Are they same/similar size to a transporter? reliable, good fuel consumption?
Big enough to sleep in/semi convert?

We run them at work – they never miss a beat

Have ‘TOP GEAR’ got a good one in the studio ?

think thats a hilux on top gear

what sort of mileage is still “young” for a diesel van?

ive used the same hi ace power van for nearly 10 years . 180,000 miles no problems, regular maintanance , oil and filters every 6000 miles ive just put new brake discs on, and this is after a lot of comercial use,building work, and still drives like a new van , loads of room , sleep in it regularly at events , i get about 33 miles to the gallon, wouldnt buy anything else when the time comes to get another van .hope this is helpfull to you cheers.

Pretty much the same size with comfier seats. I’ve got the LWB, which means plenty of space for me, the lady, bikes and kit in the back. Like yetirose, mine is a big miler, 185k and 6 years old.
Thing that swayed me was it’s half the price of a transporter, to hell with the badge snobbery, is a shed load more reliable. The only things that I’ve had done are wear and tear items – no failures!

Mine is the D4D common-rail, if I thrash it, I’m a bit over 30mpg, keep it within the law on a long run and I’m hitting about 40mpg.

Much as I love it, I am considering changing it at the mo’, just itchy feet I think, friends with Caterhams and scoobys…

awesome things – nobody got rich fixing toyota engines.
lwb is better d4d is good balance. put in a false floor and away you go

my first car was a hiace. I spent 9 months living in it driving ’round New Zealand. Brilliant it was.

My dad bought one for renovating his house. He left it lying untouched for over a year, when he went to shift it the thing started on the button first time. There are dodgy ones out there though as they often have a dogs life so choose carefully.

Rust is a huge problem, to be expected on the body but obviously you’ll want to check the chassis thoroughly.

I’ve been considering one for ages. My mate moved us from south London to Manchester a few years back in one. Even though it wasnt a LWB it still swallowed everything that we were taking!

timber, your not selling it are you? 😉

Are there any that have more than 2 seats?

They have 3

get a high top mazda bongo the you can sleep in the top and keep your bikes in the bottom perfect and you can pick up low milage ones for less than £4k

3 seats, a single and a twin
no rust issues, certainly not like a vito – worse than an 80’s Fiat they are

Hora – it’s a possibility, but everytime I get close I go errrrr?
probably will though, with sensible head on, I’m not getting the best use out of it anymore and an estate would suffice – just needs to be big enough to fit the girlfriends harp in it.

Van is in the Brecon Beacons, 2002, just worn in at 185k miles, cambelt at 165k ish, regular oil changes at 6k ish whilst I’ve had it, tailgate door for mass shelter, plylined, bulkhead – would take a picture, but it’s under a foot of snow

just needs to be big enough to fit the girlfriends harp in it.

Is that a euphemism, or does she really have a harp?

tailgate door for mass shelter

Just remember that the number plate well fills with water – you won’t be the first to get wetter closing the door than you would have done without sheltering under it in the first place 🙂

timber, bugga your miles away. 🙁

What area(s) do you need to look out for on a Hiace- apart from the usual mechanical.

she really plays the harp, need a car that can fit 6 foot long and 3 foot 6 between the arches, means that bikes will be a doddle to fit in whatever I get next

always close the door from the side after splitting my head open pulling on the door strap whilst underneath it.

Hora, I looked at a few to find a tidy one cosmetically, but all would have given plenty of service. Only thing that I know to be a weak point is bushes, in particular the rear axle assembly one, you’ll here a clunk from the back as you take up power if it’s naffed and it’s a £100 part, the rest are a few £ and not so much of an issue. Get a D4D if you can, better power take up and economy. Rear wheel drive, so check rear tyres, too much oomph for slicks in the wet, now I’m just nit picking, like I said before, far less worries than a T4, know a VW specialist who wouldn’t have one, especially not an AA one

could fit in a good weekend of riding if you did fancy mine 😉

Thats the thing with T4’s (NO offence to anyone who has one). They spend their life occasionally towing cars but people seem to think their mileage is all ‘cruising at motorway speeds’. Its not, its sat waiting, set off. Stop, tow, set off. Wait. Day in day out. Its a commercial vehicle after all….and all that bollox that they are cared for ‘at no expense’s is abit silly…after all alot of bits dont tend to throw their hands up until later in their life….post 3yrs old..

I had one for a good few years, it was 2.5 6cyl non turbo. towed at 70 no worries until it got to a hill then it just died, but thats not having a turbo. I converted it into a camper and it was perfect! My cousin took it round Europe, I lent it to friends and it never missed a beat.

Sadly they dont like being hit by trucks though!

My Dad swears by Hiace vans. He’s had 3 in the last 20 or so years – never services them, drives them hard and fills them full of crap regularly (he’s a builder).
Never broken down once.

You wouldn’t want to buy one off him though.

So its ok to go older……i.e. circa ‘R’ reg as long as it has evidence of regular oil changes and doesnt look like its been used to carry aggregate around???

Yep, as you can see mine was an R reg worth about £1500 if it’s in good condition. It had 150,000 on it and it was fine, these engines are good for 300,000 no worries. There is a reason they use them in Oz and South Africa!!

I have a tow bar for it if you want one for £50!

hora – Member
So its ok to go older……i.e. circa ‘R’ reg as long as it has evidence of regular oil changes and doesnt look like its been used to carry aggregate around???

Yes and no. As per my original post, a lot of commercial vehicles lead a dogs life. Most owners of commercial vehicles are savy enough to regularly change oil, timing belts filters etc as they want value for their money. A regular oil change wont negate the stress on an engine that towing will exert on it.

In general Toyota reliability is great but its wrong to assume they’ll all just happily trot along to 300,000 miles with nothing more than a bit of tlc – they wont. There are hundreds of potential mechanical failures which although small on their own can lead to huge damage.

Also as per my original post they suffer from rust, I cant fathom why anyone would say they dont it’s a common fault with toyotas.

We used to have a joke growing up in Ireland…”what’s the first mention of tinkers in the bible?”…”Hosanna in the Hiace”

understand what Hora means about so called ‘maintained’ vehicles
our Land Rovers are leased (mostly) and although they get serviced, it’s 12,000 intervals and they only do the transmissions every third I think – we have land rovers because we take them up to the doors in crap most days or haul with them
our last forestry one gave arm pump at 50-60mph because they wouldn’t do the tracking
Things only get done if they break.
A lot is down to your fitter as well, some are a bit more into preventative work, others feel more budget restricted.

our last forestry one gave arm pump at 50-60mph because they wouldn’t do the tracking 😯

deadlydarcy, please explain!

Hora think tarmacing drives & ripping off old ladies

ah! Tinkerers.

I swear, in the eighties, every tinker in Ireland had one, so much so, that ordinary tradesmen stopped buying them. Also, this is kinda a “you had to be there one” but there’s a certain type of name they’d call their daughters – think Irish versions of Britney, Chantelle, Chardonnay etc etc and Hosanna wasn’t far off what they sounded like…