1992 Daihatsu Hijet 4x4 Mini-truck on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Daihatsu bringing retro Copen roadster, van-boat to Tokyo Auto Salon

Though its products are almost universally small (aside from its rebadged Toyota offerings), Daihatsu seems as though it'll have a fairly large presence at the 2023 Tokyo Auto Salon. It's highlighting eight main models with a few of them sporting some pretty extensive and cool modifications. The more interesting models are likely just concepts, but occasionally some of these customs result in production variants, such as a wild retro Honda S660 concept from a couple years ago. Copen Clubsport Daihatsu's sportiest offering of late is the Copen roadster. And it's celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. The kei-class roadster (shown at top) with its turbocharged 660cc engine has received drastic styling changes that put it more inline with the original. Those changes include round, retro headlights front and rear, and a much cuter round front grille. The cuter appearance is bolstered by racier appointments such as a roll bar, side skirts, rear diffuser and red-tipped exhaust outlets. As with the current Copen and the original, it still appears to have a retractable hardtop. Performance details haven't been announced, but we wouldn't be surprised if some suspension changes have been made at the least, if not any power improvements. This is also the car that had us thinking of the aforementioned Honda S660 retro model that reached production. We'd love to see it happen, as I'm sure would enthusiasts in Japan. Daihatsu Hijet Jumbo Extend View 4 Photos Hijet Jumbo Extend Designed as a hypothetical support truck for parts and more is the Hijet Jumbo Extend. It's based on the Hijet Jumbo, the extended-cab version of the Hijet kei truck. It's been fitted with a custom van box that can be extended for housing more stuff and maybe even people. The render also indicates that it will have an easily accessible fire extinguisher in a custom mount on the outside. Matching paint and a set of Volk TE37 wheels help it have the same racing-inspired look as the Copen Clubsport. Daihatsu Atrai Wildranger View 2 Photos Atrai Wildranger The third of the highly customized Daihatsu Atrai Wildranger. The company added chunky all-terrain tires and bedliner along the bottom half of its Atrai kei van. It also has suitably outdoorsy green paint. But the big attraction is what's on the roof. While looking like the van's roof, what's actually up there is a pop-off boat. That's why there are oars on either side. So this will get you both to the river, and down it.

Toyota outsells VW for global sales crown, apologizes with a vow to 'be honest'

Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda bows in apology during a press conference Tuesday over the group companies' quality scandals. (Getty Images)   Every quarter, the stock market hangs on how much sales growth Tesla and other startups have experienced. There's growth, but then there's sheer output, and when it comes to deliveries dominance, one company can't be touched. Toyota on Tuesday announced that it remained the world's top-selling automaker for the fourth year running, with record sales of 11.2 million vehicles in 2023. Toyota's global group sales jumped 7.2% last year; the numbers include sales at Daihatsu and truck unit Hino Motors. Toyota's parent-only vehicles, which include the Toyota and Lexus brands, hit a record of 10.3 million vehicles in 2023. Gasoline-electric hybrids made up about a third of those. Battery electric vehicles accounted for less than 1%. Toyota's annual output handily beat runner-up Volkswagen Group, which this month reported a 12% rise in deliveries last year to 9.2 million cars. That growth was driven largely by demand for Audi, which sold 1.9 million vehicles. The auto industry in 2023 enjoyed a post-pandemic recovery as supply chain bottlenecks eased, though shipping problems through the Red Sea so far this year have stalled that progress by some automakers, causing some car plants in Europe to suspend production. Toyota's global group sales have now topped 10 million vehicles for nine of the past 10 years, except for 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic delivered a blow to the auto sector. Scandals and an apology Toyota's chairman apologized on Tuesday for scandals at the three group companies. Daihatsu, Hino and affiliate Toyota Industries have been beset by governance issues involving certification test procedures for cars and engines that could potentially hurt the brand's global reputation for quality and safety. "I would like to express my deepest apologies to our customers and stakeholders for the inconvenience and concern caused by the successive irregularities at Hino Motors, Daihatsu and Toyota Industries," Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda told reporters. He was speaking at an event to announce a vision for the Toyota group, which was founded by his great-grandfather and now includes 17 companies.

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.