Daihatsu TERIOS
Daihatsus little Terios 4x4 has its drawbacks but its so cute that Vanessa Hinkley could almost forgive it anything.
I rather fancy one of those compact 4x4s. What I dont fancy are the price tags they come with anything between £15,000 and £20,000 if you want something with five doors. Which is why I was interested when Daihatsus little Terios came across my path this week. All right, so its a bit smaller than the kind of
Land Rover Freelander /
Honda CR-V /
Ford Maverick-style vehicle I was referring to but not that much smaller.
And the price
Daihatsu are asking isnt even in the same galaxy.
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Dusting off old memories, I just about remember when this little car arrived on the British market (in 1997) and I also remember why I didnt really like it then. It had an awful ride, it was noisy and it was slow. Which was a pity since it looked great and cost a ridiculously small sum. Fortunately, since then a revised Terios model made it to these shores, with many of the original criticisms addressed.
For a start, the styling was a whole lot beefier, especially around the front end. There was a more aggressive looking grille, bigger bumpers, aerodynamic spoiler lips on the front bumper and revised headlamps. Nowadays the Terios is better still. The range has been rationalised of late and now there are just two models, the Tracker and the Sport.
Prices are down, equipment levels are up, but the shape is still much the same. One of the drawbacks of that shape however, is the narrow width of the car. Whilst its not possible to climb into the drivers
seat and inadvertently fall out of the passenger door, don't expect the interior to be as wide as that of a conventional family hatchback. The narrowness - it's only 1555mm wide - is a result of the Terios needing to fit into the dimensions for a Japanese
microcar. None of which helps British buyers much and means that rear seat passengers will need to be on friendly terms. Whilst the latest Terios has 15mm greater front seat travel for taller drivers, its of dubious benefit for those in the back.
Toyotas Yaris is one of my favourite superminis, so I was pleased to find that this cars state-of-the-art 1.3-litre all-alloy unit has been inserted under the bonnet (
Toyota after all, holds a majority shareholding in
Daihatsu). There are 16 valves governed by a variable valve timing system to raise power and the result is much improved performance though its still not very quick with rest to sixty occupying just over 16 seconds on the way to 90mph. On the move, it feels a bit faster than that and, more importantly, theres a level of refinement that, due to higher gearing, is worlds apart from the old engine.
Fuel consumptions better too, increasing by at least 4.5mpg in the city. The Toyota engine delivers only 3bhp more than the old Daihatsu unit, but its 86bhp is married to far more usable pulling power through the gears. This means the engine will feel more relaxed and muscular than the old one: certainly I found that around town, I could change gear infrequently. In addition to looking at the powerplant, Daihatsu have also fundamentally revised the suspension and steering, eliminating the vagueness in the steering and banishing the old cars affinity for squirming about during hard cornering. Why couldnt they have done all this in the first place? I cant tell you how this car performs off road since, like most owners, I didnt venture off the tarmac. Daihatsu were apparently rather stung by criticisms that the previous generation Terios was less than adept once taken onto the mud: nevertheless, they dont seem to have done much about it. Despite its beefier looks and full-time four-wheel drive, this is still not the sort of vehicle that would happily tackle the Rubicon Trail. Instead, with tarmac tyres and limited wheel articulation, the Terios has been massively improved for on-road work. After all, the designers say, how often is a vehicle like this going to be taken off-road? The problem with that argument is that if you take off road ability out of the equation completely, you have to wonder why anyone would buy a car like this in the first place.
At least the first generation Terios, though lacking a low range gearbox, had an extremely low first gear, enough to help you tow trailers up slippery slopes and so on. The latest model has abandoned this feature. As a result, if you need a small 4x4 with greater off road capabilities, the
Suzuki Jimny may well be a better bet. Other drawbacks are equally predictable.
With a top speed of 90mph for the manual models and 87mph for the automatics, motorway driving can sometimes stretch the Terios drivers patience.
The range has been slimmed down to just a pair of models, the Terios Tracker and the Sport, priced at £8,995 and £10,495 respectively. The old trim levels of E, EL and SL bite the dust, the E being discontinued, the EL morphing into the Tracker and the SL being transformed into the Sport. The models on offer now represent considerably better value than before with lower prices and beefier equipment lists. All of which is good news for the private buyers who have made the Terios something of a minor niche hit, the perfect thing for those urbanites who want something with an elevated deating position but without the parking woes of a big 4x4.
If
Ford thought they were onto something new with the Fusion in this respect they were a good five years behind Daihatsu. The Tracker is basically a rebranded EL, the equipment list being exactly the same, but a hefty chunk has been shaved from the price, bringing a Terios with features like power steering, twin airbags, electric front windows and mirrors, central locking and 15-inch alloy wheels under the £9,000 barrier for the first time. The Sport is a good deal more eye catching wearing huge 17-inch alloy wheels fitted with 225/55 series tyres. The overall effect is to make this Terios look like a remote control car scaled up, the lack of a huge whip aerial on the roof perhaps the only significant omission from the standard equipment list! Its enormously appealing and boasts a competitive specification list.
As well as the big wheels, air conditioning and anti lock brakes are standard as is a four-speaker CD stereo system, big Impreza-like front fog lamps that are set into a full width black underbumper panel and a rear wing that sits proud of the roof like a carrying handle. Colour choices extend to silver all over or a choice of metallic black, green or blue with silver lower body cladding, the Japanese national obsession for two-tone cars worming its way into Daihatsus export stock.
Its very tempting to forgive this car its faults and just buy one anyway: I can understand why people have. It looks great and its cheap two attributes that dont often go together. Its also now much improved and deserves a second chance if you considered but rejected the original.
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