Archive for category Daihatsu
The Four Generations of the Daihatsu Charade
Posted by in Daihatsu on July 15, 2011
The Daihatsu Motor Co., Ltd. is an automobile manufacture who has its base and headquarters located in Japan. This Japanese car manufacturer is commonly known as Daihatsu and it is famous for its production of compact cars and small cars that are known in Japan as kei jihosha.
The Daihatsu Charade is actually one of the cars that this automobile manufacturer has produced. And this vehicle is actually a subcompact car, making it fit nicely in the line of vehicles that this company has been producing. The Daihatsu Charade was born in the year 1977. It lived through several decades up until the year 2000 when its production was halted. However, the company thinks that this vehicle is actually a large compact car. This is most likely because the Daihatsu Charade is the largest compact car that the company has produced compared to all the other compact cars in its line up of vehicles.
Last year, 2005, the Charade name was actually brought back in the automobile market in the United Kingdom and in Australia as well. In fact, the vehicle that holds the Charade name is actually a rebadged Daihatsu Mira which is more known as the Daihatsu Cuore in other markets in Europe.
The previous Daihatsu Charade was known in the automobile world to have gone through four specific generations. The first generation was known as G10 and it lived through the years 1977 up until 1983. It was made available as a hatchback that either held three doors or four doors. Its power came from a 993 cc engine with three cylinders and could produce 50 units of horsepower.
The second generation, known as G11, lived from 1983 up until 1987. The body styles offered were still the same. However, as per the power, there were several variations of the engine. There also was a five speed manual transmission made available.
As per the third generation of the Daihatsu Charade which was known as G100, it lived from 1987 up until the year 1994. This time around, the subcompact car had trim levels available for this vehicle. The vehicle also had features like a sunroof, power windows, air conditioning as well as a power steering. In the United States, the Daihatsu Charade was sold with a high price and was not marketed well so much so that it sold poorly in this area. Read the rest of this entry »
Few Words About Daihatsu Fourtrak
Posted by in Daihatsu on July 15, 2011
Daihatsu Fourtrak is a United Kingdom export variant of Japanese Daihatsu Rugger. It’s also well-known Daihatsu Rocky in other countries. There were two generations of vehicle. First generation was manufactured from 1984. It replaced older model – Taft. Second generation was sold from 1992 to 2002. Besides that, there was Italian version called the Bertone Freeclamber. It has different specs and features.
Fourtrak is a utility, cheap and unpretentious workhorse with the great off-road opportunities. Short base, four-wheel drive, relatively small weight and a powerful diesel engine had made a real monster, panzer with ability to deal with any kind of terrain anywhere on the Earth. Daihatsu didn’t change the traditions and made small, durable and inexpensive SUV.
Of course it’s not perfect. In the first place it is not comfortable. At all. It is not strange because the simplicity, reliability and comfort are often incompatible and certainly expensive. The main purpose of this vehicle is to take you from point A to point B in all conditions. Anywhere and always. But spring suspension shakes too much. In Daihatsu Fourtrak there are no airbags. Even in the last modifications. There are no air conditioner and climate control. Side impact bars and three-point safety belts are the only safety systems. Forget about CD or DVD Player. There are only radio and cassette player in the best modifications. But there are power windows, power steering and power mirrors. Actually, the equipment is very poor. Aerodynamics of the car isn’t very good. On the speed you will get an annoying whistling sound which is caused by wind on the wing mirrors.
But it is not important. Main is inside. 2765 cc turbo diesel, five-speed manual gearbox and permanent four-wheel drive are the choice of the real men. It is a great all road. It’s a vehicle for adventures. Are you an adventurous person? Yes? You must have a SUV like that. It has twin sunroof in the hard top. Read the rest of this entry »