Friday, May 19, 2017

Trucks: HINO at the Malaysia Commercial Vehicle Exhibition (MCVE) 2017 & PHOTOS OF THE HINO DAKAR RALLY TRUCK



Hino Motors Sales (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd - HMSM, a subsidiary of Hino Motors Limited Japan which is part of the Toyota Group of Companies, has taken part in this year's Malaysia Commercial Vehicle Exhibition (MCVE) 2017. This is Hino's 3rd time participating in the event and Hino believes that participating in the event allows them the opportunity to engage with potential customers visiting the exhibition. 



This year,  Hino has taken up a large area, 324 square meters, to ensure public’s visit to MCVE 2017 worthy. This year, Hino presenting three spotlights: Dakar Rally Truck, Mini Hino Total Support Customer Center (HTSCC) and newly-launched HINO products.

The Dakar Rally Truck is a beast of a truck. It has been built to take on one of the world’s harshest endurance off-road racing challenges. The rally takes place over deserts highland and high speed dirt tracks. These days, it is held in the countries of Paraguay, Bolivia and Argentina. No longer in the deserts of Africa as its namesake (too dangerous politically with all the wars and insurgency).316 vehicles took part in the challenge, including 50 in the trucks category.

 HINO Team Sugawara once again marked a record in Dakar Rally 2017 by achieving the stunning feat of completing its 26 th straight Dakar Rally since first taking part in 1991 and they are also the champion of the Under 10-litres Class, for the eight time running since 2010.

You HAVE to view this truck. It is super awesome in the metal. You may have heard about the incredible Dakar Rally and usually when we go to autoshows we do see rally cars but never get to see a very different, huge, monster of a rally vehicle. Basically, for the first time in Malaysian history, Hino brings HINO Dakar Rally Truck all the way from Japan, as the main highlight during this expo. You got till tomorrow, 20th May to view it over at MIECC, Mines. Of course, if you can't, I have taken some photos which are placed after this article.

The Dakar Rally is based on the HINO 500 Series, the medium-duty range vehicle. It you can see that it still has a large steering wheel rather than some sports wheel. I suppose this is because the size must have been appropriate to steer it - the weighting, steering gear ratio and other technical secrets known to HINO. You can get the chance to experience, touch and feel the presence of HINO Dakar Rally Truck, which also known as the ‘Little Monster’ of HINO. Very apt.

Not forgetting the recent launched training center, Hino also showing to the public the ‘Mini HTSCC’, a gallery showcasing the 1 st in the world’s HINO customer center built outside its manufacturing country, Japan. Bringing HTSCC museum experience from Sendayan, public can walk through the history of HINO operations in Malaysia and also see photos of the older generation HINO trucks throughout the gallery.

The state of the art Hino Total Support Customer Center (HTSCC) has recently been opened on 20th April 2017. The state-of- the-art of more than RM8 million projects has been upgraded to meet the increasing need of training capacity, hence, extended curriculum offered to expos  truck and bus drivers on safety driving knowledge and driving training. I like this aspect of Hino. I believe that they are the first Japanese commercial vehicle company that are pushing for driver competency and training here in Malaysia. If you are an owner for a fleet of HINO trucks, old or new, I would suggest you get in touch with them. 

Aside from the above mentioned, Hino brings 2 of their newly-launched products, the HINO 300 Series and HINO 500 Series. Vistors can experience the new range of HINO Automatic Transmission truck (quite rare for a Japanese/Asian truck in these parts still - most are still sold with a manual transmission unlike the European trucks sold here) and HINO Prime Mover Truck, which displayed HINO QDR (Quality, Durability and Reliability) inherited in all of HINO vehicles.

A contest for visitors to MCVE 2017
As to add more excitement apart from HINO products and service, Hino also have prepared a special activity for the public. Stand a chance to win the Grand Prize of HINO Dakar Truck Miniature by posting a creative captioned ‘selfie’ with HINO Dakar truck, only at MCVE 2017.



Hino also offering 10 Limited Edition HINO Dakar merchandise in “Dakar & Me” selfie contest to the top 10 winners with creative post. Those that are interested to attend can still do so. You got tomorrow, the 20th of May to attend MCVE 2017.





The use of leather and canvas pouches as door pockets are unique.


 Note the stock factory steering wheel used. As well as instrument cluster. You can get this on any HINO 500 series truck. There is a roll cage (FIA approved of course) and the bucket seats. Some extra switches and comm equipment.




 Front suspension. Twin shocks, heavy duty leaf springs. Sump Guard.
 Rear suspension. (above & below) - twin Kayaba shocks with reservoirs , heavy duty leaf springs.





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