Toyota Hiace & Ford transit Van comparison

nzsafe007, Jul 14, 5:26am
Hi just plan to buy a 2nd van,budget 7-9k,9-11seats.Any suggestion from you guys on use and maintenance cost.

Appreciated any advice.thanks

franc123, Jul 14, 5:34am
Hiace kills you if you hit anything and Transh#t kills you paying for repairs. Neither are wonderful vehicles in different ways.

johotech, Jul 14, 5:41am
Do you plan to use it commercially?
If so, your budget isn't high enough.

So you want a second van, what is your first van?

tamarillo, Jul 14, 3:21pm
Transit if you value your life especially if you use on open road. Toyota stopped selling have in Europe as it couldn't meet basic crash tests they expect.
But. Let's be honest, have has great reputation for lasting.
Hey, I used to own kombis, wouldn't now though.

3tomany, Jul 14, 3:43pm
probably hiace I don't think you will find a very good transit in your budget

lk104, Jul 14, 3:45pm
They were called a Transit because they were always in transit between home and the workshop. Easy decision, go for the Hiace.

johotech, Jul 14, 5:09pm
As usual, the anti-hiace brigade will be along to tell you how dangerous they are. If they were actually responsible for a selective genocide of NZ drivers, something might have already been done about the problem.

Looking at real crash statistics for 2013.
Drivers killed:
50kph or less. Car/SUV 20, Van 0
60-70kph. Car/SUV 9, Van 1
80-100kph. Car/SUV 81, Van 10
Total: Cars 110, Vans 11 = 9% of the total death were in vans

The 2013 total number of vehicles registered:
Cars 2.7M. Goods vans, trucks, utilities 488K

So approximately 15% of the vehicles are vans/trucks/utilities, but only 9% of deaths were in vans.

Obviously these figures are not 100% accurate because of the different categories recorded in registration compared to crash data categories.

ralphdog1, Jul 14, 7:55pm
Hey Jono, stop using facts to ruin a good argument, this sort of thing can only lead to a downgrade in the level of debate and will not be tolerated.

kam04, Jul 14, 11:53pm
I'm a tradie and have owned three Hiaces and have had no problems. They have all been low km but have heard of big km's before having to do anything major. Most courier companies use Hiace so that must say something. I think it is a matter of preference. Ford lovers will be Ford biased, Toyota lovers will be Toyota biased and so on.

tweake, Jul 15, 12:05am
well the hiace still continues to be the no1 van sold in NZ by a long way.
they have a huge market share, more than all the others put together.

richardmayes, Jul 15, 12:42am
I work with a young expat Englishman who has a Hiace that he uses to transport his racing dirt bike around in.

He says he hears all the talk about their legendary reliability. But he can't believe what a sh!tty horrible van it is, can't believe how expensive all vans are here, and he can't wait to get back into some sort of decent common-rail VW van when he gets home to the UK.

Says he doesn't mind having to fix things from time to time, if that is the price of having something that actually goes WELL when it is going.

stevo2, Jul 15, 12:43am
In your price range, the Transit is a steaming pile of feaces. The Hiace is exceptionally reliable and as you have probably already seen, they hold their value.
The Transit will drive a lot nicer if its not in the workshop.

mugenb20b, Jul 15, 12:52am
So he bought an abused Hiace with a wrong engine.

richardmayes, Jul 15, 1:38am
What are the right and wrong engines in Hiaces? I've only ever driven 3.0 petrols.

johotech, Jul 15, 1:57am
Seems you don't know what you are talking about. Hiace has never had a 3.0 petrol engine.

lk104, Jul 15, 2:55am
OK, that was an example of a wrong engine seeing as there never was one.

aj254, Jul 15, 3:29am
Can you please do some research on what the discontinued european hiace was?
From what I can gather it was a facelifted Hiace Granvia, yep the one from the 1990's, which was built on the hiace platform from 1989/1990 with a nose tacked on the front.
So little wonder they couldn't sell any.
Also I thought they stopped selling them over there because noone wanted them? (Happy to stand corrected on details)

In the $8k price range, between the two, a granvia or regious version of the hiace could be a good deal, would be my pick over a transit despite not being as nice a van to drive.

johotech, Jul 15, 3:47am

henderson_guy, Jul 15, 4:06am
THANK you, about time somebody with a bloody clue backed me up here.

kam04, Jul 15, 2:48pm
2.7

richardmayes, Feb 3, 6:29pm
Ok you got me, I thought they were 3 litres for some reason. My bad.

But whatever. ones I've driven have all had some kind of large 4-cylinder petrol engine, the one that drinks heaps of gas and has adequate power for towing on the open road (as long as you keep the revs up on any kind of hill) but still provides a bit more performance than the "handling" of these vans is really up to.

My original question stands (and the answer would probably help the OP).

What are the "right" and "wrong" engines in Hiaces?