Toyota Granvia vs Hyundai Staria

What's the difference?

The Granvia VX is great at being plush, comfortable and easy to drive, but it's not as practical as a people mover should be. And while the engine provides a great driving experience, you'll be filling up the tank often if your trips are mainly urban and city focused.

The HiAce’s hold on the van market will be tough to shake, but if there are any reasons for fleets, small businesses, or sole traders to consider an alternative, the Staria Load has pretty much all of them.

It might not have the expansive interior dimensions or range of body styles offered by its key rival, and it might not be as cheap as some others in this space, but it does offer so many other benefits and luxuries which are seldom afforded to vans in this class.

Not only that, but it looks downright cool, is one of the safest vehicles in the segment, and is seemingly inexpensive to run, too. What’s not to like?

The Granvia is a new-generation people mover based on the Toyota HiAce commercial van and arrived in Australia in 2019. The resemblance to the HiAce is obvious although dressed up in its Granvia clothes it's a handsome and professional looking little bus.

I'm a fan of the protruding nose (which helped it earn the five-star ANCAP rating, see more on safety below) and I even like its big, shiny Transformer face and the 'L-shaped' tail-lights which aren't to everybody's taste.

Also, when I say little bus that's only in comparison to actual buses, like the one I convinced people not to get on in my video. Compared to a seven-seater SUV such as the Kia Sorento or Toyota Kluger, the Granvia is enormous.

Look at the dimensions. The Granvia is 5300mm long, 1990mm tall (not counting the aerial) and 1970mm wide, not counting the wing mirrors (which can be folded in).

While the length was hardly ever a problem for me while driving it over the week, the height saw me just make it under the 2.0m clearance in our underground carpark and I had to fold the aerial down to do it. Beware, many carparks have a max headroom of just 1.9m.

The cabin of the VX is impressively plush from the quilted leather reclining second-row seats to the 'woodgrain-look' trim throughout.

During my test I played bus driver to a number of passengers (no, seriously I picked up random strangers off the side of the road – see the video) and all were impressed by the Granvia's premium-feeling interior.

It’s a cool looking thing, right? The full-on retro-futuristic vibe extending even to Hyundai’s commercial offerings is a statement of commitment to the brand, and it brings with it some of the better design motifs from not only passenger cars like the Tucson, but even its more aspirational cars like the Ioniq 5.

This is most reflected in the Robocop face and pixelated rear LED clusters, which is, again, an argument for the Premium grade, as it doesn’t look quite right with dull old halogens.

Either way, it certainly looks more modern and daring than the decidedly pragmatic HiAce and many of its other plain rivals. I suppose it depends how much image matters to your brand or trade when it comes to opting for a vehicle like this.

The interior continues the futuristic vibe, with those nice looking screens, expansive front windows, and nice design elements throughout. It particularly draws from Hyundai’s passenger car range here, with the sunken vent motif and leatherbound steering wheel lifted straight out of the Tucson.

The hard, practical plastics that clad the inside are off-set slightly by complex cascading door nooks and pattern work in the plastics, while the piano surround for the centre multimedia screen adds a highlight piece to the centre, even if it’s a little dainty for a work vehicle.

Perhaps the biggest takeaway from the Staria Load’s design is how much attention has been given to it. It’s one thing to share a brand’s design language from the outside, but it’s quite another to go to the effort to continue it throughout the entire vehicle. For tradespeople, it must feel nice to not be an afterthought.

The Granvia VX tested was an eight-seater (four rows of two seats) and being so tall and long would mean the space inside is going to be good, right? Nup. The Granvia doesn't seem to make the best use of its enormous cabin.

Seating, while undeniably comfortable and luxurious in the second and third rows, doesn't offer great legroom when you have a full load of people on board. I could only just sit behind my driving position in the second row and then behind that in the third row, but there was no way I could then fit in the fourth row.

And while cabin storage is great with the biggest centre console bin I've ever seen – I could fit my head in it (see the video) – and there are 10 cupholders, six coat hooks and a folding table, there isn't a boot or any room for cargo, not in the eight-seater (with all seats in use) I tested anyway. With all four rows in place there is only enough room for a few items no wider than a box of cereal (watch the video, to see what I mean).

Folding up the base on the fourth row seats means they can slide forward and that does free up a little bit of space for cargo, but if you are only going to be using the Granvia for six people, then my advice is to go with the six-seater and have a big boot at your disposal all of the time.

The Granvia VX is outfitted well with charging points – there are seven USB ports all the way back to the third row and two 12-volt outlets.

We'll get to what the Granvia is like to drive in a moment, but what I can say here is that the driver and passengers sit high, like looking-down-on-four-wheel-drive-utes high.

Access into the front seats is a bit of a climb up and proved tricky for my 75-year-old Dad with his gammy knee, but entry into the second-row seats was easy thanks to a wide step and a large aperture.

The small table between the second-row seats blocks the aisle, so the only way to get to the third row is by sliding the second row forward. Fourth row access is more difficult but compared to entry into the back row of most seven-seater SUVs it's a breeze.

A van cabin should be practical though, and despite its commitment to design, the Staria Load impresses on this front too.

There’s tough seat fabric, a rubber liner for the floor, both good for grip and protection from work equipment, and the hard door and dash claddings are a suitable treatment for an interior that's likely to be bashed about. As such, perhaps the piano-black multimedia surround is one of the least practical things in the interior, likely to get fingerprints, dirt, and perhaps even scratches all over it.

To make matters worse here, there are no dials for fan speed, temperature, or volume control, with all these functions being touch only.

Storage is much better, with a three-tiered cascading door lining offering a large bin for laptops, folios, and big bottles, a second tier which might be good for loose tools, wallets, keys, or phones, and a third one up top perhaps better used as a grab handle.

The hard dash cladding has pop-open storage trays for similar small tidbits, while the driver gets a fixed cup holder cut out from the far right-hand side.

There’s a set of two trays above the seats with flexible netting good for holding folios or perhaps even laptops, while there’s a cut-out below the media unit that houses a wireless phone charger. This area is rubberised, so it can even hold loose objects like keys if need be.

Below this, there’s a pop-out bottle holder that suits larger bottles than the fixed piece over to the right of the dash, and below this there’s a large bay with two USB connectors and a 12v outlet.

A large space lies vacant between the driver and front passenger, a space that can be filled by a fridge if chosen from the accessories list ($1299). Great for keeping your chicken sandwich out of the danger zone.

Now the important stuff. Is the Staria Load big enough for your trade or fleet? Well, the total storage area volume comes in at 4935 litres, which is not bad for the segment, but still falls significantly short of the HiAce’s massive 6200L space. So if it’s space you need, the HiAce is still king.

Payload is 1072kg, which is almost bang-on a match for the HiAce (1075kg), although towing capacity for the Staria is significantly higher, at 2500kg, compared to the HiAce’s 1500kg in automatic form. All may make a big difference specific to your trade or use-case.

For those wanting further specs, the cargo dimensions come in at 2607mm long, 1640mm wide, and 1436mm tall. There are eight tie-down points on the floor.

Our car was fitted with a cargo gate ($899) and heavy duty floor mat ($745) but it’s possible to go to town on the accessories list, which includes everything from optional window panels, security mesh, roof mountings for various attachments, and bull bars. One thing I couldn’t find on the accessories list which I would have liked is additional LED lighting for the cargo area.

I unloaded this van at night, and the amount of light inside, provided by the cabin door open lights and a single bulb near the tailgate, was notably limited. It’s not as though there’s limited space overhead for additional light fittings.

Other standard benefits include the dual-side sliding doors, although, again, some may find it’s a shame the Premium can’t be fitted with the barn door option.

While the rear hatch is very large, limiting the spaces in which it will fully open, one benefit of the Premium grade’s powered tailgate is that it can be stopped, allowing you to partially open it to access the inside, even in height-limited locations.

There are two versions of the Staria Load on sale right now, a base model, which is priced from $46,250 before on-roads and this one, the Premium, which costs $51,240.

Both are front-wheel drive and powered by the same diesel engine, but the Premium grade offers a solid list of handy upgrades and luxuries over the base car for its modest extra spend.

Its nemesis is the eternal Toyota HiAce, which is only available in one spec grade from $46,360, although unlike the Staria it is also offered in a super long wheelbase or high-roof body style.

Other options include Volkswagen’s Transporter T6.1 (from $47,390), Renault’s Trafic (from $49,000), Peugeot Expert (from $43,397) or Ford’s Transit Custom (from $44,590).

If you really need to penny pinch, there’s also always the LDV G10+, which starts from as low as $34,990 drive-away.

While the Staria Load Premium has a higher price-tag than many of its rivals, it’s also slightly larger, much newer, and better equipped than pretty much all of them.

For example, at Premium level you score many of the refinements otherwise only reserved for the people mover version, including LED headlights, 17-inch alloy wheels, dual 10.25-inch screens for the multimedia and digital instrument cluster, wireless phone charging, keyless entry with push-start ignition, a power tailgate, and three additional colour choices over the plain white and silver available on the base van.

Unfortunately, the Premium is only available with the powered hatch tailgate, you can’t opt for the barn-door layout on the base van, which could be limiting for some tradespeople who often need to work in more confined spaces.

Other than this consideration, it doesn’t seem like a big ask to up your order to the Premium, given it carries only a $5000 cost, adding a lot of stuff to an already nice van.

The Granvia has a 2.8-litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel engine – the same one found in the Toyota HiAce van and with 130kW/450Nm I found there was more than enough grunt to handle city duties or overtaking on motorways.

Equipped with a diesel particulate filter there's a burn-off switch located near the driver's right knee. The Granvia will tell you when it's time to activate the burn-off function.

The 2.8-litre diesel is fairly quiet and responsive while the six-speed automatic shifts smoothly. There's not much to complain about in terms of the usability of the engine and transmission, they performed well – it's just that with it having to carry around a vehicle weighing nearly 2.7 tonnes fuel economy was never going to be great (you can read about this below).

There’s only one engine and transmission option for the Staria Load, a 2.2-litre turbocharged four-cylinder diesel unit, mated to an eight-speed torque converter automatic transmission to drive the front wheels.

This combination is notable as it is sourced from Hyundai’s passenger car range, and isn’t a diesel that has been specifically built for a van, or sourced from a truck.

While this comes with significant benefits for refinement, unlike the people mover version, there isn’t the option for a V6 petrol engine or all-wheel drive in the Staria Load range.

The specifications given by Toyota give the Granvia's combined fuel consumption as 8.0L/100km from the 2.8-litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel.

That sounds fantastic, but in reality after a combination of motorways and urban use the trip computer was reporting 12.9L/100km. A separate fuel test (carried out by myself) saw the Granvia use 21.4L over 127km of city and urban driving (measured at the fuel pump), which comes to 16.8L/100km.

That sounds like a lot, but it makes sense when you consider how heavy the Granvia is. It's 2660kg without anybody on board! If you're carrying eight people weighing 60kg your total mass is tipping the scales at 3140kg and your fuel economy is going to be significantly higher again. The GVM, by the way, is 3500kg.

Really, the Granvia is the perfect argument for a hybrid powertrain, because tour operators or parents ferrying their family around the city are going to want better fuel economy.

Officially the Staria Load will consume 7.0L/100km in combined duties, and during my testing, which involved combined road conditions, as well as carrying a 5- 600kg load across Sydney, it produced a final fuel consumption number of 7.5L/100km. Impressive.

The fuel tank measures 75L, suggesting a longer range than the HiAce, which has both a higher fuel consumption and a smaller tank.

For a 5.3m long, 2.0m tall box on wheels the Granvia sure is easy to drive. I live in Sydney's Inner West (get your chai latte jokes out of the way now, please) and drove it daily through horrendous traffic on potholed roads, navigated through the tiniest streets and squashy car parks, went fishing in it and ate up motorway kays on the weekends.

There are going to be people who snort at that eight of 10, but I'm telling you  it's down to three things: comfort, ease and engine.

The seats were comfortable and supportive (my passengers felt the same way – again see the video of me being a bus driver), the ride is composed thanks to the suspension and no doubt the weight and the wheelbase of the Granvia.

The visibility is excellent thanks to those giant windows, the ride height and tech such as that digital rear view mirror, while the steering is light, and the turning circle is excellent at 11.0m.

Finally, that 2.8-litre turbo-diesel engine. Yes, it's thirsty but from a driving perspective only it's great – smooth and responsive.

Often vans are prone to a booming sound reverberating around the cabin and the Granvia VX was also a victim of this phenomenon with road noise echoing around inside. It's not bad and I could still hear people in the second and third rows, however.

Since when are commercial vehicles so nice to drive? The Staria Load continues the trend started by the most recent HiAce and Volkswagen Caddy, bringing passenger-car-like dynamics, ride quality, and refinement to a van.

Even last-generation products still on sale, like the VW Transporter, Renault Trafic, and Peugeot Expert, just to name a few, are rough-riding and noisy in comparison, because why would they be good? These are just tools of a trade, right?

But the Staria Load questions this formula, with its light, reactive steering, smooth, SUV-like ride even when unladen, and distant diesel rumble from its more passenger-car-like engine.

In fact, the eight-speed automatic transmission is perhaps the most impressive part of the Staria Load’s drive experience, with seamless, appropriate shifts, void of surging or shunting through the drivetrain.

When loaded up with roughly 5- 600kg (roughly half this van’s payload) worth of garden equipment, pots, plants, soil, and tiles, the ride further improved if only by a little over the rear, while the engine barely felt the increase in weight.

When it comes to the small things, Hyundai has you covered, too. Visibility is excellent out the front, with enormous windows and wing-mirrors with a wide view, while the 360-degree parking camera on this Premium grade cleverly splits the centre screen to show you either the reversing camera or forward-facing camera alongside a top-down aspect, helping you not dent the van’s expansive panels.

This combines with the little passenger car luxuries on the inside to make for a relaxing, easy van to drive. Much more a complete experience than just a work tool, the Staria Load will leave you feeling well rested, even after a long day.

Safety is often a tough topic for commercial vans, as they tend to be replaced and updated less often than their passenger car counterparts. Thanks to the Staria Load starting from scratch, however, Hyundai has had the opportunity to build safety in from the get-go.

Active safety items, which are rare on any van in this size and price range, include auto emergency braking, lane keep assist with lane departure warning, blind spot monitoring with rear cross traffic alert, driver attention alert, and adaptive cruise control. The Premium grade also adds adaptive high beams, as well as blind spot view cameras, which almost feel like overkill.

There’s a whopping seven airbags in the tiny cabin area of the Staria Load, including dual front, dual side, dual curtain, and a front centre airbag.

Thanks to this impressive suite of equipment, the Staria has a maximum five-star ANCAP rating to the latest and most stringent standards. The only rivals that carry an equivalent current rating include the Caddy Cargo and HiAce. It cannot be stated enough the jump in safety standards these vans have compared to previous-generation products. 

The Granvia is covered by Toyota's five-year, unlimited kilometre warranty. Servicing is recommended by Toyota at six-month/10,000km intervals with capped price servicing of $240 per service for three years or 60,000km.

The Staria needs to be cheap to run, and for the most part, it appears to be. Servicing is required once every 12 months or 15,000km, and the price is fixed to $360 per visit for the first five years.

Interestingly, Toyota’s HiAce needs to be serviced twice as often (every six months or 10,000km) costing $290 per visit for only the first three years, comparatively unappealing.

Hyundai’s commercial vehicle warranty is not quite as comprehensive as it is for its passenger car range, with the same five years, but just 160,000km of distance covered.