The commercial division of Toyota Ireland has replaced defunct Hiace with an all-new Proace. But, you will be forgiven for recognising it immediately, as it is exactly the same as the Peugeot Partner and the Citroen Dispatch, only with a Toyota badge attached. Even the interior furnishings are the same but that is not necessarily a negative thing.

Toyota did a deal with the PSA Group to fill the gap left after the Hiace was taken off the road at the end of 2012. The Proace, which is on sale now at a starting price of €20,450 comes in two grades (GL, GX) and is available in white, black, blue, red, silver metallic and dark grey metallic colours.

As the successor to the hugely popular and genre defining Hiace, Proace has big boots to fill and while the borrowed shape is a versatile, capable and comfortable medium-sized van with decent car-like driving comfort, it is nothing like the old Hiace, which was hugely popular. To be honest it is better and the basic specification offers electric front windows, remote central locking, an adjustable steering position, an audio system with Bluetooth for hands-free mobile phone operation and music streaming (GX only), and electrically operated and heated door mirrors (GX only).

In this case Toyota are using their own engines with all engineered to meet the latest Euro V emission regulations, which is the reason that the Hiace was taken off the market. The 1.6 D-4D 90 engine is mated to a 5 speed manual transmission and the 2.0 D-4D 128 comes with a 6 speed manual transmission. With a tank capacity of 80 litres, the Toyota Proace is equipped with the 2.0 D-4D 128 has an estimated driving range of up to 1250Km without refuelling.