City Hino Celebrates 40th Birthday

Part of the Suttons Motors Group, City Hino was founded in 1981 at the then brand-new Western Toyota sales and service facility on Woodville Road, in the Sydney western suburb of Old Guildford.

Suttons saw the potential for long-term business with the Hino brand that gained quick market acceptance. Over the intervening years of prosperity and economic hardship, an unwavering relationship was forged and is now in its 40th year.

City Hino was Sydney’s first sales, service and parts dealer for the brand.

In 1981, Sydney’s truck scene was very different from todays. Hino was well recognised, but not the powerhouse it is in 2021. Using its perfect location in what was then the industrial centre of the city, Suttons Group was in a unique position to support the brand. Hino’s attributes and reliability were successfully promoted in what became Australia’s leading truck market.

Kicking off with Hino’s new ‘F’ generation trucks in 1981, City Hino provided a great product, combined with outstanding after-sales support, often eclipsing the efforts of more established truck brands – especially in the case of often neglected owner-drivers.

These foundations led to rapid growth in the next decade, as City Hino became NSW’s premier Hino dealer. The Hino brand became synonymous with durability and dependability in many segments of the NSW truck market.

By the dawn of the new millennium, City Hino was outgrowing its original home in Old Guildford. In 2003 development began on a new Hino parts and service facility at Fairfield Street in East Fairfield.

When opened, this state-of-the-art complex boasted the latest innovations to make it the most efficient, productive and safest Hino service centre in Australia. The new facility coincided with the release of the new Ranger Pro lineup and City Hino became one of the nation’s most recognisable and experienced Hino dealers, giving rise to the slogan: “We Know Hino”.

Even at its Fairfield expansion, City Hino outgrew that much larger space, thanks to impressive product releases from Hino Motor Sales Australia. In addition, Sydney’s transport hub had moved further west, so the hunt was on for a new ‘mega site’, to support the brand and its customers well into the future.

In 2017 the decision was made to move to a new Arndell Park site that was endowed with space and facilities to sustain expansion for decades to come.

This new City Hino development facilitated services and support on a level considered unachievable a decade ago. Major investment across the entire business has seen City Hino become one of the nation’s most creative and innovative Hino dealers, servicing customers from the one-truck owner-driver to national fleets.

Over the past 40 years, Suttons has seen the rise and rise of the Hino brand, becoming part of a culture that has introduced pioneering technologies such as Australia’s first Hybrid trucks and the latest ‘smart truck’ features found in all current Hino models.

The team at City Hino is proud to have helped create the Hino story in Australia over the past 40 years and looks forward to collective success over the next decades.

Life begins at 40, reckons City Hino.