1999 Daihatsu Terios Kid Aro Down on 2040-cars

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Question of the Day: What's the most irritating car name?

You hear a lot about how the Chevrolet Nova was a sales flop in Mexico because "No va" means "it doesn't go" in Spanish; in fact, the Nova sold pretty well south of the border, and in any case most Spanish-speakers know that "Nova" means "new" in Latin and Portuguese. However, General Motors doesn't deserve to be let off the hook for bad car names, because the Oldsmobile Achieva— no doubt inspired by the excruciating "coffee achievers" ads of the 1980s— scrapes the biggest fingernails down the screechiest chalkboard in the US-market car-name world. That is, unless you think Daihatsu's incomprehensible choice of Charade was worse. Meanwhile, Japanese car buyers could get machines with cool names like Mazda Bongo Friendee or Honda Life Dunk. It's just not fair! So, what car name drives you the craziest? Related Video: Auto News Design/Style Chevrolet Honda Mazda Daihatsu Automotive History questions car names

Junkyard Gem: 1990 Daihatsu Charade SE Hatchback

The third-generation Daihatsu Charade could be purchased in the United States for the 1988 through 1992 model years, but competition against the likes of the Ford Festiva, Geo Metro, Subaru Justy, and Pontiac LeMans proved too tough for the relatively unknown Japanese marque. You won't see many Charades (or Rockies) today, but this gold '90 Charade manage to avoid the crusher until age 27. The Charade name is up there with Achieva, Starion, ETC, and Aspire, when it comes to model names from the "what could they have been thinking?" category. Like the Metro and Justy, the Charade's standard engine was a straight-three driving the front wheels. This engine was good for 53 horsepower, compared to 66 in the Justy and 55 in the Metro. An optional four-cylinder making 80 hp was available. The Charade listed for $6,497 in 1990, which is about $12,000 in inflation-adjusted 2017 dollars. The '90 Geo Metro was $6,995 and the Justy was a mere $6,295. This Charade never even made it to 100,000 miles, which may or may not be indicative of its build quality. Daihatsu USA tried to make the brand's obscurity a selling point in this 1991 ad, but the company was gone after the following year. Related Video: Featured Gallery Junked 1990 Daihatsu Charade View 17 Photos Auto News Daihatsu Automotive History

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.