HiAce vs Delica vs Estima? Here’s which one to build your camper in

The HiAce vs Delica vs Estima argument gets settled by two numbers. Australian reviewer AutoExpert puts the HiAce LWB automatic’s payload at 1,060kg, while Auto-Data.net leaves the Delica L400 4WD with about 455kg. Everything else follows from what you plan to load.

What’s in this guide:

• What are you actually choosing between?
• Which one gives you the most floor to build on?
• How much weight can you actually add?
• Which one will get you onto rough tracks?
• Which is easier to keep running in Australia?
• So which should you build in?

What are you actually choosing between?

Three vehicles that take up roughly the same amount of driveway and were built for completely different jobs. The HiAce is a current one-tonne commercial van. The Delica L400 Space Gear is a 1990s four-wheel-drive people mover. The Estima is a 1990s people mover built around seats rather than freight, and that difference decides more than any spec sheet will.

Two of the three are also imports, which means the vehicle you end up with was built for Japanese roads and Japanese servicing, and arrives here carrying whatever history the auction sheet happened to record. That is a buying risk before it is ever a building one.

Toyota HiAce LWB

The HiAce is the freight answer. AutoExpert lists the 2.8-litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel at 130kW and 450Nm, with the automatic holding peak torque between 1,600 and 2,400rpm and the manual spreading it from 1,400 to 2,600rpm. That low, wide torque band is what a loaded camper wants on a long climb.

Running costs suit distance too. The automatic is rated at 8.4 litres per 100km and the manual at 7.5 litres per 100km on the combined cycle, and the tank holds 70 litres, according to AutoExpert. That’s a theoretical 830km between fills on the official automatic figure, before you add the weight of a fit-out, a roof rack and a headwind.

Mitsubishi Delica L400 Space Gear

The Delica is the small one that goes places. Auto-Data.net lists the 2.8-litre turbo-diesel four-wheel drive at 140 horsepower, about 103kW, at 4,000rpm and 314Nm at 2,000rpm, with a 2,050kg kerb weight and a 75-litre tank. It has less than half the torque of the current HiAce diesel.

It’s also genuinely compact. Auto-Data.net gives the body as 4,685mm long, 1,695mm wide and 2,060mm tall on a 2,800mm wheelbase. That narrow body is why it parks anywhere and fits down tracks a van won’t. It’s also why you’ll feel every millimetre of it the first night you try to sleep in one lengthways.

Toyota Estima

The Estima is the one this guide can’t put verified numbers against, and that’s a finding rather than an oversight. There’s no published load-floor or payload data for it in the sources used here, and imported cars vary by grade, year and seating layout in ways that change both.

Grades ran from plain eight-seat family layouts through to captain’s chairs, twin sunroofs and second-row tables, and each of those changes the floor you’re left with once the seats come out. Some fold, some unbolt, and some leave mounting hardware you’ll be grinding off.

Read that as a warning about the build rather than the car. You can’t plan a bed platform, a battery box or a water tank off a spec sheet that doesn’t exist. If an Estima is what you can afford, measure the actual vehicle with the seats out, then take it over a public weighbridge and compare the result to the compliance plate before you cut any timber.

Which one gives you the most floor to build on?

The HiAce, and the deciding dimension is width rather than length. AutoExpert measures the LWB cargo bay at 2,530mm long, 1,760mm wide and 1,340mm high, which works out at 6.2 cubic metres of usable space with nothing in the way.

The Delica’s rear cabin is longer than most people expect and much narrower. Nomadic Van, a US importer that measures its cars in feet and inches, puts the long-wheelbase Space Gear’s interior cabin length at about 2,667mm against roughly 2,235mm in the short-wheelbase version. Maximum rear cabin width in both is about 1,499mm.

That’s the number that shapes your layout. A Delica is roughly 260mm narrower inside than a HiAce, which is the difference between a fixed bed with a walkway beside it and a bed that fills the van wall to wall. Nomadic Van does say both wheelbases take a full-size mattress with the second row of seats folded down, so sleeping is not the problem. Living around the bed is.

Height goes against both. Nomadic Van measures maximum interior height in the Delica at about 1,295mm, and AutoExpert’s HiAce bay is 1,340mm. Neither lets an adult stand, so a pop-top or a raised roof is what separates a camper you can live in from one you can only sleep in, and that cost belongs in your budget from day one.

Access matters as much as area. A van with a sliding side door and rear barn doors gives you two working faces to load through and lets you build storage that opens from outside, while a tailgate that lifts becomes a rain shelter you can stand under and a nuisance in a tight bay. Decide which you want before you commit to a body, because it dictates where the kitchen ends up.

The table below sets the two out side by side, using AutoExpert‘s figures for the HiAce and Nomadic Van‘s for the Delica cabin, with Auto-Data.net‘s 2,050kg kerb weight as the short-wheelbase baseline. The Estima isn’t in it because no verified figures exist to put there.

Model	Load length	Load width	Load height	Kerb weight	Payload
Toyota HiAce LWB auto	2530mm	1760mm	1340mm	2240kg	1060kg
Delica L400 short wheelbase	~2235mm	~1499mm	~1295mm	2050kg	~455kg
Delica L400 long wheelbase	~2667mm	~1499mm	~1295mm	~2231kg	Not published

How much weight can you actually add?

The HiAce, by roughly 600kg, which is the single biggest gap between these vehicles. AutoExpert lists the LWB automatic at a 3,300kg gross vehicle mass, the most the van is legally allowed to weigh with everything and everyone on board, against a 2,240kg kerb weight. That leaves 1,060kg, and even choosing the optional barn doors costs about 20kg of it.

The Delica starts from a much smaller number. Auto-Data.net rates the 2.8 turbo-diesel 4WD to a maximum 2,505kg over its 2,050kg kerb weight, which leaves about 455kg for the conversion, water, fuel, gear and people combined.

The long wheelbase eats into that before you start. Nomadic Van puts the long-wheelbase L400 at about 181kg heavier than the short one, which it describes as a 7 per cent power-to-weight penalty. Against the same 2,505kg ceiling, that leaves somewhere near 274kg. Two adults and a full water tank can account for most of it.

This is where full-time build plans usually collapse. A timber bed frame, a fridge, a lithium battery, a water tank and a roof rack add up faster than anyone expects, and an overloaded vehicle is both an insurance problem and a braking one. Weigh the car empty at a weighbridge before you design the fit-out, then weigh it again when you’re finished and loaded for a real trip.

Which one will get you onto rough tracks?

The Delica, and it’s the only one of the three with a low-range figure in the data at all. Nomadic Van reports both L400 wheelbases climbing inclines in excess of 28 degrees in low-range four-wheel drive, which is a genuinely steep track rather than a rutted gravel road.

It manages that on modest outputs. The 314Nm and roughly 103kW that Auto-Data.net lists for the 2.8 turbo-diesel 4WD are well short of the HiAce diesel’s 450Nm, so gearing and low kerb weight do the work rather than power. Load it to its limit and that advantage shrinks.

Wheelbase matters more than badge here. Nomadic Van gives the long-wheelbase L400 as about 5,055mm long against roughly 4,623mm for the short one, a difference of some 430mm that shows up in ramp-over angle, the point at which the middle of the van grounds on a crest, and in how many three-point turns a track costs you.

Tyres and weight do more for a camper on dirt than any badge does. A van sitting at its legal limit on highway tyres will struggle where a lighter one on all-terrains walks through, and that is a decision you make after the build rather than before it. Plan for the tyre budget the same way you plan for the roof.

Two honest limits. None of the sources used here publishes a ground clearance figure for any of the three, so measure the lowest hanging component on the actual car, which is usually an exhaust or a tow bar. And the HiAce specifications above describe the standard Australian van, so check the drivetrain of any individual example rather than assuming it will follow a Delica anywhere.

Which is easier to keep running in Australia?

The HiAce, and it isn’t close. AutoExpert notes more than 12,000 HiAce vans were sold in Australia during 2024, making it the country’s dominant van. That volume buys you dealer parts, aftermarket parts, workshops in small towns that have seen the model before, and a warranty on a car you didn’t have to import.

The Delica is a 1990s import and ages accordingly. Auto-Data.net shows the 2.8 turbo-diesel L400 built from 1993 to 1999, which makes the youngest examples about 27 years old in 2026. Filters, belts and brake parts are straightforward. Body panels, glass, interior trim and switchgear are the items that turn a short repair into a long wait.

The Estima sits in the same 1990s import bracket, with the added complication that grades and specifications vary between imported cars. Before you buy either of the older two, ring two independent workshops near home and ask whether they’ll take the booking. A yes is worth more than any forum thread.

None of that rules out a Delica or an Estima. It changes how you travel in one. If a rare part strands you, the question is whether it strands you in a suburb with a courier network or several days up a dirt road, which is exactly the trip a Delica encourages you to take.

So which should you build in?

For full-time or long remote touring, buy the HiAce, and the 1,060kg payload that AutoExpert lists is the reason. For weekends, dirt roads and a light fit-out, the Delica is the more enjoyable vehicle and the harder one to overload safely.

Toyota HiAce LWB. Best for full-time living, heavy fit-outs, big water and battery capacity, and long highway legs between towns. Not for steep, rutted, low-range tracks, or for a buyer who wants a cheap starting point.

Mitsubishi Delica L400 Space Gear. Best for weekend camping and remote tracks with a deliberately light build, ideally the short wheelbase if the track is the point. Not for a full-time layout with a big water tank, because the roughly 455kg that Auto-Data.net‘s figures leave you disappears quickly.

Toyota Estima. Best for a cheap, mild weekend sleeper that you measure and weigh yourself before designing anything. Not for a build you need to plan on paper first, because the published numbers to plan with don’t exist.

One practical order of operations, whichever you choose. Weigh the car, measure the space with the seats out, then design the fit-out to what’s left. Doing it the other way around is how people end up with a beautiful camper that’s illegal to drive to the campsite.