Hyundai Staria Load Crew Van 2022 Review

The 2022 Hyundai Staria Load comes in two basic forms: the base two-seater Van priced from $45,740 plus on-road costs and the five-seater Crew Van tested here which sacrifices some payload capabilities in favour of passengers and starts from $49,640 plus ORCs.

The Hyundai Staria Load Crew Van comes with a solid steel cargo barrier that sits behind the rear seats to provide a sealed-off 2340-litre load area measuring 1435mm long, 1436mm high and 1640mm wide.

This compares to the full-length, two-seater Hyundai Staria Load Van which offers an unrestricted 2607mm of load length, 4935 litres of load space and a 1072kg payload – which is 17kg less than the five-seater. Load area width and height are the same for both versions.

Our review Staria came with dress-up items that included wind deflectors on the front doors, dual bumper extensions at the rear and a front nudge bar with an LED light bar attached to compensate for the quite dim halogen headlights.

The Staria Load’s interior is basic yet, for a commercial van, relatively well-equipped.

As expected, there’s not a powered, heated or cooled seat to be seen. And leather-look trim, climate-control and sat-nav also fail to make the cut.

Apart from the load area, the Staria Load is fully carpeted and provides air vents for the passengers seated on the non-adjustable but otherwise comfortable rear bench.

Though Apple CarPlay/Android Auto and Bluetooth connectivity are standard, audiophiles are forced to accept a pretty basic two-speaker sound system.

If the 2022 Hyundai Staria Load is impressive for its intergalactic looks, the uncompromised, inclusive safety tech rates as almost unbelievable.

As well as high- and low-speed autonomous emergency braking (AEB), the workhorse van comes with adaptive cruise control, pedestrian avoidance, lane departure warning, lane keep assist, blind spot monitoring with active assist, rear cross traffic alert, front and rear parking sensors, driver attention detection, tyre pressure monitoring and an array of cameras that feeds a high-res bird’s eye view image on the tablet-style screen sited at the centre of the dash.

All this enhanced external-view monitoring is welcome in any vehicle, but it’s a particular bonus on a big van with plenty of blind spots waiting to catch the driver out.

The Hyundai Staria also adopts the increasingly common post-collision steering/braking technology that continues after the initial crash.

Dynamically, the Staria Load is pretty sound with equal-size ventilated disc brakes on all four corners, plus all the usual primary safety tech including electronic stability control with anti-rollover protocols, anti-lock braking and an electric parking brake with hill hold to prevent rolling into another vehicle or stationary object when stopped on a gradient.

The Staria Load also monitors the rear side doors to warn exiting passengers of oncoming traffic.

The Staria Load Crew Van comes with seven airbags including a front centre airbag, but without a head-protecting bag for second-row passengers. It scored five ANCAP safety stars last year under the current tough testing regime.

The previous Hyundai iLoad had only a four-star rating dating back to 2011.

The five-seat 2022 Hyundai Staria Load Crew Van reviewed here, like all its commercially-oriented brethren, uses a 130kW/430Nm iron-block 2.2-litre common-rail turbo-diesel four-cylinder engine that’s been around since 2009.

This is a more industrial diesel than the 2.2-litre all-alloy engine used in the 2022 Hyundai Santa Fe large SUV, which supplies the platform for the Staria.

The engine drives the front wheels through a conventional eight-speed automatic gearbox featuring Comfort, Eco and Sport modes.

Unlike the independently-suspended rear-end of the Staria people-mover, the Staria Load has a simple, load-friendly, leaf-spring beam rear axle.

The front-drive configuration helps to not only drop the Staria Crew Van’s kerb weight (not by much though), but also enables a lower rear floor and greater internal load height.

Compared with the rear-drive Toyota HiAce and LDV G10 vans – and even the front-drive Ford Transit Custom – the Staria offers measurably more head space which is only partly explained by the fact it stands slightly taller than the others.

To get a clear picture of where the Hyundai fits, a comparison between the load-prioritised, two-seater Staria’s load dimensions with key competitors reveals it is close to lineball with vans such as the Toyota HiAce, LDV G10 and Ford Transit Custom.

The kerb weight factor comes home to roost in power/weight ratios. An unladen Staria Load Crew Van not only has a better power/weight ratio than any of the similarly-configured competing vans, but is also rated to tow a decent 2.5 tonnes (braked).

The nearest challenger is the Ford Transit’s two-tonne rating, which is heftier than either the Toyota HiAce or LDV G10, both of which are able to pull just 1.5 tonnes.

This translates into road performance too. The Staria Load already feels car-like enough in the way it rides and handles but, in unladen form at least, it’s also pretty responsive to the accelerator in urban traffic and on the open road.

If there was a beef about the Staria’s torque-converter eight-speed auto it’s the sometimes-annoying indecisiveness at low speeds where it’s initially a bit tardy to kick down, but will then hang onto a lower ratio much longer than it needs to.

Fuel consumption and emissions? Our review Staria Load Crew Van averaged precisely 8.0L/100km during a week travelling the highways and byways which is, also exactly, 1.0L/100km behind the official figure of 7.0L/100km and in our view acceptable and still well below the previous Hyundai iLoad van’s claimed 8.8L/100km.

Against the iLoad’s CO2 figure of 231g/km the Staria Load is a big winner too, with a claim of 183g/km which is also quite a bit better than its main competitors.

Think that a commercial van will always ride like a dray, handle like a dray and be about as comfortable? Think again.

Right from the first acquaintance, the 2022 Hyundai Staria Load Crew Van masquerades, from the driver’s standpoint, as a car in terms of engine response, cabin noise, ride quality and handling.

The front seats are comfy and supportive, the steering, though low-geared at close to 3.5 turns from lock to lock, is – for around-town work at least – well-weighted and accurate and the instrument display, sitting Peugeot 208-style above the steering wheel rim, is concise and easy to read.

And although there might be some initial reservations about the breadth of the turning circle (quoted precisely at 11.94 metres), in practice the Staria manoeuvres in tight spots quite well.

Acres of glass, especially in the cab, bring the outer world inside and those blind spots usually suffered by commercial vans are well attended to by the array of cameras.

Our review Staria’s optional LED light bar overcame the average performance of the standard halogen globes, although the contrast between high and low beams was significantly eye-pupil challenging.

Getting in and out of the Hyundai Staria is easier than you might expect of a big van as the relatively low-set floor helps keep the step-in height at a reasonable level. It’s not for the flexibility-compromised though.

The sliding doors, one on each side in all Staria Load models, are characteristically heavy but the 870mm opening is big enough to enable forklift loading of Euro pallets (which are smaller than Australian standard pallets).

The Staria on test came with the massive top-hinged rear door but there’s the (no-cost) choice of a twin-swing arrangement that also helps forklift accessibility.

Like the safety tech, there’s enough equipment inside the Staria Load to keep most passengers comfortable.

Wireless phone charging, a supply of USB points in both front and rear including a 12V outlet in the console, one-touch power windows up front (with massive, hinged rear side windows), powered and heated rear-view mirrors, plenty of cup holders front and rear, a big storage area accessed by lifting the rear bench seat and four tie-down hooks in the cargo area cover virtually all the bases.

The Staria Load is covered by a five-year/160,000km warranty with 12 months of free roadside assistance and 12-month/15,000km service intervals – the first five of which are priced at $360 apiece.

The 2022 Hyundai Staria Load takes a fresh new look at how a commercial van can be styled and configured.

Bigger, but lighter, than the outgoing rear-drive Hyundai iLoad, more capable as a load-carrier, more economical and environmentally friendly and a universe ahead in safety provisions, the 2022 Hyundai Staria Load Crew Van is, for the big players in the 2.5-3.5-tonne commercial van segment, a formidable newcomer.

At the time of writing, it’s second only to the segment-leading Toyota HiAce on the sales charts – less than a year since it launched in Australia.

Until the segment goes full-electric, it’s hard to think of a more advanced commercial van.

How much does the 2022 Hyundai Staria Load Crew Van cost?
Price: $49,640 (plus on-road costs)
Available: Now
Engine: 2.2-litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel
Output: 130kW/430Nm
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Fuel: 7.0L/100km (ADR Combined)
CO2: 183g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety rating: Five-star (ANCAP 2021)