Daihatsu Terios in general

My Mum owned both the OLD model of this car and currently has the NEW model as featured on Top Gear so thought it might be useful to give a quick comparison of the two. OK they are not my car, but I have driven both numerous times and feel well placed to give a balanced view of the car as I did not pay for them! Firstly, the old model (the one pictured here!). Well, what can I say, it was an atrocious piece of engineering. The 1.3L engine was far, far too underpowered, making even slight inclines difficult to traverse, 2nd gear was needed even for small hills most of the time as the gear ratios were wholly inadequate. The car was far, far slower than my 2002 ...  Read the complete review

The Terios looks good, there is no doubt about that. For all the modern styling and mod-cons, however, it is useless when entering longer journeys. The whole car shakes and the engine sounds like it is an Ostrich having its neck squeezed by something very large. At these speeds it becomes a hazard and will rock with even a passing cross wind. This was enough for us to decide that for all the city ability we so much enjoyed it just wasn't a viable option and our desire to save the environment had to give way to a much more able, bigger engined vehicle. A lot of the problems probably came from the gearing of the car- they were set far too low and while this ...  Read the complete review

When purchasing my Terios I had in mind a nippy 4x4 that was compact and had a lowish insurance group. The Terios pretty much fulfilled this criteria but with an insurance group of 7 seemed highly placed for a car that holds a mere 1.3 litre unit. Generally speaking the Terios satisfied, had great acceleration, a comfortable interior and looked good. The biggest criticisms have to rest with its motorway performance and general handling- the latter was perhaps not so bad but if you need to go on long trips and hop on and off motorways then forget this car. The 16v injected 1.3 litre unit has good acceleration up to about 40-50mph but the engine has to work very ...  Read the complete review