Toyota Trucks in Australia
Toyota Dyna and Toyota Coaster History in Australia
The first Toyota vehicles imported into Australia were a small number of Toyota Landcruiser 4×4’s. These were imported by Thiess Brothers in 1958 to be used by their company on the construction of the Snowy Mountains Hydro Electric Scheme.
By 1960 Thiess Brothers had become the official importer of Toyota commercial vehicles vehicles and had appointed 22 dealers. Thiess Brothers was a Queensland based company and the first dealers were all in Queensland.
Early imports included Toyota Stout and Toyota Lite Stout from 1964 and a limited number of Toyota “25” trucks with the 3P engine, a forerunner of the Dyna. Early trucks also included the bonneted FA115 with the F series 6-cylinder petrol engine and the DA115 with the 2D diesel engine.
The Toyota Dyna was introduced in 1965. The first model Dyna in Australia was fitted with a 3R engine of 1900cc and from 1969 the 5R 2000cc engine was fitted. There was a limited number of Dyna JU15 diesel trucks imported in 1969 for evaluation but the first diesel Dyna truck in Australia, the HU15, wasn’t released until 1972.
In 1978 the BU20 with the 3000cc B engine was released followed by the BU32 with the 3400cc 3B and the HU30 with the 6-cylinder 3600cc engine.
The mid 1980’s saw the introduction of the fourth generation of Toyota Dyna with the BU60. BU61, BU85, BU88, HU40 etc. The 1980’s also saw the introduction of the WU90 in 1984. It was fitted with the 4-litre 4-cylinder 1W engine.
The fifth generation Dyna was introduced in 1995 and included BU100, BU212, BU142 with 3L, 3B and 15B engines. There was also a BU300 model, with the 15B-T engine, introduced in 2003 and discontinued in 2004.
The last generation of Toyota Dyna sold in Australia was a rebadged Hino Dutro introduced in 2003 with the last vehicles sold in 2010.
Toyota Coaster buses were introduced in Australia in 1964 with the Arakawa bodied RU19. It was powered by the Toyota 3R 1900cc petrol engine.
The nest generation Coaster was the RU18 from 1968-1974 and the high roof RU19, from 1974-1977 both with the 2000cc 5R petrol engine.
The RB11, with the 2200cc 20R petrol engine followed in 1977 and then the RB13 with the 2400cc 22R petrol engine was released in 1980. The diesel version of this generation bus is the BB10 with a 3200cc 2B engine.
In 1982 the next generation was released with the RB20, with a 2400cc 22R petrol engine and the BB20 with the 3400cc diesel engine. A long wheel base version the HB30 with a 2H 4000cc 6-cylinder engine followed in 1987 up until 1990.
The following generation with the HZB30 LWB with the OHC 1HZ diesel engine of 4200cc came out in 1990 and ran up to 2001. The an even longer wheel base HZB50 followed in 2006 this also had the 1HZ engine. In 2003 the standard wheel base BB50 with the 4200cc 15B-T engine was available from 2003-2006.
The next series of Coaster, the XZB50, is released in 2006. This generation is powered by the 4009cc NO4C engine.
In 2017 the current generation Coaster is released. The XZB70. This model is fitted with the NO4C engine.
In 1971 Thiess and Toyota formed a partnership, Thiess Toyota, to handle the distributorship of Toyota Commercials in Australia and in the 1980’s the distributorship was taken over by Toyota Australia the car manufacturing and distributorship arm of Toyota Motor Corp in Australia.