1.3 SE 5dr

Typical Daihatsu, under-rated brilliance

I have owned quite a few Daihatsu cars over the years and they have all been my favourites. The motoring press don't seem to know what to make of them so they always get mediocre reviews but then lets face it most professional (if that's the word) car reviews are pretty irrelevant to the average driver anyhow. The advantage of all this, however, is that mere mortals in the know can land themselves a massive Daihatsu branded bargain. I bought this elderly 2006 Sirion with 63,000 miles on the clock for less than most people spend on their televisions and yet it does everything (and more) than I could ever want from a car. Of course, being basically a Toyota with a bit of flair, it is ridiculously well made, robust and reliable. Performance from the 1.3 vvt-i engine is great, lots of torque, happy to rev and as eager as anything to get going. Even fully loaded it continues to pull well and on the motorway has more than enough grunt to keep up with the traffic and overtake confidently. The handling (again always slated in the reviews) I find to be really good fun with bags of grip. Yes it rolls a little initially but then magically regains composure and squirts itself around the bends with real aplomb. The steering is accurate and well weighted, the turning circle is also small. This is a car you feel properly involved in driving, rather than it driving you. Honestly, if you don't enjoy driving this car then you are way too hard to please! The interior is brilliantly designed and very spacey for it's small exterior dimensions, it's also well equipped with electric windows all round, air conditioning, 6 cupholders, side and front airbags and a decent cd player. I get a consistent 50 mpg on my mostly A road commute but I certainly don't have to try. I think it looks great, cute yet also sporty. Parts can be a little pricey these days although it shares a lot of bits with the Yaris and being a Daihatsu you are very unlikely to need very many! If it does need some minor work doing you can very probably do it yourself as they are very easy to work on with everything accessible, home servicing is a piece of cake. Very hard to find fault with this brilliant motor...I guess the 1.3 engine can be a bit noisy when revved and generally over 3,500 rpm. Other than that the gearchange is sometimes a little notchy but overall, pure motoring magic.

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