For Sale The Beast from the East - Daihatsu Sirion - Help Me Take on the Autoshite Colt

[Cleon-Fonte]

Seeing as this seems to be one of the only places on the internet where interest in Daihatsus exists, and seeing as my SD1 has a thread of its own, I thought I'd make a thread for my Sirion.

It all started well enough. Keen to replace my Peugeot with something a bit less gargantuan and thirsty, and also suitable for my girlfriend to drive, the Sirion eventually became top of my shortlist in preference to Corsas and the like. The 1.0 three-pot sounded like the ideal engine for the job, and so my search began. Eventually this one came up on Autotrader, and a viewing was arranged.



I arrived at the dealership and thought I'd arrived in chod heaven. A vast expanse of truly crap cars occupied the compound, and having admired* such delights as a Citroen C5 MkI estate and a FIAT Cinquecento, it was time to inspect the Daihatsu. All seemed well, a few bits of surface rust on the bodywork here and there, and having tried the Advanced Rust Detection Test (i.e. poking the bits of underside I could reach with a screwdriver) I declared it all OK. Everything else seemed fine, so £800 was handed over and I was away.

All was good for a few weeks, the little car was genuinely enjoyable to drive, the dead steering being considerably less dead than the Peugeot it replaced, and the harsh ride proving no harsher. Eventually the exhaust started to blow and 60,000 miles rapidly approached, so I took it in for an exhaust and cambelt change. I also asked that the underside be inspected for rust, knowing these things have a propensity to do so quite dramatically.

Once the plastic cladding around the sills and wheelarches was removed, the true horror of what lay beneath was revealed.

















As you can see, the seatbelt mountings had worn away which was rather bad considering that the brake lines were on the verge of snapping. The brakes themselves were mostly seized, the fuel line looked more like a sprinkler with the car running, and the rear shock absorbers were so worn they were about to detatch themselves (which, along with the ditchfinder tyres, may have explained the two instances of snap oversteer I'd experienced up to that point).

My first response was to look through the history file to see if it mentioned the car being previously kept under the sea. This proving not to be the case, I then had to decide whether to proceed with the work or not. Figuring that I'd only go out and buy a good example if I scrapped this one, which would set me back even further financially, I reasoned that I may as well stick two fingers up at throwaway society and repair this instead, together with a bloody good rustproofing session.

After many weeks of welding and waxoyling it came to do a service. The oil that came out looked like it had been mixed with porridge, and the other fluids weren't much better. I guess that the receipt for the service that had apparently been done 2,000 miles before was as valid as the most recent MoT certificate whose only advisory was mild corrosion on one of the strut tops.



The work having been done, and a new MoT having been gained, the Daihatsu finally returned to the road. So far it's proved a perfectly reliable servant, having done everything asked of it without a problem. It even did York to Oban and back during the summer, an experience I never want to repeat.

So what's it like to drive? Better than you'd think. The engine being what it is is not particularly powerful, and it needs revs to really deliver any meaningful speed, but it makes a great noise and is vastly more interesting than a four-cylinder unit. It's initially quite rough but with speed it smooths out, and by motorway speeds is turbine smooth and deathly quiet.



The handling is the best part though. Weighing only 815kg, it can be chucked around corners with some confidence and is genuine fun on twisty roads. Its diminutive dimensions help here, as it can just keep on going where bigger cars have to slow down for oncoming traffic. The small steering wheel helps to make it feel like a little go-kart (cliche alert).

The steering itself has a rather 'distant' feeling, but the gearchange is one of the best I've experienced (although selecting first is sometimes challenging - must get that looked at).



The downside to all this is the ride. Most of my previous cars have not been particularly great in this area either, but the little Daihatsu has an uncanny ability to make even seemingly smooth roads feel bad. This, together with the road and wind noise (occupants shouting at each other is routine) and uncomfortable seats, does make a long motorway journey a tiring experience. But my solution to this is to keep it to small journeys wherever possible.

So what of its future? I'm loathe to sell it, it does everything I need it to and now that the big jobs are out of the way it costs buttons to run. To sell it would be a foolish thing. When I bought it I lived in the flatlands around York where it was perfectly suited, but now I live in the Peak District holding up other traffic on big hills is starting to grate a little, as is the ride. I increasingly find myself looking at other, more interesting things and lining them up as replacements, but I know three cars on the fleet is unrealistic.

The ideal solution would be to hand the Daihatsu over to my girlfriend, allowing me to buy something else as my regular drive, but her enthusiasm for this varies daily. I know that if I do keep it I'll have to fit a new offside front wing and sort out the frilly rear wheelarches. But then given my car buying record whatever replacement I buy will probably cost me even more to fix.



So, whether the Daihatsu is still on the fleet by the end of 2016 is uncertain. But actually, I reckon it probably will be.

[dollywobbler]

Fantastic. Any pics of the work carried out? Sadly my WONDERFUL Sirion met the great shredder in the sky (or Liverpool) due to rot that was just appalling. I loved it, despite as you say dead steering and a shockingly bad ride. Though I think it may have been slightly better than my current Perodua Nippa...

 

You describe the driving experience very well. Here's my take on it.

[Matt]

From your description it basically sounds like a five door Swift with some real fake chrome; three cylinders, funny noise, dead steering, light weight, chuckable-ish and buttons to run but otherwise a bit crap. I'd like to have a go in one of these or a Cuore with the 1.0 engine to compare it to the Swifts 1.0 3-cylinder as it's got twice as many cams and twice as many valves.

[Cleon-Fonte]

Fantastic. Any pics of the work carried out? Sadly my WONDERFUL Sirion met the great shredder in the sky (or Liverpool) due to rot that was just appalling. I loved it, despite as you say dead steering and a shockingly bad ride. Though I think it may have been slightly better than my current Perodua Nippa...

 

You describe the driving experience very well.

 

 

Your video was one of the reasons the Sirion managed to make it up to the top of my shortlist funnily enough. It's also a car that seems to do well in owners' reviews even if the professional testers didn't rate it all that much (Richard Hammond is a case in point).

 

I do have a couple of 'after' shots, if not work in action shots (I'm shit at welding and pay somebody else to do it unfortunately). Needless to say Waxoyl shareholders had a good year last year thanks to me:

 

 

 

 

 

How does the Nippa compare to the Sirion?

 

From your description it basically sounds like a five door Swift with some real fake chrome; three cylinders, funny noise, dead steering, light weight, chuckable-ish and buttons to run but otherwise a bit crap. I'd like to have a go in one of these or a Cuore with the 1.0 engine to compare it to the Swifts 1.0 3-cylinder as it's got twice as many cams and twice as many valves.

 

My girlfriend's sister has a Swift and I have to say it feels similar, but a bit clinical in comparison. This just feels a bit more fun.

[dollywobbler]

Nippa is smaller, slower and even less comfortable. On the plus side, it doesn't have PAS, just very direct manual steering so the cornering experience is even better. Sadly, the engine and gearbox don't sound as good - you don't get the borderline-rally-car soundtrack of the Sirion. My wife loves it though, so that's all that really matters.

[Matt]

My girlfriend's sister has a Swift and I have to say it feels similar, but a bit clinical in comparison. This just feels a bit more fun.

Yeah I think that the Daihatsu engine has more character and the styling certainly does. They sound much better, in fact doesn't one of Mr DW's videos have an exhaust noise snippet? I suspect that most small Japanese cars are broadly the same as others made around the same time.

[skattrd]

Nice write up and well done on putting the time and effort in to saving an unloved and pretty worthless motor.

 

One of my Storias (JDM SIrion) is potentially up for some welding at the next MOT and I'm not looking forward to examining it closely. I fear it might resemble some of your before pics when I remove the plastics.

[dollywobbler]

Here are some comparisons including Sirion.

[djimbob]

I loved my daihatsu Grand Move, 1.5 petrol auto, good little load lugger, and plenty of beans to do some distance driving amongst the town stuff, where it was better suited to be fair.

 

I also had a Fourtrak for a month or so, like a landrover i imagine but everything worked really well despite it's age

 

Shame daihatsu are no longer making cars, they had character and a place in the world in my humble.

[dollywobbler]

Daihatsu still do make cars, they just don't try and sell them here anymore. Their biggest failing really was not replacing the Fourtrak. There are still a few lingering on locally, but they really were a farmer's friend.

[Cleon-Fonte]

Here in Glossop it seems everybody has a Daihatsu Terios of some description, and if they don't have a Terios they have a Fourtrak that looks like it's done a couple of million miles. I'm guessing farmers and rural types alone weren't a profitable enough sector of the market for Daihatsu's parent Toyota to bother with, especially given their relationship with Subaru.

 

And I've just realised I'd forgotten to mention the noise in my original post. You know how Mazda's engineers listened to tapes of MGB gearboxes when they were developing the original MX5, then copied the noise for their own gearbox? I reckon that's what must have happened with the Sirion, but with BMC transmission-in-sump stuff.

 

 

Nice write up and well done on putting the time and effort in to saving an unloved and not very valuable motor.

 

One of my Storias (JDM SIrion) is potentially up for some welding at the next MOT and I'm not looking forward to examining it closely. I fear it might resemble some of your before pics when I removed the plastics.

 

Here's hoping there's not too much rust. Are there any big differences between Storias and their European counterparts?

[Cleon-Fonte]

So, I've now found another piece of chod I like which therefore I absolutely MUST have, and Household Management has unfortunately forbidden the car count exceeding two. So, much as I'm loathe to say goodbye to the little Sirion, unfortunately we must part ways.

 

So far I've spent £2000 to get it into the condition it's in. It's been professionally welded and waxoyled so the biggest problem with these Daihatsus is sorted. There is suface rust on three of the wheelarches, and the wheels (which I had painted silver) are also beginning to show surface rust. I can throw in a pair of front wings if you want them which should partially help with the former problem.

 

Gearbox oil could do with a flush.

 

Everything works; cambelt, water pump etc changed at 60,000 miles (car showing just a whisker under 70,000 now). Oil last changed at 67,000 miles.

 

It's been perfectly reliable, trustworthy and economical. I'll be depressed to see the back of it but bigger and better things are to come.

 

I'm looking ideally for £750.

 

More information available on request.

 

 

 

Edited to add: fat wadge of service history included.

[dollywobbler]

Can you not wait a month? Or am I going to have to edit your magazine submission?

 

I'd be very tempted myself, but sadly Mrs DW prefers the non-PAS of the Nippa. Oh, and no money, obvs.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Blimey you spent £2000 on a crispy Sirion???? Flippin NUFF RESPECK, I'm nodding my head admiringly in your direction.

[Cleon-Fonte]

Can you not wait a month? Or am I going to have to edit your magazine submission?

 

I'd be very tempted myself, but sadly Mrs DW prefers the non-PAS of the Nippa. Oh, and no money, obvs.

 

I'm in no rush to get rid of it and I doubt my hand will be bitten off by vast multitudes of people, so I'll probably still have it well after you've gone to press.

 

Blimey you spent £2000 on a crispy Sirion???? Flippin NUFF RESPECK, I'm nodding my head admiringly in your direction.

 

That's a conservative estimate. It's not good for my mental wellbeing to add up the bills to get an actual total.

[MarvinsMom]

top spendage there sir! 

 

no but seriously it is the sort of thing wot i do, spend ooodles on a car and then sell it!

 

but if you like it, then so what! its a bonny little thing, and its a shame that diahatsu has stopped selling cars here,

 

even if diahatsu is a silly way of spelling toyota.

[dollywobbler]

It does outdo even some of my hopeless man maths, that's for sure. Will be a great buy for someone.

[Cleon-Fonte]

My logic at the time was that I was going to be keeping this one for a good few years and therefore it was worth spending the money.

 

Obviously I've slightly deviated from that plan since then.

[dollywobbler]

Yes. I've done that more than once. Incredibly, having spent more than I paid for the XM in the first two months of ownership, I did actually keep it. For a bit. 

[RoadworkUK]

I always assume I'm going to spend at least £10,000 on my 825 every year.

 

Then, when I only actually spend a tiny fraction of that I feel like I've received a tax-free cash windfall.

[Cleon-Fonte]

I feel Rover ownership has acclimatised me to spending the GDP of a large oil producing country each year on running repairs. Completely rebuilding a shonky Daihatsu Sirion seems like small fry in comparison.

[Cleon-Fonte]

The need for a set of new springs for the SD1 and a new head gasket for the BX, plus impending insurance expiry mean that this now needs to go pretty sharpish. To entice you further, here's a list of shiny new parts I've fitted to the thing over my year of ownership:

 

-New exhaust

-New cambelt, water pump etc

-New rear brakes (everything needed replacing)

-New front discs and pads

-New brake pipes

-New fuel line

-New CV boots

-New O2 sensor

-Four new tyres

-New fuel filler neck (replaced under recall after it dumped 20 litres of petrol on a Shell forecourt)

-All new service parts

-New rear dampers

-New auxillary belt

 

It passed its MoT with no advisories, needs its next in July and I'm sure it'll pass trouble free. It reached 70,000 miles yesterday. I've already mentioned its few faults above.

 

U WONT GET BETA 4 MONEY M8

 

If it doesn't sell it'll raffle.

[dollywobbler]

I still call BARG. These are insane fun to drive.

[Cleon-Fonte]

I did a massive (virtually) coast to coast run in it yesterday, and whilst it was about as comfortable after a few hours as being attacked by Kimbo Slice, it was hilarious fun. It's more like a Mini than a MINI.

[AnthonyG]

If I spent that much on it I'd keep it tbh.

[Cleon-Fonte]

That's the dilemma. I want to keep it but I want the other members of the fleet more, so something has to give.

[dollywobbler]

Autoshite. The only place where deciding whether to keep a Sirion or an SD1 V8 is a genuine dilemma.

[eddyramrod]

And a BX!  Don't forget that one

[Cleon-Fonte]

This is making me realise what a ridiculous set of cars I have.

 

Still, better than a VWAudiBeemer A3-class with 25in wheels, tintz and massive finance payments I guess.

[skattrd]

This is making me realise what a ridiculous set of cars I have.

 

 

I shall remain quiet.