Daihatsu is a pretty over looked company. I bet a majority of you reading this post have heard the name in passing but honestly can't think of a model name to go with it. Interestingly enough it is a Japanese company, many think it's Koren or Chinese. There's few people rushing out to their local importer to pick up a Daihatsu Leeza Spider or Charade, and fewer people know that the Daihatsu actually sold cars in North America from '88 until quitting sales here in '92. As sad as that sounds it's not as lame of a duck as people think. Much like Sonny and Cher, Toyota and Daihatsu hooked up long ago and have been making the odd palatable product together. Luckily, none of these cars can Ski. There's a few Daihatsu's I really like and one of them being the Toyota Duet a.k.a Daihatsu Storia. Most notably, the Storia X4.
As continuation of my over looked cars series, Daihatsu made an attempt to offer an affordable rally platform. The Storia was a capable, yet cheap family car. Fairly light weight and for the 1.3L engine was surprisingly powerful at 108hp! The X4 was even cooler, offering 4 wheel drive. Because they are such simple platforms, they leave themselves open for modification with little complication. Pretty neat little ride, nothing special, kinda ugly and hella functional. I'd say it's a distant cousin of the Suzuki SX4.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXjAUNmfHnM]
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Wow, didn’t know they were from Japan. Video doesn’t work for me though…