Pity the poor Daihatsu. In some parallel universe, the feisty company’s Campagno would have sold well in export markets, enabling it to maintain its independence in spite of the pen-pushers at MITI, or perhaps into an alliance of equals with, say, Subaru or Mazda by the early ‘80s. Alas, Daihatsu were hitched up to Toyota, essentially becoming the JDM giant’s kei car branch.
Sure, there was the Charade, the Charmant and the Rocky, but those were hardly Daihatsu’s bread and butter. Or should that be rice and seaweed? The main market Daihatsu catered to was kei-sized, is my point. In vans and in pickup trucks, just like in saloons and convertibles, Daihatsu always excelled at smaller things. So let’s look at their top-level “family-sized” kei of the early 660cc era, an exquisitely well-preserved Mira.
Daihatsu’s main kei model started off as the 360cc Fellow (top left), back in 1966. In 1970 came the Fellow Max (top right), switching to FWD. By 1976, the 2-cyl. engine grew to a four-stroke 550cc and the “Fellow” fell off; the car was now to be called Max Cuore (bottom left). A new generation (bottom right) appeared in 1980, now dubbed Mira or Cuore, then just Mira by 1982.
Our L200 (1990-94) Mira would be the 6th generation Daihatsu kei car. The preceding generation introduced the OHC 3-cyl. E engine that would become Daihatsu’s mainstay for the foreseeable future, albeit at 550cc. In 1990, the kei car rules changed again and engines grew to 660cc (well, 659cc to be exact); maximum hp went up to 64, but that was only reached by turbocharged models.
What we have here is the highest-trim Mira L200, i.e. the Gran Limited, with a naturally-aspirated engine. The little triple pulling the front wheels, in this case, is the 12-valve EFI variant good for 55hp.
Daihatsu were manufacturing a bunch of variants of this engine at the time: carburated ones (mainly for export), turbocharged ones, 6-valve and 12-valve, and versions made for FWD applications like the Mira or mid-engined RWD ones like the Hijet.
Minimal motoring like this may be hard to understand for some of you who live in large countries with cheap fuel, long distances, big roads and huge parking spaces. But kei cars really make a lot of sense in Japan, which is why about one car in three sold new here is one of these little critters.
But unlike, say, small European cars, the Japanese kind generally have much better creature comforts inside. Take an early ‘90s entry-level Renault, VW or Fiat and odds are it will not have A/C, power front windows or an automatic gearbox, let alone all three. Those may be on the options list, but realistically, very few people ticked any of those boxes.
Economy cars in Japan can also be ordered in Plain Jane guise, of course. Many are I’m sure, but I bet it’s only a minority. People here generally like to pay a little more for the convenience of not changing gears manually or not dying of heatstroke in the summer, even if this means more bills down the line and it saps what little power the engine produces.
Anyone who tried going uphill in one of these with the A/C on and four passengers will know how painful that can be. But you do get to your destination eventually. And in decent comfort, unless you’re very tall. In which case, Daihatsu had the Mira Walkthru van to propose as a solution…
Not the most glamourous of cars, our little Mira, but a valiant contribution to local traffic here. People need these, but they also routinely throw them away when they’re done, so few actually survive very long. Glad to see at least one Limited remains in very Gran nick.
Related Reading
Curbside Outtake: Volvo 240 Wagon, VW Bug, and Daihatsu Mira Moderno – Forlorn Tokyo Trio, by Jim Brophy
I love this .
Kei motoring is a wonderful thing, I loved all those tiny compacts in the late 1950’s .
Who really needs to burn rubber at every traffic light / stop sign ? .
I rarely have passengers so 36HP gets me across the Mojave Desert just fine, I sometimes think about adding a basic AC system though .
I’d rock the white 1966 Fellow, it looks terrific to me .
-Nate
After having a college roommate with a then-new Charade I became smitten with the little Daihatsus, such a well built small car. The Mira and Cuore I became somewhat familiar with through MightyCarMods, they seemed to have a never ending string of them including doing a 24hr race with one in Malaysia. The one you found looks great although I think I’d want the manual, even in Tokyo. The seat fabric looks super durable!
The Civic Si in front of it though got more than one admiring glance from me too, though…
The. Cuore and Charade were quite common in Uruguay from ‘80 to ‘83 and again from ‘90 on. The Charade after 91 even was available with a 4 cylinder 1.3, automatic AC, power windows and brakes. The Cuore was nicely appointed but not with that kind of options. All were very well finished up to the time the tin worm caught up.
Tatra-san, how would kei cars fit in with the European A-B-C-D-E size ‘classes’? If I’m reading things right they’d be sub-A, but not maybe by much – is that about right?
That triple would have made a huge improvement to the aural soundtrack. While you’d occasionally see an eighties Cuore here, Aussies were much more interested in the Charade.
Anyway, I’ll just park this MIra here! 🙂 Rather than a Gran Anything, mine’s from the opposite end of the catalog, a Turbo TRXX, in a very non-factory hi-vis orange.
Thank you for the orange curiosity! Is there anything you don’t have in your miniature garage?
About the classification, I’m not sure they would be sub-A, or just plain A, albeit on the small side. The issue is keis are a moving target, growing from 360cc to 550cc and the 660cc, with external dimensions also going up slightly each time. And Daihatsu sold this generation Mira under a number of other names (including Cuore and Domino) in Europe and the Asia-Pacific with an 850cc engine. Pretty much equal to a Fiat Panda or a Citroën AX in every way, one could argue.