1999 Daihatsu Other A Car That Roasts Sweet Potatoes. Japanese Culture on 2040-cars

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Daihatsu kei camper van heads to Tokyo Auto Salon

Daihatsu is heading to the 2022 Tokyo Auto Salon with a selection of modified cars. The event is known for its high-performance sports cars and extravagant luxury rides, so how does a company specializing in kei cars and compacts stand out? By headlining a kei camper with a folding rooftop tent. #Vanlife! The Daihatsu Atrai Deck Camper started out as a kei delivery truck for Japan's narrow city streets. It's a notable vehicle for being the only kei truck that has four doors and a pickup-like bed in the back. Not only that, but the two rear doors are of the sliding variety, and the tailgate folds open 180 degrees. Normally, this would seem to be a hit with refrigerator or grandfather clock repairmen, but Daihatsu sees it as the perfect camping car. The rooftop canopy appears to open and fold outward in shapes that mimic the added buttresses along the bed. Additional expedition gear comes in the form of a safari rack on top of the tent shell, an LED light bar and what appear to be two pairs of auxiliary lights in a bespoke front fascia. Daihatsu's building four other vehicles for the Auto Salon. One is a more luxurious version of the fully enclosed Atrai van, fitted with a grille rivaling that of the new Silverado. Another Daihatsu HiJet kei truck is described as an assembly experience truck for the Copen roadster. Though we only have a cartoony illustration to go with it for now, it looks like you'll be able to construct the nose of a Copen in the truck's bed. Last but not least, Daihatsu is showing two variants of the revived Daihatsu Rocky. Gen X readers might remember that name from the Suzuki Samurai-esque off-roader that was sold briefly in the U.S. from 1988-92. Unlike its body-on-frame predecessors, the new Rockys are unibody compacts. The show cars depict a luxury-leaning version and an off-road version. Should Daihatsu ever return to the U.S. market the Rocky would probably sell well in crossover-crazy America, but the real MVP would be a production Atrai Deck Camper. Related Video: Featured Gallery Daihatsu Tokyo Auto Salon 2022 Aftermarket Tokyo Auto Salon Daihatsu Crossover Minivan/Van

Junkyard Gem: 1990 Daihatsu Rocky SX

The Daihatsu Motor Company, best-known for its popular kei cars and vans in Japan, made a short-lived attempt to sell highway vehicles in the United States. From the 1988 through 1992 model years, the Charade subcompact and Rocky mini-SUV could be purchased here, after which the brand packed up and went home. As you might imagine, the Charade is very rare and the Rocky nearly nonexistent today, but my junkyard searching never ceases and I find examples here and there. Here's a 1990 Rocky, found in a self-service yard near Denver, Colorado. The Rocky name was used mostly in Japan and North America, while the rest of the world knew this truck as the Feroza or Sportrak.   Its narrow track and light weight made the Rocky good for off-road use and the price tag was reasonable, but (as was also the case with the Suzuki Samurai) it didn't fare so well as an American highway commuter. The main reason Rocky sales never really took off here, though, was the never-heard-of-it manufacturer coupled with a nasty recession.   Toyota, which owned enough of Daihatsu to have veto power over business decisions in 1990, eventually took full control of the company in 2016. Today, Toyota rakes in the yen selling Daihatsu Hijet trucks around the world.   The 1.6-liter four-cylinder engine in the Rocky made 94 horsepower.   Both the Rocky and the Charade could be purchased with a four-speed automatic transmission, but most buyers opted for the cheaper and more fuel-efficient five-on-the-floor manual. In fact, I've found but a single slushbox Daihatsu in all my years of junkyard crawling.   This little truck trundled over just past 200,000 miles of asphalt and (presumably) mud, dirt, and snow during its 31 years. For a Daihatsu, that's very impressive.   But the resale value on a well-worn small truck with three pedals and badges from a mystery manufacturer isn't so great, so here it sits. As rare as Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster! In Japan, shrill cuteness sold Rockies. In Oz, the Feroza's off-road abilities kept it from being late to surfing appointments. As tough as Uncle Toby's Iron Men. The Feroza name was used in Europe as well. Intensely rad Dutch car shoppers could get the Feroza's canvas top in various 1980s early 1990s pastel colors, to match their leg warmers.

A Daihatsu kei fire truck is making friends all over San Francisco

We have some bad news. Those of you rocking your imported Nissan Skylines and Mitsubishi Lancer Evolutions have been doing it all wrong. If you want to actually make friends and influence people, the JDM car to drive is a 1990 Daihatsu Hijet fire truck. Todd Lappin already has a Skyline, but if Instagram accounts are any measure of success, it's his tiny red kei-class emergency vehicle that gets all the attention. Strangers want to take photos with it, kids want to play with it, and it stands out at any car show. He imported it last year from a small Japanese ski resort town to San Francisco. "The best analogy is walking down the street with a puppy," Lappin told the San Francisco Chronicle, "in the way that everybody becomes their nicest, sweetest, best-behaved self. Doesn’t matter — men, women, young, old. They stop and laugh and have kind of a confused look on their faces." The truck is named Kiri, after its original home of Kirigamine, located in Nagano Prefecture. According to Lappin, the whole town's population is only a couple hundred people. The fire department there was all volunteer, and the truck has only accumulated about 4,000 miles on it since new. After it was decommissioned, Lappin bought it at auction for "almost nothing." Vehicles are federally eligible for import if they 25 years old, a vestige of when Mercedes-Benz lobbied the U.S. government to restrict European imports of its cheaper models.  Because it was built to meet kei specifications, the truck has a 660cc engine churning out 63 horsepower. However, it was never meant for freeway cruising, just around-town hustling. Lappin told the SF Chronicle the Hijet tops out at around 60 mph on the highway, but "it sprints up San Francisco hills like you wouldnÂ’t believe." The truck arrived stripped of its fire equipment, but Lappin reassembled what it needed to become a functioning firefighting tool again. The truck doesn't carry its own water tank. Instead, its onboard pump allows the hose to be plopped into any water source, using an old-school wicker filter to strain out any debris. When asked whether the truck could put out a fire, Lappin mentions that it will live in Somona part-time. Located about an hour north of the city, it's an area that has seen its share of wildfires in recent years.