs etc. are common in Australia I have observed that they are rare in UK - Ireland and possibly in general throughout Europe.

There is an f150 hybrid and f150 full electric coming in the next year or 2. Would make it easier to fit into ranger if the parts for it exist in f series? At least for the us market where hybrid petrol engines sell in large numbers.

[Swordie]

I'd like try the new manual V6 petrol HiAce. I saw one walking around the Toyota Dealer last week. It was actually one of the more interesting cars I saw walking around the various dealers.

[Dr Smith]

One other thing a LWB Transit Custom can do better then a LWB HiAce..carry more boxes...one of our vans was used to collect an order from our paper-products supplier so it was half filled with boxes of toilet paper yesterday...my driver claimed he now knows what Armaguard drivers feel like except he only had a hand trolley as protection.

[Sprintey]

Sounds kind of fun - tho thirsty. The longboarder's Ferrari.

The really interesting one will be the petrol hybrid.

My only experience was the big diesel Renault van with DSG at work, that thing was a menace of a gearbox in car parks... nothing, nothing, nothing - surge!

[Dr Smith]

Originally Posted by Sprintey

Sounds kind of fun - tho thirsty. The longboarder's Ferrari.

The really interesting one will be the petrol hybrid.

My only experience was the big diesel Renault van with DSG at work, that thing was a menace of a gearbox in car parks... nothing, nothing, nothing - surge!

The older "bug-eye" Trafic was the same..apparently the new Trafic had a facelift and they've added a form of DSG with very little hesitation or lag, yet to drive one however our own Trafic is due for a service soon so hopefully I can check it out.

Hybrid delivery vehicles are definately a good move or even pure EV with say a range of 300km per charge then for 85-90% of the daily workload it would make it easily without fear of going flat.

[Citroënbender]

Some of those systems, you can moderate the “surge” for delicate low speed manoeuvres with the handbrake, if it’s a mechanical cable type.

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by Dr Smith

The older "bug-eye" Trafic was the same..apparently the new Trafic had a facelift and they've added a form of DSG with very little hesitation or lag, yet to drive one however our own Trafic is due for a service soon so hopefully I can check it out.

Hybrid delivery vehicles are definately a good move or even pure EV with say a range of 300km per charge then for 85-90% of the daily workload it would make it easily without fear of going flat.

https://www.sea-electric.com/product...-delivery-van/

I've been in their electric Isuzu NQR truck, I'm convinced it's a better drive than the regular diesel variant.

We went cruising around Melbourne freeways and inner Melbourne suburbia with 3750kg of concrete in the back and we were over GVM because we were three up and all 120kg+ fat bastards

No trouble going up hills, silent and it hauls ***.

[Sprintey]

That one sounds good Franco, that's the future for sure. You didn't get diesel particulates blowing little holes in your lungs either.

Did you ever see the old Mitsubishi canter ads? ;)

[hayseed]

Originally Posted by Sprintey

That one sounds good Franco, that's the future for sure. You didn't get diesel particulates blowing little holes in your lungs either.

Did you ever see the old Mitsubishi canter ads? ;)

[.:4:.]

I personally love vans for work cars for what i do. When my last ranger came to an untimely death, work rented me one of the last model hi aces and it was awesome. So im guessing the storage options up front in the new ones are equal if not better then the last gen. My main limitation is height. The hi ace fitted in car parks, but being a rental, didnt have roof racks which was a pain in the hole as i couldnt carry big ladders. Had it had roof racks, it wouldnt fit in the majority of buildings i park in. Fuel economy, well its more of an inconvenience to me filling up over financially as work pay, was around 12 per hundred so not too bad for the 2.7 petrol 4 banger. My old express was 16 per on a good week from the 2.4. The junior 2.2 diesil ranger was sub 10s but had a big tank. Id love to spend time in the new hi ace. Theyre absolute nuggets. The forklift no barn doors thing i understand, but im not a courier. But 200kw in a van sounds wicked. My old express made 84kw, 1 more then a vc commodore with a blue 202 and ive driven old 6 cyliner commodores before and theres no movement in my pants watching the vaccum gauge move in an old 1980 commodore.

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by hayseed

image

That was EXACTLY what it was like

I'm sold on EV light trucks - we were silently chopping ****s at the lights with the instant torque.

[Dr Smith]

Originally Posted by Franco Cozzo

https://www.sea-electric.com/product...-delivery-van/

I've been in their electric Isuzu NQR truck, I'm convinced it's a better drive than the regular diesel variant.

We went cruising around Melbourne freeways and inner Melbourne suburbia with 3750kg of concrete in the back and we were over GVM because we were three up and all 120kg+ fat bastards

No trouble going up hills, silent and it hauls ***.

Thanks for that, I'm going to check them out as they're 20 mins from my work. Wonder if they'll consider med. sized vans like the Custom?