Did you own a Daihatsu (or know anyone who did?)

[Really_Not_All_That_Bright]

My brother’s friend had a Charade GTti in the early 90s (in the UK). It was arguably the first really tiny hot hatch since the Mini Cooper (which technically wasn’t a hatchback anyway). It had a 1.0L three cylinder engine with a turbo, and it was an absolute scream.

@kunilou

Accoirding to this article, the novel and exceptional thing about them was that they were stunningly unnovel and unexceptional.

I’m not even sure they were sold in the Midwest.

That article is not very accurate. Daihatsu is a wholly owned subsidiary of Toyota now, but at the time it didn’t even hold a controlling interest. The Daihatsus which were sold on the US market didn’t have any Toyota parts. Today Daihatsu is basically just a Toyota sub-brand, like Scion, but it wasn’t then.

[whitetho]

Out of curiosity I went to Youtube to see what Daihatsu videos it had. Before it ran, it had an advertisement for a Cadillac Escalade. Apparently adwords thinks people who show an interest in Daihatsus are prime candidates for expensive luxury vehicles that are big enough to carry the Daihatsu in the cargo area.