I have recently purchased from its original owner a Copen 0.7,must be one of the first batch imported as registered 1 Dec 2003.Silver with red leather. Amazingly a little under 10,000 miles from new when purchased,now just over,and totally mint,including underside.Dry summer days only apparently & a credit to its owner.I shall have to be careful! It now shares a garage with an original 1998 Daihatsu Avanzato another Kei Car;same engine as Copen but 4 wheel drive & saloon(cut down & narrow Cuore with spoilers),one of the 80 or so officially imported which I have had over 10 years. The Copen is much more relaxing to drive,the Avanzato is like driving a spin dryer with very low gearing and mega fast acceleration to 50mph! Jeremy.
Hi Jeremy, welcome to Copenworld. Head over to KKITP, we have a thriving Avanzato community. http://kkitp.com/3/
Hey, welcome to the wonderful world of Copens, Jeremy - and in Cumbria too! Can't believe that your car's done less than 1000 miles a year since new - amazing! Hope you really enjoy driving it and looking forward to some nice pics...
Hi Jeremy Welcome to Copenworld. That's 3 Copens in our neck of the woods, now (that we know of!) I'm no longer unique...
Thank you all for your welcome.I think Debs there may be at least four Copens in Cumbria as I have seen another one several times in Ambleside this year.In theory there should be several more as there were at least four Daihatsu dealers in & around the edges of Cumbria. Sharoe Green Garage in Preston keep basic spare parts like filters and still have their Daihatsu signs up.They now sell Peroduas which are rebadged Daihatsu,they had a Copen for sale recently.
You're right, Jeremy. I've got my 59-plate booked into Sharoe Green next month for a service and warranty check (they originally supplied the car) while there's still time left on the Daihatsu warranty (leaking into boot, lacquer bubbling on alloys). They seemed pretty switched on when I chatted on the phone. I'll let you know how they deal with everything.
I'll be interested Jules to hear how you get on at Sharoe Green for future reference,they are only just off the main road into Preston from M6 North Motorway Junction. A small garage in the village has serviced my 0.7 engined Daihatsu Avanzato without problems & only charged 30 mins labour for putting a new filter & oil into the Copen and giving it a quick once over before its MOT test so I will continue unless there are dealer only jobs. The wheels on my Copen are perfect(largely because it has not ventured out on wet days in ten years!) but Daihatsu Alloy wheels often seem to have problems,at least based on those on my Avanzato and others I have seen,they appear to corrode from the inside the surface underneath the lacquer seems to oxidise.If you are lucky enough to still have a warranty I would try and get them replaced.Daihatsu have odd spacing for the wheel nuts and replacement wheels other than Minilites are difficult to obtain.
OK Jeremy, well Neville had his pamper day today at Sharoe Green Garage in Preston and I have to say I was well impressed. The whole feel of the place was welcoming and business-like and they gave every impression of knowing what they were doing. Neville had his fourth service and they are hoping to get the alloys sorted under warranty as well as the corroded front brake discs, which they were unhappy with. He also has a small leak into the boot and they are claiming for that to be done as well with a reseal of the brake light on the boot lid. Price-wise their labour is £60/hour and the receipt suggested the work took a total of 1.5 hours. Once he's out of warranty I might not always get him serviced there (2hour drive from home!), but I can certainly recommend it and their service advisor, Nicki, seemed really switched on and friendly. Hope that helps! Enjoy Christmas with your Copen and here's to some great top-down driving in the New Year!
