1996 Daihatsu Rocky S2 on 2040-cars

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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.

Daihatsu's Move Canbus could very well be the world's cutest car

The Daihatsu Move Canbus is too adorable to ignore, even though don't frequently cover cars outside of the US market. Just look at its face. It's so cute that fascia just seems too cold a term to use. Those big round headlights and upturned grille make for a relentlessly cheerful look. It even has a little circular chrome badge for a nose! The bleakest Monday morning would be a little brighter if this was in your driveway to greet you. The cute appearance is enhanced by the cheerful retro colors and additional chrome trim. Even the Canbus's name is positive. Daihatsu's press release explains that it combines the verb "can" to describe the van's ability to do almost anything, with the noun "bus" to describe the shape of the car. This car literally has can-do attitude in the name. It's also the name for the internal communications hub for a car's computer, which is totally can-do. Now all the positivity in the world won't let this van accomplish everything. Compared with most vehicles from other markets, the Move Canbus a miniscule car. It falls into the "kei" class of Japanese cars which are incredibly small and have an engine displacement limit of 660cc. It makes good use of its limited space though. The rear seats can slide fore and aft to allow for more cargo space or rear legroom. It also has little drawers under the seats for extra storage, and they can slide out to hold bags. Plus, check out the retro interior with bench seats front and rear. Those seats can also be decked out with washable covers in four styles, including, for some reason, licensed Disney designs. We're not saying we think this van should come here, even though it totally should. As much as the Autoblog staff loves tiny Japanese cars, they're not safe in the land of F-450s and Ram Power Wagons. However, we want to acknowledge interesting car design, which this Daihatsu has, and we wouldn't mind seeing another company's take on the look. In fact, we believe a certain German automaker would be the perfect candidate for producing cute, retro van. Related Video:

Junkyard Gem: 1990 Daihatsu Charade

The North American automotive landscape is littered with the bones of overseas marques that tried and failed to get a toehold here. Peugeot, Austin, Sterling, Yugo, Suzuki, Daewoo… the list goes on and on. Daihatsu had the backing of majority shareholder Toyota and a very successful line of vehicles in its Japanese homeland, so the idea of selling in North America seemed to make sense in the late 1980s. Things didn't work out so well in the end, but two models of Daihatsu could be purchased here for the 1988 through 1992 model years. Here's an example of the better-known Daihatsu, spotted in a Denver-area U-Wrench yard. Apologies for the beschmutzified images; I was pulling vast quantities of Junkyard Boombox parts at this yard's All You Can Carry For $59.99 Sale that day, and I got transmission fluid on the lens. The Charade was very cheap and pretty well screwed-together, but it had to compete against cheap cars from well-known makes such as Subaru (the Justy), Pontiac (the Daewoo-built LeMans), Ford (the Mazda-built Festiva), and Geo (the Suzuki-built Metro), and it was saddled with one of the worst names in automotive history. At least the suits at Daihatsu got the naming thing right with their little mini-SUV: the Rocky. Strangely, I still see the occasional Daihatsu as I roam the car graveyards of the land. I'm not sure where they hide, but they end up here. The three-banger in the '90 Charade generated a not-so-whopping 53 horsepower. Think about that the next time you moan about the new Mirage's allegedly intolerable 78 horses, or the Versa's 109. In Hong Kong, the car's Japanese origins were emphasized in the advertising. We've set a new standards for new cars todayÂ… but you can't feel the glow until you drive one away! Featured Gallery Junked 1990 Daihatsu Charade View 14 Photos Auto News Daihatsu Automotive History Junkyard Gems