Launch report:

Daihatsu Terios review

by David Finlay (12 June 2006)

Daihatsu is in the middle of an effort to increase its European sales from 32,000 in 2003 to 80,000 in two years' time. That's a tough assignment, and the model given most of the responsibility for the improvement is the new Terios compact SUV.

It's a significantly larger model than the last one to bear the name. There has been a modest reduction in height, but a big expansion in length and width, and the result is a car with impressive interior room; despite initial appearances, the Terios has no problem at all in carrying four large adults.

Luggage volume isn't bad. With the rear seats up there's 380 litres available, and this expands considerably when you fold the seats down, though Daihatsu doesn't give an official capacity figure in that configuration. The company does point out, though, that the load floor extends to 1290mm, or enough to carry a mountain bike.

There are three models in the range, and we'll come to their individual attributes shortly. One thing they all share is a 1.5-litre version of the variable valve timing engine already used (in 1.3-litre form) in the Sirion. Maximum power is 104bhp, and while this may not be a startling figure it's at least enough to make the Terios squirt away for the first few yards from a standing start.

By the time you're into third gear, though, the engine is having to deal with increasingly heavy aerodynamic resistance created by the tall body. For that reason, the Terios isn't very quick; the fastest version can't quite make it to 100mph, and takes 12 seconds to reach 62mph from rest.

This is probably a good thing. If your lifestyle demands what a Terios can give, you probably aren't all that interested in straightline performance. And the way the car behaves suggests that more power really wouldn't be a good idea in any case.

Here's why. Taking full advantage of the greater body size, Daihatsu has mounted the four wheels as far apart as they can reasonably go. This should aid stability, and in fact there is a claim that the Terios has been "tuned for car-like, confidence-inspiring handling".

Frankly, there is very little evidence to support this. The open road is not home territory for the Terios in the same way that the rain forest of Borneo is not the natural habitat of penguins. For bouncing, rolling and pitching it is practically without equal among cars offered for sale this century. It is so grievously upset by the slightest bump that it makes the most apparently user-friendly piece of tarmac feel like the North Sea. Confidence-inspiring? No.

It's a pity that Daihatsu felt the need to make such an easily refutable claim (here's another one: "sporty handling", Lord help us) when the Terios in fact manages so much better in other environments. At the press launch, the company set up an off-road course, and here, for the first time, the Terios began to make sense.

Now, there are a couple of things to note here. Firstly, the car we were driving was on off-road tyres, though the Daihatsu people said they didn't make much difference (if not, why not, and why fit them?). Secondly, the course was not of a sort that would have given a Discovery pause for thought. All the same, it would have been completely off-limits to a normal road car.

The Terios copes with this sort of thing partly because four-wheel drive comes as standard. There is almost no extra trickery, certainly no low-range option on the transmission, but you can improve your chances by locking the centre differential at the touch of a button. Wheel articulation is impressive, and the very short front and rear overhangs mean that the approach and departure angles are a useful 38 and 37 degrees respectively.

If you're not interested in off-roading, you might still find a use for the Terios. Feeble though it may be out in the country, it has a lot going for it. The high-set seating position and large glass area are great for visibility (though reversing isn't helped by thick rear pillars), the steering is light and pleasant to use, and the turning circle is so good that three-point turns in narrow streets are a piece of cake.

The very best Terios for town work is the SE, because that's the one with automatic transmission. It's also the most expensive model, at £14,995, being similar in most other respects to the £14,295 manual SX (which also has slightly different wheels and tyres).

Daihatsu reckons that the SX will be the top-seller in the UK. The cheaper option, at £12,995, is the entry-level S; equipment that this doesn't have but the others do includes alloy wheels (the S makes do with steel ones), privacy glass, a tailgate spoiler, roof rails, front foglights, a multi-function display, heated windscreen and mirrors, load hooks, AC sockets, a leather steering wheel and two-tone wheelarch mouldings.

The S is also marginally the quickest and most economical of the three, thanks to having the lowest weight and the narrowest tyres. Daihatsu claims fairly similar performance figures for them all, though, and likewise there isn't much difference in combined fuel economy figures (33.2 to 35.8mpg) or CO2 ratings (186 to 201g/km).