Today's TownAce isn't really a Toyota design at all — it's a rebadged Daihatsu Gran Max, built in Indonesia.
Lead trim: 1.5 3SZ-VE
Toyota TownAce S400S400 · 2008–present
- 0spots by members
- Unclaimednobody has spotted one yet
- 0sets it belongs to
Nobody in Burbles has spotted a Toyota TownAce S400 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.
FactToday's TownAce isn't really a Toyota design at all — it's a rebadged Daihatsu Gran Max, built in Indonesia.
Released in Japan in February 2008 as a badge-engineered version of the Indonesian-built Daihatsu Gran Max: a semi-cab-over body with the engine under the front seats, a low-roof van only, and a high-deck truck. Rear-wheel drive is standard (S402) and full-time four-wheel drive (S412) arrived in July 2010. The LiteAce badge was dropped in Japan in June 2020, when the TownAce was facelifted with a 1,496 cc 2NR-VE engine; the pickup has been produced in Taiwan since November 2021 under the TownAce name, and sold in the Philippines as the LiteAce since July 2022. Mazda sells a version as the Bongo.
Collectors Spotted in the Toyota TownAce Lineage
No member has published a public street spot of the Toyota TownAce yet — the First · Worldwide stamp is wide open.
Trims & Figures
2 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 2NR-VE | 2020–present | 1.5 L Inline-4 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 1.5 3SZ-VE | 2008–2020 | 1.5 L Inline-4 | 108 hp | 104 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.
Photographs
Today's TownAce isn't really a Toyota design at all — it's a rebadged Daihatsu Gran Max, built in Indonesia.
New safety rules forced Toyota to break with decades of cab-over tradition here, pushing the engine forward of the passenger compartment for the first time on this van.
The 1992 redesign quietly merged two separate Toyota vans into one body — the LiteAce and TownAce became nearly identical, told apart only by a headlamp trim detail and a sliver of extra intake grille.
Japan's upscale MasterAce Surf version of this TownAce could be optioned with a refrigerator with its own ice maker, a seven-speaker stereo, and a color television — in a van.
Right before Toyota replaced the first TownAce in late 1982, it quietly added a camper package called 'Canyon' — complete with a moonroof, loft beds, powered curtains and bronze-tinted glass.
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.