[benny donnelly]

Do any of you use the newer Hiace? Im looking for a new van and am wrecking my head looking tbh, something reliable is most important, I want to avoid Traffics/Vivaros etc and have a shortlist of a Transit or the Hiace, the Hiace is 120bhp 2.5 litre engine, are these sluggish and hard on diesel as many Hiace owners of the older model have told me but its something that will put up with as they are bullet proof and never let you down.

[JamesAJF]

fords rust and they rust quick rust will end a ford way before the engine fails i saw a ford transit the other day only 2 years old rust all over it have no idea why ppl would buy a ford my van is 13 years old not one bit of rust anywhere i always say rust, cam belt, and gear box, will end any van or car but a gear box can be replaced and a broken cam belt can be replaced and engine can be fixed but rust is a losing battle no matter how much u try and fix it will keep coming back and end up costing a lot of money or writing of your van fords have good engines cheap on parts but the body and frame work of them rust very bad. Toyota hiace all the way mate you wont regret it.      

[andyM]

I saw a Toyota Hiace van recently for sale with 300,000 miles on the clock!
A true workhorse.

[Dave Willis]

I have the Hiace. I bought it because I couldn't find any reliability issues on the net. 2.4 engine. I think they are less than 120bhp.
A bit agricultural compared to a vauxhall but enough power for me. They don't import them any more. I'd buy another though.

[Ian101]

the newest hiace is a rebadged citroen 

[robertphil]

bombproff but thirsty on fuel.  you can argue that you would spent at least an extra £1000 on fuel each year in a Hiace , over 5 yrs thats 5000 ,or the cost of a new gearbox /engine on the Renault trafic. . 

 

[Michael Peterson]

robertphil i always listen to your vehicle advise on here its always spot on, were you anything to do with motors in a previous career ?

[benny donnelly]

bombproff but thirsty on fuel.  you can argue that you would spent at least an extra £1000 on fuel each year in a Hiace , over 5 yrs thats 5000 ,or the cost of a new gearbox /engine on the Renault trafic. . 

 

Yeah I have heard the only downside is how thirsty they can be and some can be fairly sluggish with it loaded but it never stops...what would you recommend? Reason i dont want to go with a traffic is after owning one i think they are poorly put together, always something small wrong with it, ive replaced alot of things on it and am forever in the motor factors handing over my hard earned, i havent had engine issues but had to replace gearbox, only I do all my own work on the van I would have put a match to it long time ago as at this stage you would be talking a couple of grand labour a mechanic would have charged for all the work...

[andyM]

bombproff but thirsty on fuel.  you can argue that you would spent at least an extra £1000 on fuel each year in a Hiace , over 5 yrs thats 5000 ,or the cost of a new gearbox /engine on the Renault trafic. . 

 

Yeah I have heard the only downside is how thirsty they can be and some can be fairly sluggish with it loaded but it never stops...what would you recommend? Reason i dont want to go with a traffic is after owning one i think they are poorly put together, always something small wrong with it, ive replaced alot of things on it and am forever in the motor factors handing over my hard earned, i havent had engine issues but had to replace gearbox, only I do all my own work on the van I would have put a match to it long time ago as at this stage you would be talking a couple of grand labour a mechanic would have charged for all the work...

There seems to be a re-occurring theme about the Renault Traffic, you sound like one of many unhappy owners.
Shame because they look a decent van.
Im thinking of buying a mid-range van (transit,vivaro,etc) but there seems to be a lot of crap for sale if over 3 or 4 years old.
Finding a decent one with FULL service history is a hard task. 

[Michael Peterson]

what mpg do they get then ?

[benny donnelly]

bombproff but thirsty on fuel.  you can argue that you would spent at least an extra £1000 on fuel each year in a Hiace , over 5 yrs thats 5000 ,or the cost of a new gearbox /engine on the Renault trafic. . 

 

Yeah I have heard the only downside is how thirsty they can be and some can be fairly sluggish with it loaded but it never stops...what would you recommend? Reason i dont want to go with a traffic is after owning one i think they are poorly put together, always something small wrong with it, ive replaced alot of things on it and am forever in the motor factors handing over my hard earned, i havent had engine issues but had to replace gearbox, only I do all my own work on the van I would have put a match to it long time ago as at this stage you would be talking a couple of grand labour a mechanic would have charged for all the work...

There seems to be a re-occurring theme about the Renault Traffic, you sound like one of many unhappy owners.
Shame because they look a decent van.
Im thinking of buying a mid-range van (transit,vivaro,etc) but there seems to be a lot of crap for sale if over 3 or 4 years old.
Finding a decent one with FULL service history is a hard task. 

Yeah they do look like a nice van, they drive and handle just like a car and are comfortable to drive but they are far to troublesome imo...just when you have sorted one thing with it the engine management light comes on again with another issue or a new knock/rattle starts...most recent issue was the central locking when I locked van it would reopen again itself, sometimes not straight away but you would be working away come back to van and its sitting there unlocked! got that problem fixed next the rear door locks refuse to lock and needed replaced and now there is a problem with it starting sometimes which I think has something to do with the immobiliser...so my advise stay well away from them, reason I thought of Hiace is alot of owner would highly recommend them and with transits sure they are known for being work horses but big down side as mention by someone here is rust with them, if I have the cash I would prob go with a transporter but man they are top dollar!

[Perfect Windows]

bombproff but thirsty on fuel.  you can argue that you would spent at least an extra £1000 on fuel each year in a Hiace , over 5 yrs thats 5000 ,or the cost of a new gearbox /engine on the Renault trafic. . 

 

Really?  Just how much do you spend on fuel?  Do you drive a Hiace?  Have you measured its fuel economy, or are your numbers just made up?

I spent £1,197 on fuel last year for my Hiace. Please tell me what van I could have driven to allow me to drive the same distance for £197.  I have a VERY full (and quite large) round, by the way.

Vin

[formb]

Really?  Just how much do you spend on fuel?  Do you drive a Hiace?  Have you measured its fuel economy, or are your numbers just made up?

I spent £1,197 on fuel last year for my Hiace. Please tell me what van I could have driven to allow me to drive the same distance for £197.  I have a VERY full (and quite large) round, by the way.

Vin

I agree that £1000 saving is optimistic but to be fair if you work that back -

£1197 / £1.40 ish (conservative) is 855L or 188 Gallons assuming you get 30MPG (conservative assuming a full load) that's only 5640 miles.

I know that each of my 'vans' do at least 3 times that.

[robertphil]

robertphil i always listen to your vehicle advise on here its always spot on, were you anything to do with motors in a previous career ?

good guess,i was a mechanic ,a long time

[Perfect Windows]

Ah, but I don't do three times that mileage, despite what I would consider to be a non compact round.  I'm just trying to point out that anyone can make up numbers.  

Anyways, even taking your maths, you'd be spending £3,591 at 30mpg.

To spend only £2,591 (to save the fictional £1,000 a year to pay for repairs) you'd need to achieve 42mpg.  Unlikely.  Possible, but very, very unlikely.

Vin

[robertphil]

i was just saying , the big tough vans such as Hiace, Vito and similar are never good on fuel economy and always higher cost to buy initially  so you have to wager that into the equation
   you will spend a small fortune on fuel driving for example a Merc  yet it will never break down,or you can drive a Citroen  and thatll sip fuel by comparison but you run the risk of things breaking because its not so strongly built and might cost you in the pocket in a different way

 

[tlwcs]

i was just saying , the big tough vans such as Hiace, Vito and similar are never good on fuel economy and always higher cost to buy initially  so you have to wager that into the equation
   you will spend a small fortune on fuel driving for example a Merc  yet it will never break down,or you can drive a Citroen  and thatll sip fuel by comparison but you run the risk of things breaking because its not so strongly built and might cost you in the pocket in a different way

 

Do you rate the transporters, t28 102?
They don't import the Hiace anymore.
Tony

[robbo333]

Check this out
http://www.roadtestreports.co.uk/road-test-reports/Toyota/Hiace/

[Dave Willis]

Change a lightbulb or a gearbox? I know what I'd rather do.

http://www.roadtestreports.co.uk/road-test-reports/Vauxhall/Vivaro/

http://www.roadtestreports.co.uk/road-test-reports/Renault/Trafic/

[robertphil]

i was just saying , the big tough vans such as Hiace, Vito and similar are never good on fuel economy and always higher cost to buy initially  so you have to wager that into the equation
   you will spend a small fortune on fuel driving for example a Merc  yet it will never break down,or you can drive a Citroen  and thatll sip fuel by comparison but you run the risk of things breaking because its not so strongly built and might cost you in the pocket in a different way

 

Do you rate the transporters, t28 102?
They don't import the Hiace anymore.
Tony

 iv no really recent knowledge as iv not been a mechanic since 2007. i remember that VWvans  were always pretty reliable but usually a swine to work on and parts prices often high
  i think if i was buying a van to cart a bit of weight in  id  buy a cheap Citroen medium size van and make sure id traded it in before it passed 80k miles .