The Daihatsu Luxio is the Daihatsu that answered a simple question — how much car can this badge carry? — with 71 kW from Petrol engine. It was built from 2009, in the decade of stability control, dual-clutch gearboxes and the first serious hybrids. Takuya Saiwaki and Kenyuu Uehata (pre-facelift) / Mark Widjaja (2014 facelift) drew it.
How it came about
The Daihatsu Luxio is a minivan designed by Daihatsu and manufactured by Astra Daihatsu Motor and sold exclusively in Indonesia. It was launched on 26 February 2009. Based on the Gran Max, Luxio is intended to be the upmarket passenger van version of it.
The Luxio shares the same overall body as the commercially oriented Gran Max; however, it features a cosmetically upgraded front and rear, along with trim elements such as side moldings that result in nominal dimensions greater than those of its simpler sibling. The Luxio received a facelift on 19 February 2014. The Luxio is offered in D, M and X trim levels. The M trim was discontinued with the launch of the facelifted model.
The hardware
Power comes from Petrol engine; 71 kW is the published figure; other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. It weighs 1290 –. Work it out per tonne and you get about 55 horsepower — unhurried — enough for the job, not for the bragging. It shifts through a 5-speed Manual transmission / manual / 4-speed Automatic transmission / automatic. The layout matters: the engine sits behind the driver and ahead of the rear axle, which puts the mass in the middle of the car and is why mid-engined cars change direction the way they do. The wheelbase is 2650 mm. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Family and rivals
Its family tree is legible: it took over from the Daihatsu Zebra (downmarket variant) / Daihatsu Atrai 7 (indirect); assembly was at Sunter, North Jakarta (ADM), Indonesia. Its contemporaries in the catalogue — the Changan Automobile Changan Alsvin, the Toyota Sai, the Lexus HS — show what else the money bought that year. Its Daihatsu stablemates include the Daihatsu Applause and the Daihatsu Atrai.