Faults:

Diesel engine break-down after 11 years at 320000 km because he lost cooling water and I didn't notice. My fault.

After 8 years the body gets rusty.

Driver seat wears out after 8 years.

He looses cooling water via the valve of the expansion tank. I have to check cooling water level monthly.

The plastic covering over the headlights need to be fastened with a wire, otherwise they blow away with the wind.

General Comments:

I never had such a reliable car than this Toyota Hi-ace van. I use it as a family car the past twelve years for private purposes and holydays and to go to my job. I also used it to build my entire house.

The Toyota Hi-ace is twice as strong as a family car at half the costs. I have four times financial advantage compared with a regular family car. Instead of 6 years I drove twelve years with it and the road taxes and insurance fee was half.

The Toyota Hi-ace keeps its value. About three times a year I find a notice between the windscreen wipers if I want to sell the car. I never had that before.

I revised the engine myself with parts of a second engine. At eleven years of age there was not one bolt I couldn't loosen with normal household tools. After the revision I drove from Amsterdam to Athens in Greece and back, 7000 km without any failure. I don't think that is solely because of my skill, because I am an architect, not a mechanic. It is so easy to do all the maintenance myself, I had no need to go to the garage. I saved a lot of money.

During holidays it was not a problem at all to sleep in the van with my wife. With a small cooking device we could go anywhere. I saved a lot of money on hotels and campings.

Except the engine break-down at 11 years of age, the Toyota Hi-ace never failed me during driving.

Faults:

Bought the car with a blown starter engine and starter relays. After replacing these, the car has been running smooth.

Only problem is the colling water. The orange indicator light flips on when the reservoir is empty, but filling the reservoir only helps for about 2.000 km. After that the reservoir is empty again. However, the engine never overheats and does not seem to loose any water... strange problem not solved yet.

Driver seat is starting to wear.

On long drives the seats are real back-breakers. Especially for longer people.

Susceptible to rust.

Locks on the doors don't work properly with the key, slide-door cannot be opened with the key anymore. Perhaps the locks are dirty or the key is too worn...

General Comments:

Extremely reliable vehicle. Old car that has been heavy-used for nearly 200.000 km still runs smooth. Uses no oil, but a little water. Runs cheaply on LPG and uses about 1 liter for 7 km. Drives like a car.