Slow News Day: Finally, you can now buy an automatic Hino pickup
Let the truck transmission wars commence
by Imthishan Giado
In what must be the most exciting development to hit the Middle East commercial pickup industry in years, you can now buy the new Hino 300 pickup with an automatic gearbox. That makes it the first Japanese pickup being sold here to offer one, alongside the regular manual transmission.
But wait, there’s more! (Honest.)
The Hino 300 is also the first pickup here to offer a six-speed automatic transmission, making it the natural choice of the thrifty trucker. The fashionable pickup driver can also select from three different body styles: standard, wide (for the fatties) and crew cab (for the family). Powering it all is a mighty 150hp engine – in other words, less powerful than a Miata. Being diesel helps – mountains of torque are what you need, not VTEC high-rev power.
Frankly, it’s a mystery why more commercial vehicles out here aren’t automatic, considering they spend their lives in choking city traffic, inching along. I used to drive pickups and vans for a living, and while the clutches are pretty forgiving, the vast proportions mean you’re constantly trying to avoid hitting everything in the known universe. Still loads of fun though; all that easy torque means you’re effortlessly quicker than most anything else on the roads.
Honestly though, while I applaud AFM’s move to give us more choice, the truth is the big pickup market is absolutely OWNED by the Mitsubishi Canter, and even giving Jessica Biel away in the passenger seat wouldn’t help unseat Al Habtoor’s cash cow. Fortunately for AFM, they do a nice trade in Hiluxes and Hiaces…
