Toyota G57 / G59

Toyota's G-series manual gearboxes — the G57 and G59 — in the Previa, the HiAce and the mid-engined vans around them.

⚑ The Previa's engine lies under the floor at an angle, and the gearbox goes with it. Access is unlike anything else in Toyota's range: a job that is routine on a pickup with the same gearbox means working through the floor or dropping the whole assembly.

They are truck gearboxes in a passenger vehicle — low first ratio, long throw, built for load — which is why a Previa feels undergeared and is behaving correctly.

The four-wheel-drive versions add a transfer arrangement and the G57 in that form is a different parts proposition from the two-wheel-drive one.

Their reputation is for lasting, and on a vehicle this age the gearbox is rarely what ends it.