Faults:

This is actually a follow up of a previous review. Short & to the point. The Daihatsu continues to motor along. Two years later, no complaints. Nothing gone wrong. Fixed the "miss". Cause: Two small holes in exhaust pipe. Added small supplemental radiator in conjunction with the original one. This aided in cooling, but the car will still run hot at freeway speeds on a hot day. Solution: ON with the heater. Replaced the muffler with a new one. Cost: $32.78. Sounds like Daihatsu's are hard on mufflers. Might have something to do with the inherent design of the 3 cylinder engines power pulses. STILL have the orig. timing belt on. Although I possess a new replacement belt, it hangs on the garage wall. I do however inspect the belt every 15,000 miles. (and tighten, if necessary}. The belt looks amazingly fresh for its use.

General Comments:

The Charade is hard to begrudge. It is what it is. If one likes to drive, the car is fun. The 3 cyl. is willing enough & the tranny smooth & light with well spaced ratios. Putting 175/70 tires (even cheap ones) are probably the single best thing one can do to the car. Get rid of those 155/80's. I have no idea how long I'll posess my Charade (couple more years at least) But

I'm sure it's up for the task. My best gas mileage over two years has been 43.46 mpg. Worst: 35.79 mpg. Keeping tire pres. above 32 psi helps (I like 35 psi).

Faults:

Replaced the clutch disc (only) at 70,000 miles, since I could longer nurse the original disc from slipping too excessively during even moderate acceleration. New disc (purchased from CarParts.com) works fine. Pressure plate and disc seem to have lots of life left.

Replaced the water pump at 95,000 miles, although it wasn't leaking, and had only moderate play in the shaft bearing.

Runs hot in the summer; have to run the heater to keep the water temperature within limits. So far, I've just put up with this annoyance. I suspect the radiator is slightly "scaled up" & not allowing the water to circulate fast enough.

Engine has developed a miss (#2 cylinder) only at throttle settings of just above idle to approx. one quarter throttle. All higher throttle inputs the engine runs 100%. Idles normal also. Another annoyance ignored. Suspect it could possibly be the oxygen sensor causing the miss.

Replaced the rear brake shoes at 75,000 miles. Still on the original front pads, but they're ready for replacement within the next 5,000 miles.

General Comments:

Seems to be a well made machine. My first impression of the car after purchase was that it was very "Toyota" like on the inside. Which in fact it is, for Toyota owns 51% of Daihatsu.

The seats in my vehicle were rather torn, but 2 seat covers from Pep Boys took care of that. Seat covers are wearing well.

The front seats feel adequately comfortable for my 73 miles round trip daily work commute. The back seat lower I removed completely, and folded down the upper, making the car a 2 seater.

Am waiting for my Firestone 155/ 80-13 tires to wear out (another 8,000 miles. or so) so I can put some 175/70-13s on it. It should corner a little better.

Motor pulls well for a triple 1 litre. Gets 40 miles per gallon, week in week out. Need to replace the timing belt one of these months. Inspected it recently, and it looked no worse for wear.