Faults:

Choke has an intermittent fault with the light on the dash, being fixed at service (full service £95)

General Comments:

I love it! Its fantastic. I have had 4 smarts, 2 minis, 1 mercedes and a big estate. Some of them cost 10 times as much as my little £1000 van, but this is the best by a long way!

I need to fit a good stereo as it did not come with one. Was owned by Hamersmith Council until 15k miles then a lady who did antiques fairs. It has double locks all round. Has a few knocks and scratches one on the roof. Was red now a sort of orange where the paint has faded.

Its very comfortable to drive no rattles, goes quick when you put your foot down. Its seems very well built, and does not rattle or wonder like my minis did. I am going to use it for my personal car/van.

I have put all my sleeping bags in the back and am going to give it a trial run for camping in tonight. I can't quite lie flat along it as I am over 6ft, but its still super comfortable. If all goes well a trip round europe is the plan.

Faults:

Window Mechanism on driver's side replaced at 46,000.

General Comments:

The Daihatsu Hijet is a fantastic micro van.

I own four of them, all of which are in regular daily use.

I travel long distances in the Hijet, which I find to be economical to run, very nippy around town and extremely roomy in the back.

I am 6'3" tall and have no trouble whatsoever driving this micro van.

Absolutely fantastic!

Faults:

Van would not start due to flat battery so I bought a new one. (no problems after)

Had to replace rear brake cylinder for MOT which was expensive.

General Comments:

I liked the van to start and kept it for one Year.

But being a very young driver could not afford insurance of 1,000 pounds approximately per year.

The van drove better when it was fully loaded as it bounced around when empty.

I liked the fact that it had twin side loading doors, and found them very useful.

The van got blown around in the wind a lot.

The interior space was very useful and the build quality was good.

The engine being 1 litre was not powerful enough and was quite sluggish when pulling out at junctions.

The van was extremely reliable apart from the dead battery. The heater worked well.

The brakes were not as good as a relatives old volvo as the van had drum brakes and the volvo had disk brakes.

The van would be perfect for driving round town, but would be uncomfortable on long journeys.

Faults:

The interior light bulb failed after 3 days. My dealer said the bulbs were on factory order. This situation remained for 2 weeks, until I bought the part from a local auto shop.

An exterior door handle broke when vehicle was 1 month old, The dealer also had to order this part, although it only took a few days. Other Hi-jet owners told me these handles break easily.

Ignition key broke for no obvious reason at 3 months. Dealer had to order the key which took another 3 Days.

General Comments:

The seats on this vehicle offer no support. Also being positioned immediately above the front wheel, you feel every pothole with a vengeance.

The driving position in general is very poor, the low line of the top of the windscreen means you have to drive in a hunched position. This, allied to the poor seats, led in my case to back and neck pain, and subsequent disposal of the vehicle after 6 months.

The fuel economy was pathetic. Even gently driven, 34mpg was the absolute best I attained. In normal everyday use it was between 25 and 28 mpg.

The engine is superb.