Daihatsu Charade

Daihatsu does not build many cars like the Daihatsu Charade: a 3/5-door hatchback with 843&nbsp, built from 1977 to 2012 as the oil crises and the first emissions rules rewired the industry.

The background

The Daihatsu Charade is a supermini car produced by the Japanese manufacturer Daihatsu from 1977 to 2000. It is considered by Daihatsu as a "large compact" or "supermini" car, to differentiate it from the smaller, urban-oriented kei cars in its line-up, such as the Daihatsu Mira. It replaced the Daihatsu Consorte, although the Charmant took over from the bigger-engined Consortes, and did not share a platform with a Toyota product.

In China, the Daihatsu Charade was called Xiali and was produced by Tianjin FAW, under the registered mark of "China FAW". From September 1986 to 2009, it sold over 1.5 million units in that country. The second and third generation Charades also provided the basis for countless unlicensed Chinese copies, often depending on fibreglass moldings. Production ended in 2012.

The engineering

Under the skin sits 843  other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. Kerb weight is 630 -. The gearbox is a 4/5-speed manual / 2-speed Daimatic automatic. The layout matters: the engine drives the front wheels, the packaging choice that gives a small car a big cabin. The wheelbase is 2300 mm. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.

Where it sits

Where it sits in Daihatsu's history is not in doubt: the Daihatsu Consorte came before it; the Daihatsu Storia/Sirion followed it; it was built at Ikeda, Osaka. On a showroom list of its day it stood against the BMW 7 Series, the Toyota Supra, the Ford Fiesta. Its Daihatsu stablemates include the Daihatsu Applause and the Daihatsu Atrai.

The money

There is no federal ownership record for the Daihatsu Charade — it predates the complaint database or was never sold in the United States — so MotorJury publishes no running-cost figure for it. For a car of this age the price is set by the collector market and the condition of the individual example, not by a formula.