Faults:

The car is 23 years old. It was well maintained by an old lady teacher, driven only 10 km/day for 21 years and kept indoors.

I've let the car go downhill in 2 years. First year driving it, it had no faults. This year it got a very small leak in the gasoline tank, which I tried to glue, but didn't work so it still leaks.

The driver's side tie rod needs to be replaced as it makes a sound every time turning.

The exhaust pipe needs to be replaced as it's broken in 2 places.

And about 2 weeks ago the back brake light and front parking lights wouldn't turn off, emptying the battery; some not normal fuse problem, which I tried to look into, but didn't find the part.

So the payment for fixing the car would now probably be more than the 850 euros I paid for it. I got a good deal on a 2001 Nissan Micra, so I've decided not to fix the Daihatsu and drive it to a junkyard.

General Comments:

Usually cars don't last 23 years. Daihatsu was bought by Toyota. This has a great engine and is otherwise very good. It does pick up wind at speeds of 120 km -> because it's shaped like a box.

I found the car pretty comfortable. It's very spacious because I hauled my bicycle inside it a couple of times and it's a sedan; the bike could fit inside the boot with the backdoor closed.

Reliability 10. A very tough car. No faults, just old age. It's one of those cars that is so simple that you could fix everything in it yourself. And I did, the handbrake tightening, the engine a few times. It could still be fixed, but I'm not going to because financially it's not worth it. I'm looking at Daihatsu 4WDs sometime in the future. I love 90's Japanese cars.

Faults:

Nothing in 1500 miles.

General Comments:

I bought this car last year for £200, as it had been lying up and unused. Despite this, it had only covered 36k miles from new, and had plenty of service history. The body was excellent, and the interior was like a new car.

I knew the car had been overheating, hence the low price, and it had a suspected head gasket failure, which proved to be the case. I replaced this (the head itself was perfect, and didn't need skimmed) along with the thermostat and timing belt.

Next, I serviced the car; oil, plugs, new coolant and new filters. I noticed the heater didn't seem to be working, and saw that someone had disconnected the pipes, which pointed to a leak from the heater matrix at some point.

I connected them back up, and sure enough, coolant started flowing into the passenger footwell. The heater matrix is a known problem with these cars, and a bugger to replace. I put a bottle of K-SEAL into the radiator, which plugged up the heater leak and stopped it. How long for is anyone's guess, but it can be used again if need be.

The brake pads were a little on the thin side, but roadworthy. Nonetheless, I replaced them, along with new discs on the front. These cars were amongst the first to feature rear disc brakes as standard.

The tyres were good, as were the original alloys on the car, but the two rear tyres were probably original, and had small signs of perishing. I had a set of 15" alloys with nearly new tyres on them that I'd taken off a previous car, and they fitted onto the Daihatsu for the MOT.

Parts for these cars are available on eBay, and are quite cheap. The gasket, thermostat, timing belt, brake parts and service parts only stand me about £130. The work, I did myself.

The car runs like a sewing machine, and returns about 40 MPG, which is pretty good. These cars are pretty quick, and are a nice, smooth drive.

The velour seats are very comfy, and the car has a great heater. It's well equipped too, with power steering, 4 electric windows, electric mirrors and a radio/cassette player. All the electrics work as they should. The two front windows were a little weak and slow to go up and down, but I lubricated the insides with WD40, and they're much better.

These cars were expensive in their day and didn't sell in big numbers (£10,000 in 1991). Nonetheless, they're an excellent, typically Japanese car, that does most things well and reliably.

I've just done 1500 miles in this car, and it hasn't missed a beat. With its low mileage, there's not a rattle or noise from the suspension, and the car is as tight as a 3 year old car. I'm going to drive this until it drops.

For its time, these cars must have been years ahead of the competition, as the car feels and drives much more modern than its age would suggest. The car also has a great boot and a reclining 60/40 split rear seat, so is very practical. The automatic gearbox is 4 speed and extremely smooth, which only reconfirms my belief that the Japanese make better automatics than anyone else.