The Daihatsu Bee is a 2-door coupé from Daihatsu, built from 1951 to 1952, at the height of the post-war boom. Under the bonnet: 540 & 804 cc 2HA V2.
Where it came from
The Daihatsu Bee is a three-wheeled microcar produced by the Japanese automobile manufacturer Daihatsu from 1951 until 1952.
Under the skin
Power comes from 540 & 804 cc 2HA V2. It weighs 515 kg. The layout matters: the engine hangs behind the rear axle, a layout that gives ferocious traction out of a corner and a reputation to match on the way in. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
In context
Its family tree is legible: assembly was at Ikeda, Osaka, Japan. Its contemporaries in the catalogue — the Toyota Land Cruiser, the Cadillac Eldorado, the Chevrolet Corvette — show what else the money bought that year. Nearby in the Daihatsu catalogue sit the Daihatsu Applause and the Daihatsu Atrai.
What it costs now
MotorJury scores cars on the United States complaint and recall record, and the Daihatsu Bee has none: too old, too rare, or never sold there. Its value today is a collector's question, decided by provenance and condition rather than by a class average.