Founded in 1907 to manufacture the
internal
combustion engine, by 1930 the company was
manufacturing three-wheeled vans. It was not
until the early 1950's that Daihatsu began
the manufacture of passenger cars, it owing
much of its design to the earlier vans, even
carrying over the three-wheeled layout and
rear mounted 540cc
air-cooled engine. By 1963
Daihatsu had managed to add the much needed
4th wheel to their Campagno models, although
these early iterations were still extremely
small in size; available in saloon, sports
and station wagon variants, all were equipped
with the Daihatsu 797cc four cylinder engine.
By 1966 the engine capacity had grown to 958cc,
it producing 65 bhp, then in 1967 the company
again returned to the manufacture of light-weight
mini cars, this time with the 356cc "Fellow";
despite its diminutive size it would prove
extremely popular in the domestic market, and
would remain in production into the early 1970's. Absorbed into the Toyota conglomerate, the
companies offerings were soon to mimic those
of its bigger brother, although they were always
smaller and cheaper. The Compagno was replaced
by the Consorte, and in reality it was only
a thinly disguised Corolla.
Most notable though
was the Taft; this Jeep like 4x4 was powered
by a 958cc four cylinder engine and would begin
a trend that would see Daihatsu manufacture
a long line of very profitable light 4 wheel
drive vehicles, the only real competition in
this section of the market coming from Suzuki's
LJ80. By 1977 the Fellow had grown to a 547cc
four stroke engine, however the use by date
had long expired, it being replaced by the
Cuore fitted with a transverse mounted engine.
Then came the wonderful little Charade, a front-wheel-drive
car fitted with a unique 60.6ci 993cc three
cylinder engine mated to a 5 speed gearbox. Incredibly popular, the engineers even set
about fitting the little Charade with an ultra-economical
turbo-
diesel. For a time the Charade held the
honor of being the only 3 cylinder car in the
world, excluding of course the Italian built
Innocenti, but even this car used the Daihatsu
engine.
