On this LiteAce van, routine engine work meant crawling through a small hatch under the front seat — an opening so cramped that period reviewers complained about it directly.
Median 87 hp across 94 similar cars
Lead trim: 1.5 5K-U van/wagon (70 PS) · up to 87 hp
Toyota LiteAce M30/M40 van and M50–M80 truckM30-M80 · 1985–2007
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Nobody in Burbles has spotted a Toyota LiteAce M30/M40 van and M50–M80 truck yet. See one on the street, point the app at it, and the first card is yours — with your @handle permanently credited on this page.
FactOn this LiteAce van, routine engine work meant crawling through a small hatch under the front seat — an opening so cramped that period reviewers complained about it directly.
The third-generation LiteAce van/wagon (M30/M40, September 1985 to December 1991) came with four roof variations, a wider body at the expense of length, a four-link rear suspension with a Panhard rod, rack-and-pinion steering and a driving position close to a sedan's. A part-time four-wheel-drive model joined in October 1985. The M50/M60/M70/M80 trucks launched in October 1986 (with TownAce trucks in DX and Super X trim) and stayed in production until July 2007, long after the vans were rebodied in January 1992: a June 1999 update redesigned the front and dashboard, made four-wheel drive full-time and anti-lock brakes standard, and brought the 1781 cc 7K-E and the 2184 cc 3C-E diesel. Production moved from Toyota's Honsha plant to Hino's Hamura plant in December 2004.
Collectors Spotted in the Toyota LiteAce Lineage
No member has published a public street spot of the Toyota LiteAce yet — the First · Worldwide stamp is wide open.
Trims & Figures
8 published trims in the catalogue. A blank is a figure not recorded, not zero.
| Trim | Years | Engine | Power | Torque | 0–60 | Drive | Gearbox | MSRP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.5 5K-U van/wagon (70 PS) | 1985–1991 | 1.5 L Inline-4 | 69 hp | 85 lb-ft | — | — | — | — |
| 1.8 2Y-U van/wagon (79 PS) | 1985–1991 | 1.8 L Inline-4 | 78 hp | 103 lb-ft | — | — | — | — |
| 1.8 7K-E truck | 1999–2007 | 1.8 L Inline-4 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 2.0 2C diesel van/wagon (70 PS) | 1985–1991 | 2.0 L Inline-4 | 69 hp | 94 lb-ft | — | — | — | — |
| 2.0 2C-T turbodiesel van/wagon (82 PS) | 1985–1988 | 2.0 L Inline-4 | 81 hp | 118 lb-ft | — | — | — | — |
| 2.0 2C-T turbodiesel van/wagon (85 PS) | 1988–1991 | 2.0 L Inline-4 | 84 hp | 121 lb-ft | — | — | — | — |
| 2.0 3Y-U truck | 1986–1999 | 2.0 L Inline-4 | 87 hp | 114 lb-ft | — | — | — | — |
| 2.2 3C-E diesel truck | 1999–2004 | 2.2 L Inline-4 | 78 hp | 108 lb-ft | — | — | — | — |
Owning one
We don’t estimate running costs for a car like this. What it costs depends on its condition, its specialist and how it is driven, and an average would mislead.
Owners’ builds
Nobody has claimed one yet.
In the Community
Open CommunityNo notes tagged with the Toyota LiteAce M30/M40 van and M50–M80 truck yet.
Photographs
On this LiteAce van, routine engine work meant crawling through a small hatch under the front seat — an opening so cramped that period reviewers complained about it directly.
In 1981 Toyota built a wheelchair-accessible "handy-cab" version of the M20 LiteAce — accessibility engineering in a commercial van, decades before it became an industry expectation.
Toyota built the LiteAce specifically to dodge Japan's tax bracket for the larger HiAce van.
Rivals
Same body, same money, other badges — tap any card to flip.
Chevy pitched the Astro as the anti-minivan, telling buyers life was too big for one, while it rode on a rear-wheel-drive truck frame.
The IIHS rated the Astro Poor in a 1996 crash test, yet 2001–2004 Astros later had the lowest driver death rate of any US passenger vehicle.
The boxy, unglamorous Astro quietly posted one of the best real-world safety records in America: IIHS found 2001-2004 models had the fewest driver deaths per million vehicles of any passenger vehicle on US roads.
The third-generation Tourneo Connect, released in Europe in October 2021, is a rebadged fourth-generation Volkswagen Caddy, assembled by Volkswagen in Poland.
Ford beat the 25% "chicken tax" by importing the Transit Connect as a passenger van — rear windows and seats included, then stripped out and recycled once it landed in the US.
Ford spent years in federal court over the second-gen Transit Connect: in June 2019 the US won its appeal, and judges ruled the van was cargo-only — ending Ford's workaround for the 'chicken tax.'
GM sold a rebadged Nissan NV200 as the Chevy City Express for four years, then killed it in 2018, citing weak sales and the fact that its parts weren't even compatible with GM's own parts catalog.
Its name is a pun: "S-Cargo" means "Small Cargo" but sounds just like escargot — French for snail, the shape the whole van was built to resemble.