I was behind a Hino truck today, and written below their logo was the statement “A Toyota family company”. Who knew?
Not me.
I just glanced at the Hino web site. It looks as if they are covering the bases on commercial trucks and seem to have an outstanding warranty. It looks like they are trying to do what Isuzu wanted to do.
They’ve been around for a while in the US. Mostly I see small Hino cab-over box trucks. Almost all commercial trucks in Japan are either Hino or Isuzu. Isuzu seems to be a little more popular there. They own a little more than half of Daihatsu. If you like Toyota, hope they never import those cheap little tin cans. That would do nothing for their good reputation.
Wikipedia knows everything…
Hino is one of the 16 Toyota family companies.
Daihatsu actually sold cars ion the US from 1987 to 1992. About 50,000 total. I had to look that one up, I barely remember the Charade.
Sales tag line -They thought is was a real car but it was just a Charade! 
Back in the mid-late 80s I used to do some side work for the sales manager of the local Oldsmobile/GMC/Jeep dealer and they took on the Daihatsu line of cars. He said that he had lived in Costa Rica for several years and they were big down there.
They did not last long here and my opinion of the Charade demo that he drove after I looked it over and drove it was that it was just another cheap econobox with a dubious dealer network.
As with most things like this, I also suspect his infatuation with them was very shallow and the main reason for taking on a Daihatsu franchise was simply to use them as a cheap car draw to get people onto the lot and steer them into something much more expensive. In other words, it was a dealer charade… 
Daihatsu reminds me of Daewoo. BTW, I rented a little Daihatsu in Japan, and te assembly quality was poor. The trim was loose and buzzed constantly. Very annoying.
In the previous city I lived my next door neighbor had an office moving company. They needed medium size trucks and he ended up buying a fleet of Hinos as soon as a local dealership opened.
The trucks proved very reliable, and easy to service.
I see lots of Hino trucks in my area. I guess this was the first time I ever really looked at what was painted on one.
Yep and Nissan has UD trucks.
I’m guessing the cabover flatbed tow trucks I’m seeing are Hinos…
Their emblem appears to be a circle with a horizontal bar through it - it looks like the Greek letter theta. As you get closer, it becomes a sylized “H”.
Here’s a photo with the Hino emblem.
Looks a lot like the Nissan hamburger.
LOL, Y’know, it does at that!
^
…or Isuzus.
While their car/SUV business evaporated several years ago, it appears that Isuzu is still selling a fair number of COE trucks in The US.
Similarly, Mitsubishi has a very hard time moving iron from their car lots, but they still seem to be able to sell some of their Fuso COE trucks in The US.
If someone want s a small commercial truck, it has to be a Fuso, Isuzu, or Hino. A few years ago, a full size van chassis could be fitted with the same equipment that these trucks could, but the 3 Japanese brands did the job more economically and took the market. GM used to, and maybe still does, use Isuzu diesel engines in their small trucks.
Most of the small trucks around here are Isuzu or UD,the Isuzu diesel engines are pretty decent,Chevy has a version called the Duramax.