Well 'LegendaryD' that would be telling.... Could have bought several possible higher mileage, roadworthy Copens! Our fault in 2010 we should have spent more on maintaining what we had bought? To be fair... Working out per day including approx. £150.00 annual servicing & MOT, it works out at approx. £2.17 per day over 16 years, now consider we paid no interest, that's cheep motoring Presently the car is on the road taxed & insured worth at least a couple of grand so I've taken that off to arrive the above price. (daren't say more) For the record in 2004 the car was purchased with 'additions' including the fancy wheels @cost £15.25k Add 150 per year without the major sill repairs take off the present value, it would still have cost £2.06 per day over approx. 22 years. Therefore if we can keep it a few more years its never going to get cheaper to run but just over the cost of a 'Bag of Chips' a day got to afford it. Haven't had a bag of chips lately so I'm probably wrong hey ho ! Hope all that helps you may even come up with a figure, if you try to work out our original purchase price, anyway its been interesting working this out, like Shahrams earlier posts statistics!...Fascinating? Take Care Norman E&OE
Thank you for the reply. I've done the maths and I think I know the ballpark of what it cost you, although I am of course estimating (with a little research) what you may have paid for your Copen back then. Money well spent to keep it on the road.
Just to keep folks who appear to pick up on my original 'cry for help' in the loop; it would be good to know if Malcom McKay (see post Dec 13th 2025) did manage to sort his sills out???? Keep seeing in other posts low mileage 20 odd year old models for sale, yet the list of SORN Copens grows larger each winter which suggests to me a lot of these are MOT failures? I can report that MOT #3 has just been obtained for our Copen with another £150 service & 700 miles on the clock ....Station run to Newark yesterday on the A616 a great moderately quiet stretch of road, blew away the cobwebs, unfortunately the dreaded Chippings are due to start again! Needs must but not good until they've swept up the surplice... To all who contribute on the site, personally don't do technical But read most postings with interest, thanks to those regulars along which along the historical stuff makes & I'm sure others too interesting stuff! Hope for some feedback; take care Norman E&OE
Hi Norman, Good to hear that your Daihatsu Copen is in good hands! I did some digging and came across this website: Daihatsu Copen MOT Failures & Pass Rate | The MOT Files It looks like the most common MOT failure is indeed related to compromised structural integrity, with corrosion being the main enemy. It’s interesting to see that the Copen has a 68.3% MOT pass rate. Out of curiosity, I also did some digging to see how many Copens were originally sold in Europe and how many are still registered/on the road: EU: According to Daihatsu Copen Sales Figures | GCBC figures, around 7,018 Copens were sold in the EU market. UK (Vehicle licensing statistics data files - GOV.UK) 922 units on the road and 713 SORN NL (Open Data RDW: Gekentekende_voertuigen | Open Data | RDW ) 312 units on the road, 22 uninsured (assume SORN) DE (Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt - Statistik Kompakt - Bestand nach Herstellern und Handelsnamen (FZ 2)) 1747 units on the road I spent quite a bit of time searching the data for other European countries, but unfortunately it’s surprisingly difficult to find figures. Some countries don't seem to publish the data in a way that makes it possible to identify the Copen separately. It would be interesting to know how many of the original 7,000+ European Copens have actually survived!
Thanks Shahram, very much appreciate your reply, interesting info did check our Copens back MOT history...never failed or had any advisories. The sill issue was as the consequence of our local garage suggesting that it would not pass next time without some new sill panels, this was the bit that struck home, 'probably not economically worth the work' they had to eat their words! The search then began to look for someone who could help, everyone I saw including travelling as as far as Doncaster; again recommended people, all were of the same opinion, not worth the hassle! The trouble was each time it was ramped up, more holes were put in the sills! So I agree the only Copens that will remain roadworthy will need serious TLC, CASH &/OR enthusiastic professional or DIY'er Our 'loop' has increased again, however nobody is sharing experiences, just jumping ship?... Me thinks... Take Care Norman E&OE
