Daihatsu Terios   Women's view

Can you really get a decent compact 5-door 4x4 for around £13,000? At the wheel of Daihatsus Terios, June Neary decides.

Just what kind of compact five-door 4x4 can you really get for £13,000? Not much of one if youve your heart set on something like a Land Rover Freelander, a Toyota RAV4 or a Honda CR-V. Even something of Suzuki, Kia or Hyundai ilk will set you back around £15,000 if you need five doors. But there is another option and I finally got around to trying it this week. Daihatsus Terios is priced from £12,995, only comes in five-door form and really rather surprised me.

Fully 142mm longer than the previous generation Terios and wider too, this model creates opportunities that Daihatsu were completely unable to pursue with the old car, offering space for young families and enough style to suit twenty and thirtysomethings looking for a leisure-oriented vehicle. I thought the interior to be clean and unfussy with materials quality thats a long way removed from the old Terios and the cowled instrument panel is a very nice touch. If youre familiar with the RAV4, youll have a sense of déjà vu in here. Large 4x4s with real off road prowess tend to ride and corner like the QE2 on choppy seas but the bouncy suspension and high riding chassis enable them to cope with the big knocks that off road vehicles are required to take. The Terios is much smaller and nimbler on the road with ride and handling amongst the most car-like in the compact 4x4 sector. Body roll in the bends has been successfully curbed and on the flat, you shouldnt be reaching for the travel sickness pills.

Its one of the few 4x4s that youd take for a drive on tarmac just for the fun of it, making the Terios notably better than its Suzuki rival in this regard and leagues better than anything from Kia or Hyundai. Fuel economy of 40.4mpg is possible on long motorway trips if youre reasonably prudent with the right pedal in the manual model, while the automatic gearbox is slightly thirstier with a 39.8mpg extra urban average.

This isnt bad considering the hefty 4x4 transmission the Terios is lugging around and the less than ideal aerodynamics produced by the slab-fronted offroader shape.

The handling is pretty nimble but the penalty for that is off road ability thats decidedly modest. With a mere 17cm of ground clearance, the Terios isnt the ideal tool to take out into the wilds, but wheel articulation is surprisingly good and although the little Daihatsu will adopt some rather dramatic angles of lean through a gnarly off road test course, itll manage to keep its belly from scraping too badly. Compared to a big Volvo XC90, the Terios is a good deal more useful in the mud. If you can keep the Terios on smooth surfaces, itll do surprisingly well, although tyre choice is obviously very important, but without a dedicated low range or hill descent system, really hilly terrain is beyond its scope.

Compared to Hyundais Santa Fe, the short front and rear overhangs allow a little more manoeuvrability although the exhaust system is rather vulnerable when the modest ground clearance is exhausted. The Terios feels a little more composed and the steering is a good deal quicker when you need to flick it from lock to lock in a bid to help front wheel grip.

I think Ive already said it: this car is, quite simply, fantastic value for money, yet it doesnt look built down to a price. The £12,995 entry-level figure buys you the basic S variant, but you can spend up to £15,000 on plusher versions of the car. Personally, I wouldnt. Paying that amount rather defeats the object here.



As Ive said, if all I wanted was a faux 4x4 for short commutes, school run trips or the urban commute, Id be very interested in giving this little Daihatsu a go. Enough said.