Toyota Hiace

The Toyota Hiace gets reclining seats for the driver and co-passenger, with a fixed third seat between both of them, offered as standard in all three variants. All these versions of the Hiace come standard with an all-black theme for the dashboard and fabric upholstery, with grey-coloured hard plastics at places.

The exclusive cabin highlights of the Commuter variant of the Toyota Hiace include an additional three rows of seats filling the entire cabin, making it a 15-seater vehicle. If carrying people is your purpose, the Commuter variant of the Hiace should be your pick. Meanwhile, the Cargo doesn’t get all these seats and gets an empty cargo bay with a mesh wall between the front cockpit and the cargo bay.

The Ambulance variant of the Toyota Hiace is further customized with some additional highlights in this rear portion, including a cabinet with stretcher and two rear seats with storage, partition, grab rails, interior lights, fire extinguisher, assist grip, vinyl flooring, rear bumper protector, compartment for spine board, door trim cover, IV holder, oxygen tank bracket, emergency warning lights, and PA system.

Features and Technology

Being a two-decade-old vehicle that has not witnessed significant changes in all these years of existence, the Toyota Hiace misses out on almost all the modern-day features that are considered to be essential for a vehicle of today’s times. 

All three variants of the Toyota Hiace have a conventional instrument console with analogue dials for speedometer, tachometer, fuel gauge and temperature gauge and a small digital screen for odometer, trip meters, clock and multi-information display. The four-spoke steering wheel of the Hiace misses out on audio and Bluetooth controls, but this old-school steering wheel has tilt adjustability. 

The fifth-generation Toyota Hiace is essentially a 20-year-old design, which has remained visually unchanged in more than two decades of its existence. Needless to say, this particular design language has lived beyond its lifecycle, and now looks dated. However, at the same time, this boxy design of the Hiace is extremely functional and makes the cabin of the minivan feel practical and spacious (more on that later).

Measuring 4,695mm long, 1,695mm wide and 1,980mm tall (2,205mm tall in the Ambulance variant), all three versions of the Toyota Hiace look the same, with the minivan having a rakish windscreen covering the upper half of the front profile. Meanwhile, the lower half of the front profile has the fascia at the bottom, comprising a four-sided grille with thick silver slats that have tapered edges on the sides. The headlamps attached to these tapered sides of the grille have a boxy design, with them having an all-halogen setup. 

The Toyota Hiace comes with unpainted black-coloured front and rear bumpers, rearview mirrors and outside door handles. While the Commuter and Ambulance variants have side window panels and rear windscreen, the Cargo variant misses out on them. All the versions do come with sliding rear door panels. While the Commuter and Cargo variants are available in White and Silver Mica Metallic colours, the Ambulance is solely offered in White colour option. 

Toyota claims a maximum fuel efficiency of 15 kmpl for the Hiace when driven under ideal conditions. However, in urban traffic conditions, the real-time fuel efficiency of the Hiace is between 9.5 kmpl to 11 kmpl, with 15 kmpl achievable in highway driving conditions. 

This particular version of the Toyota Hiace comes with a double wishbone with a stabilizer bar at the front and a rigid axle with leaf springs at the rear. This suspension setup does make the Hiace a heavy-duty vehicle with rugged underpinnings. All the variants of the Hiace come with 15-inch steel wheels with 195R15C tyres as standard, and we do wish that the tyres were wider.

All three variants of the Toyota Hiace are offered with a tried-and-trusted 3.0-litre, inline-four, diesel engine, which is paired with a 5-speed manual gearbox as the standard transmission. This engine produces 136 bhp of maximum power and 300 Nm of maximum torque – figures which are decent to pull a vehicle of this size. This Euro-4-spec engine is accompanied by a 70-litre fuel tank. 

The age and basic appeal of the Toyota Hiace are also evident when it comes to discussing the safety features it has to offer. This functional minivan gets dual front airbags while missing out on all the other modern-day essentials like ABS, traction control, hill hold assist, and hill descent control. It also doesn’t get reverse parking sensors and camera and ADAS features.

All the variants of the Toyota Hiace also come with three-point seat belts with a pretensioner for driver and co-passenger seat belts in the cockpit. However, the rear seats in all the rows of the Commuter variant get two-point seat belts. 

Competitor Comparison

The Toyota Hiace is a reliable and popular entry-level minivan, which has the Nissan Urvan as its biggest and most direct rival in the people mover segment. Besides the Urvan, the Toyota Hiace also competes with a couple of Chinese minivans, including the Maxus V80 and Foton Transvan. 

The Toyota Hiace and all of its competitors come with functional and basic designs inside-out, which focus more on practicality and comfort with decent basic features rather than offering trendy new-age features to keep the costs in check.

Pricing and Variants

The Toyota Hiace range in the Philippines vehicle market starts at PHP 1.189 million for the Cargo variant, while the more versatile and passenger-oriented Commuter variant is priced at PHP 1.39 million. Meanwhile, the Toyota Hiace Ambulance is the most expensive variant of the van with a price of PHP 1.851 million, due to the extensive modifications and add-ons in its rear cabin to make it fit to use as an ambulance. 

Pros and Cons

Pro: Decently-priced Cargo and Commuter variant

Con: Ambulance variant could have been more affordable 

Conclusion and Final Verdict

The Toyota Hiace is more than two decades old and that shows in its overall appearance on the outside. This boxy-looking vehicle is way past its prime and now looks dated. Even the cabin looks primitive by today’s standards, and misses out on many modern-day essential features, giving it a dated feel on the inside. 

However, the Toyota Hiace is more than what meets the eye. While its boxy-looking design might not catch your attention, it makes the overall cabin of the minivan spacious. The interior of the Hiace might not look trendy and lacks features, but it excels in comfort for long-distance drives. 

Then comes the 3.0-litre diesel engine, which is a gem when it comes to long-term reliability and is known to last longer than one can imagine. With ample power and torque, this engine also requires minimal maintenance for a powertrain of its size. The other mechanical aspects are simple in their construction but are rugged for even the toughest of conditions. 

All in all, the Toyota Hiace prioritizes function over form, with Toyota following the ‘if it ain’t broken, why fix’ philosophy for it. Almost all Hiace buyers prefer it for comfort and reliability, and not for modernity and trendy features, and that’s why the Hiace is popular despite having some prominent shortcomings.