Toyota Indus Motor Company (IMC), in its latest move, has introduced two more luxury segment variants of its 6th generation Hiace model, which was launched back in August 2019.
The Japanese auto manufacturer launched the 6th generation of Hiace Deluxe in three variants last year, which was a much-anticipated move. For the very first time, the company redesigned its Hiace model and manufactured it in a semi-bonnet style. Two of these variants were for commuting purposes, whereas the third one was a touring van. The new variants have 5 doors and possess a seating capacity of 10 persons. Note here that the booking of the vehicles will start soon.
The newly launched variants of Toyota Hiace include the following:
- Toyota Hiace Low Grade
- Toyota Hiace High Grade
The previous versions of Hiace were as follows:
- Toyota Hiace Deluxe Standard Roof Commuter
- Toyota Hiace Deluxe High-Roof Commuter
- Toyota Hiace Deluxe High-Roof Tourer
Engine and Transmission:
Both the newly launched versions are equipped with 1GD-FTV 16-Valve DOHC 4-cylinder 2.8L diesel engine mated to a 6-speed automatic transmission. It produces a maximum output power of 115 kW at 3600 rpm and a maximum torque of 420 Nm. Note here that it’s the same engine that comes in its existing variants as well.
Braking and suspension:
The front and rear brakes of Toyota Hiace are 16” disc brakes that help in optimum braking experience on load. The front suspension of Toyota Hiace has MacPherson strut with coil while the rear suspension has a 4-link system installed. The tyre size of its wheels is 235/60 R17.
Exterior:
Toyota Hiace’s low and high-grade versions have entirely different front fascia, moreover, some features are added by the company. The headlamp of Hiace gets a leveling device that works automatically in accordance with the situation. The front fog and driving lamps are based on LED technology. On the rear side, it comes with a high mount brake lamp with in-room 8 LEDs. The rear screen gets a wiper with intermittent and mist. The outside rear-view mirror of low-grade Hiace is electronic, auto-retractable, and plated. In contrast, the high grade’s mirror also has a panoramic feature in addition to these features as well.
Interior:
The major changes have been made by the company inside the cabin, as these versions are regarded as luxury segment models. Toyota Hiace gets an illuminated entry system when you enter into the driving seat. The door locking system is powered with a wireless system. The rear of the cabin also has 4 reading lamps with the option of dimming. The company has provided as many as 6 hooks at the rear side for hanging coats. It also has a sun visor for both the driver and the front passenger with the luxury of a mirror and lamp. It has separate headrests for all its seats at the front and rear side for the added comfort of the passengers. The air conditioning system in Toyota Hiace is automated for both front and rear passengers.
There are several storage spaces inside the cabin, including a sum of 4 cup holders. The steering wheel of the low-grade version is 4-spoke urethane, while the high-grade variant has 4-spoke leather and wood steering wheel. It has a push start system, and the steering wheel has several switches, including audio, voice, and cruise control. There are 2 power sockets of 12V each and USB connectivity sockets. The infotainment system supports CD, DVD, and Bluetooth connectivity. A short-pole antenna is also given by the company for radio purposes.
It also has a 4.2-inch color TFT as a multi-info display that also has an eco-drive indicator. The inside rear-view mirror of the low-grade model has a day and night feature, while the high-grade variant has an electro-chromatic feature with the washer as well. The seats in low-grade Hiace are high-grade fabric, whereas partial leather quilting is used in the high-end model. The rear seat adjuster is also given by the automaker. The driver’s seat also has a vertical adjuster in the low-grade model, while the high-grade variant has a 4-way power adjuster for the driver’s seat. There is a urethane shift lever knob in the low-grade model, while the high-grade model has a leather ornament knob.
Safety and security:
Toyota Hiace is also equipped with many safety and security features. The instrument cluster display indicates seat belt warning for the driver and front passenger’s seat. The front seat belts are 3-point ELR with force limiters, whereas the seat belts for rear passengers also come with the pre-tensioner feature. A child restraint system known as ISO Fix is also included in the new variants of Hiace.
The company has also provided with SRS airbags for the driver and the passenger. The wagon also has an anti-theft system installed in the shape of immobilizer and power siren for additional security. The vehicle has an anti-lock braking system (ABS) along with vehicle stability control and brake assist system installed. It’s also provided with a hill-start assist system to help in driving in hilly areas.
Price:
Toyota Hiace’s newly launched versions are available at the prices given below:
- Toyota Hiace low-grade PKR 8,700,000/-
- Toyota Hiace high-grade PKR 9,999,000/-
Toyota Indus has probably introduced these new variants to dominate its competition with the existing KIA Grand Carnival and Hyundai Grand Starex in the local market. Toyota Hiace is now available in as many as 5 variants that make the model lineup wide open for anyone to buy according to the requirements. Also, the new generation of Toyota Hiace is redesigned in terms of its bonnet. It also gives it a prominent road presence and a refreshing look from its previous models. Have a look at the prices of its competitor models:
- KIA Grand Carnival PKR 4.9-6.5 million
- Hyundai Grand Starex PKR 4.0- 5.2 million
Note here that KIA Grand Carnival comes 2 variants while Hyundai Grand Starex is available in 3 variants in the local market. The previous variants of Toyota Hiace are priced between PKR 6.5 million to PKR 8.1 million. The price comparison also reveals that the newly-launched versions of Hiace are priced a lot higher than its competitors. Only the existing variants are head to head with both its competitors in terms of price.
That is it from our side for now. Stay tuned to PakWheels for more updates. Drop your opinion about the new version of Hiace in the comments section below.
total rip off at this price and quality… Government always cries about foreign reserves and allow Japanese car assembler/importer mafia to loot and plunder…. why no body asks the government how much money is paid to Japanese companies on each assembled car? I am pretty sure they take 95% of it back to Japan. Banning used car imports was the worst and stupid thing this government did. They should had just banned accidented and luxury car imports or vehicles with greater than 3L engines from Japan.
Hold on dear, all of these variants of Hiace are imported completely built units (CBU), which means its got the same quality as the rest of the world, while the difference in retail price abroad and Pakistan is going straight to the coffers of Govt of Pakistan.
In this case the high prices are due to devaluation of PKR.
There is no mafia, these are global auto OEMs doing business, besides yes money goes to Japan but only equivalent to international retail price of car, besides this is a CBU so Pakistani government earns a lot of tax money on this. Moreover yes banning the used car import was stupid but it made foreign reserves even worse, all that money people used to buy japanese used cars went to Japan besides commision of importers which was even worse. All this happens because Pakistan is so damn undeveloped that no cars can be locally made here so either whole car or parts of it have to be imported from mainly Thailand and Japan. Atleast brining in CBU cars like this ensures Pak govt. earns money from extraorbidant taxes and buyer still gets global quality cars.
Revenue in rupees is useless because it does not help to increase foreign exchage reserves. period. Most revenue on assmbled car is also sent to Japan so nothing is good happening
Thailand spec only….
Dear Tahir some of the things you say are spot-on however when you declare, “there is no mafia” then please explain that when ADP 2016-2021 was being made and whenever Pakistani govt comes up with new regulation such as Euro-II (in 2012) and immobilizer (2016) the Japanese ambassador raises much hue & cry on how “local automotive production” would be hurt. And the Japanese ambassador literally stops everything he is doing and everyday sits in the office of the PA of the PM just as his lobbying effort.
Meanwhile in Japan they sell the same cars with all safety, wuality and amenities however when Pakistani govt tries to do it through regulation or market competition (e.g. ADP will bring in Chinese, French, Korean automakers), the Japanese ambassador will feel great pain and start lobbying the various ministers? How can you explain his behaviour?
Meanwhile AbdulB1 must also understand that used JDM import also sends money to Japan and new CBU or new CKD also sends money to Japan.
Finally they upgraded to 4-wheel disc brake…
It was high time they upgraded Hilux to 4-wheel disc too.
Why is your thinking binary viz. “us” vs. “rest of the world”?
“Rest of the world” has 180+ countries and each one of them has a different standard and cars (or any other export) must be custom-tailored for the customer.
Obviously the factory in Thailand will prepare various export models according to the different requirement of the customer such as the crash safety definition in every country is kind of different and fuel availability and fuel grade is also slightly different, the interior colours and other options and amenities and even the language requirements on the labels of different controls are different so why do you think the factory in Thailand is manufacturing only one quality and herding the whole world’s customers with one stick?
I said there is no mafia in the sense that whatever is being done is not through illegal means it is right there infront of us, all in public. They are taking our money within legal framework and on our face not through some underground work like a mafia. So we need to change ourselves, the government needs to be stricter and people should start seeing they are being looted and it can also be done within offical framework. People should be aware of the fact that if EU, China and India can make laws for cars follow Euro6 and have multiple safety features as standard why can’t we, why does out govt. accept lobbying by Japanese ambassador. When China shifted to state6 norms and India shifted to BS6 and EU shifted to WLTP norms auto OEM did not want them but the govts. did not listen and imposed the new norms and manufacturers sold cars not complying with emmisions at huge discounts to clear inventory while we are jusr stuck at automaker’s mercy.A Honda city sold in Thailand, India and Japan can have 6 airbags and one sold here does not even have one then we should stop buying it.
Yes it does not help with foreign exchange but Do we produce cars that we can export to international markets and earn foreign reserves. We produce obsolete Euro2 cars with no safety or comfort features, nobody would buy those. Infact cars sold here are not even road legal in any major auto market in world so Is it fault of Japanese that they have manufacturers which can produce world class cars? The fact is we do not have a market where a manufacturer would invest to make cars to be sold in domestic market or export it. It is a fact, get over it. We are not like China or US or India where manufacturers invest Billions to set up factories to produces thousands of units for domestic and export markets nor we are like Japan or Germany that we have world’s most advance auto makers who can sell cars in other countries. All major auto markets in world have their own auto makers to export cars and earn foreign exchange.
Used cars are much cheaper in the UK and Japan. Just see their price. What I am saying is that these local assembled cars are sold at a huge price margin and still nearly all of the money is sent back (profit+parts import) there is no check and balance. Suzuki increasing the price of local cars with decreasing dollar price is an excellent example here. Government should ban CKD as most money is still sent abroad
why we should export cars? do we have access to cheap loans as India or China? no no no our country should keep in mind the local demand only… nearly 30 percent tax is on local cars. Government should decrease it and make rules like other countries where MOT and insurance are must this will keep the money still flowing to the government and people will change their cars to newer models and thus start a new car demand in Pakistan. second hand Japanese cars are cheap because of MOT and expensive servicing required after 3 years so they sell it by that time.
In auto sector export is needed if we want to earn foreign exchange. Secondly, Bank loans are easily availaible in India but they are not cheap, average interest rate on a car loan is around 10% which is much higher than US or Japan while in China majority of cars are bought from the pocket, hardly 30% cars are financed by banks. Besides, an average Pakistani spends only around 6000$ on a new car while an average Indian spends 12,000$ on a new car while an average Chinese spends 20,000$ on a new car they spend twice and thrice of what we spend on a new car. In India as well a small car with engine less than 1200cc has 29% tax while something like a Honda City in India is taxed at 48% which is higher than Pakistan so it is not about tax. MOT like things are not practical here, In Japan people sell old because they can afford a new one. In pakistan people cannot afford to sell a car every 3 or 5 years and buy new ones.Cars are expensive in Pakistan because local demand is low and hence cars are priced higher to recover investment done by auto companies. In India Kia sells 14,000 units of Seltos in a single month and hence they are able to price it around 3.5 million PKR. In Pakistan if Kia brings seltos to locally manufacture and price it same then it will still not sell more than 500 units a month so it will have to increase price higher and higher to earn back investment as economy of scale is low in our market due to low affordability and demand. So the same car will have to be priced at 5 million and hence cars become expensive here.
Market size matters but this does not mean small markets can be ignored. If you talk about small countries talk about Thailand, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and others they also have small market but still these countries produce huge amount of cars. The policy of Pakistani government is consumerism on imported goods which has totally failed and now will bring down the country once and for all. Huge taxes are useless and support smuggling. The only way to control imports is to make goods locally cheaply and in good quality. You are right big countries will never be happy on the size of Pakistani market but you must remember even GM and Ford exited India because of tough competetion from Suzuki, Hyundai, tata,etc. Seltos being sold in India is different from global model with less features and length. Pakistan should have local auto policy where local firms should be promoted which have local ownership and thus they will invest locally. Gourmet, butt and other mithai shops are still in Pakistan despite the small market and bad economy because they cant just run away like foreign companies.
why does out govt. accept lobbying by Japanese ambassador?? because they gave free prius for motorway police. Japanese know Pakistani market is a cash cow they will continue to dump their goods. Trump even threatned Japanese auto giants and they started making factories in USA. Yes it is all about political will. however car market is now going to a huge change. ICE vehicles will be killed by EVs in few years. Pakistan should go for EVs direct it will reduce the oil bill and car will be cheap to run and maintain.
No sir, Countries like Japan, South Korea,Italy,Germany and Thailand are one of the world’s biggest auto markets ( all among top 10) besides markets in EU have production spread in various countries because of formatiom of a Union besides they all have their own local auto maker, we simply do not have one. Besides, I agree with you that our government focused on importing and not local manufacture but tell me Will any global OEM invest in Pakistan when they have countries like China and India just beside us with huge domestic markets, higher disposable incomes and ready infrastructure ? Besides, Ford did not exit Indian market, it was a false rumour infact they clarified they are even developing new SUVs for market in joint venture with mahindra and GM not only India but Europe and Japan too as these countries prefer Japanese or European brands over american brand. And please check brochures sir, Kia seltos has similar length and Chasis in all countries and almost same features ( some vary like india has ventilated seats being warm country while US does not and instead get AWD because they have snow ) yes safety features might change as India has less strict crash norms. I agree with you on local manufacturing but we need a few factors for it and we lack it, mithai shop exists because we eat it a lot, don’t we?
EU or no EU factories are still present in labor expensive countries like UK, France and Germany. They are still making cars there as it is all about the skills and machines. Ford just downgraded itself from India because of low profits and thus formed a JV to stay there. Mithai shop exists because there is a demand you can’t say there is no demand in Pakistan after all Suzuki is still in the market despite always complaining of not being allow to import from India. Suzuki has it’s own factories in India and management is run by Indians which keeps the costs down and pro Indian consumer. The thing is it is not just cars it is every thing like soap shampoo which is imported as a raw ingredient and sold to Pakistani population which keeps Pakistani industry backward does not generate any meaningful local jobs keep out technologies and has no local supply chain. Government should start heavy taxing these companies who have no local supply chains. Tea is an excelent example which British gave Pakistanis their companies run ads import it from abroad and every Pakistani nearly dies for it a commodity which is not even produced in Pakistan it is imported and even advertisement are made to sell it a perfect consumer lifestyle being sold to jahil awam and same is the case of soda drinks. Pakistani government has no planning whatsoever to stop this kind of dumping and still cries like stupids about foreign exchange reserves.
UK and france still produce cars as I feel the production is distributed across many countries in EU, it is their way of surviving and well Ford actually downgraded in India after it reported its best profits in history there so I feel the reason is different, Ford used their JV in China to have newer models ( Ford territory for example ) as they wanted consolidate finances, same case in india as bringing in newer platforms and cars would have been expensive so they teamed up with mahindra to co-develop new platforms and engines, the cars as they say will be different enough according to their company’s tastes. Auto makers all over the world are consolidating resources as it is a tough time, Renault and Mercedes joined hands to develop smaller turbo engines, Suzuki and subaru joined hands with toyota to co-develop electric and hybrid power trains. FCA formed a merger with PSA groups to co-develop newer platforms that support elecrificarion so it is a global phenomenon but Yes I will totally agree with you on what Pakistani government has done, We literally import every stupidest thing even and things that can easily be produced here itself employing local people and preserving foreign exchange. I feel somewhere out people and government are to blame for being in such a dire state when countries in Asia are flourishing.