BBD has it right, if you can find a Hiace (preferably with the 2.5 turboDiesel) you've cracked it, its near enough a 2WD Hilux in a different frock.

You are corrected!. There is no 'new' hiace, at least, not in this country. You are thinking of the proace, but even that has nothing to do with the vivaro, etc. The proace is essentially a rebadged citroen dispatch / peugeot expert / fiat scudo.

You can buy a new hiace in Asian markets (+ Australia and New Zealand), and it is 100% toyota and shares the legendary reliablity. But, as it is a 'forward control' (flat front, like a truck, driver sitting over the front wheels) it is deemed too old fashioned (and with possible safety concerns regarding head on collisions), so it is not sold here, nor, as far as i am aware, anywhere else in the EU. That is a shame in my opinion, as the forward control layout gives it a very short wheelbase, this, and it being fairly narrow, makes it extremely manoeuvrable while still having a load bay as long as a much bigger van.

I have already been over this, but just to clarify, the Toyota Proace is a rebadged Dispatch/Scudo/Expert. The Toyota Hiace on the other hand, has absolutely nothing in common with them at all and definately should not be thought of as such. That would be doing a great disservice to the Hiace.

A better and more accurate way to think of the Hiace would be to recall that famous episode of Top Gear, where Clarkson tried, unsuccessfully, to kill a Toyota Hilux pickup. Well the Hiace van is essentially a 2wd Hilux with a van body.