Toyota has now completed its full takeover of Daihatsu. The purchase was completed on August 1. Toyota announced the plan to take full ownership of Daihatsu in January, in which it already had a 51 percent stake. The two companies formed a business partnership in 1967, and Daihatsu became a Toyota subsidiary in 1998. Daihatsu will become the group’s core unit for small vehicle operations, and Toyota has signalled its intention to accelerate the development of small vehicles following the purchase. Toyota aims to boost its share in emerging markets, especially India, where low-cost vehicles are popular. In the Indian market, Toyota’s share is only around 4 percent, while rival Suzuki holds 45 percent of the market. Daihatsu, which relies on the Japanese market for 65 percent of its sales, wants to expand overseas, as the domestic market is expected to shrink due to an increasingly ageing population. Daihatsu currently has only petrol vehicles in its lineup, but is looking to develop a mini-vehicle using Toyota’s hybrid technology. It also hopes to benefit from Toyota’s driverless and other cutting-edge technologies.
Bit late for that... Even before I knew there was such a thing as a Copen, I was wondering why parts and information concerning my 2003 Sirion were so scarce. I knew nothing of the partnership and impending takeover of Daihatsu by Toyota. When I looked into it, and began to appreciate what was going on, I became less and less impressed by Toyota's stance and attitude. I can only speak from my experiences in Australia, but from about 2003 on, imports of all Daihatsu vehicles slowed to a trickle. I'm not sure about the situation in the rest of the world, but Toyota effectively killed Daihatsu in this country. Why would they do such a thing? I don't see that Daihatsu was robbing Toyota of significant market share. All Toyota has done is taken away from us a very good range of products and given us back nothing. I could be wrong, but that's how it looks from where I sit. Virtually all the Copens in this country are 2003 models, because after that, there were no more brought in. The same goes for the Sirion, and the whole range of Daihatsu products, as far as I can see. Unless there is more to the story that I don't know about, I have a lot of trouble not being angry at Toyota for what they've done. I have owned 3 Daihatsus and I came to appreciate the company as perhaps the most competent maker of automobiles on the planet. Seeing it skewered by Toyota is one of the most painful things I have ever had to watch. Have I crossed some sort of line here? If so, I apologise; I speak only for myself.
Toyota cars are also very good in my opinion, but Daihatsu definitely has more expertise in the making of small and reliable cars. They probably wanted to push their Aygo and Yaris, therefore Cuore and Sirion had to go...
The problem was the increase in strength of the Yen. Since all their production facilities are in Japan and Asia, it wasn't profitable exporting their cars to Europe at the prices they would need to sell at to compete with the bigger manufacturers. They went from 58,000 cars sold in europe (which isn't that great anyway) in 2007 to 12,000 in 2011, that's almost an 80% drop in sales.
Just took the 2003 copen to the local toyota dealer (large dealership) on the Gold Coast Australia as is showing the check engine light,, the dealers diagnostic wont talk to the ECU,,,, so much for toyota owning Diahatsu
Gets worse i did get that dealer to do a service including filter and oil change checked the oil a couple of weeks later and its black as
We're getting off topic here, but maybe you should put some of that cleaning oil and run it for a few days.
Have changed the oil and ordering a filter (that fits through the gap in the mounts) out of europe when it arrives will change oil again hoping thats adequate. Given the oil filter from the major parts retailer in australia doesnt fit i have a suspision it may never have been changed
My mechanic friend was cursing the oil filter when I took the car to him for 100,000 service. However, he got the replacement filter from his supplier; I had left a new filter and a jug of synthetic oil in the boot - I showed him where the release button was, but he told me later that the boot wouldn't open when he pushed it. I told him that the button doesn't open the boot directly, it tells a little computer to open it, but it doesn't do so until it has verified that it's ok to do so. You just have to hold the button down for a second or so. Because of that, he had one massively frustrating time changing the filter, and I got inferior ordinary oil instead of the synthetic stuff I'd bought. FWIW, here is the link to the correct oil filter, which I got on eBay from a seller in Western Australia. All other sources I know of supply a filter that is too big. Wesfil Cooper Oil Filter for Daihatsu Copen 0.7L 2003-2005 WCO83 9323129026449 | eBay When I first got the car, and took it to my other mechanic friend, who has unfortunately since passed away, he, too, used a filter from his supplier. And no, it didn't fit. At that point, I had no source for the correct ones. He ended up putting the new filter in a vise and squashing the top of it until it would fit through the gap. The old one appeared to have been there for a long time. He told me it might even have never been changed since the car was new.
Getting back on topic, or trying to, at least; after it was too late, I finally discovered that the Sirion was being marketed in Europe as the Toyota Storia. After some intense googling, I was finally able to find a factory workshop manual for the Storia - in Russian. Damn. Well, it's better than nothing. Anyway, I drove the Sirion for 10 years with no documentation of any kind, and never had a speck of trouble. That was what cemented my appreciation of Daihatsu as the best in the world at what they do. So, the Copen is my third Daihatsu, the first one was a 1991 Charade. Before I knew about the Copen, I was going to look for a Rocky.
I get the impression re reliability that the copen is one of the lesser cars that diahatsu has made but here's hoping,,,,have always liked the Rocky Sparesbox sells the WC083 for about for about $8 and the Ryco cup style filter removal tool fits it perfect
That's good to know, about Sparesbox. I wonder why Repco and Bursons don't seem to be able to obtain filters that actually fit. Most of Daihatsu's other cars are simpler than the Copen. There are lots of little things that can go wrong with it, but catastrophic failures are very rare, in my experience, anyway. I think Daihatsu's business model emphasises reliability above all else. This idea is supported by my having driven the Sirion for 10 years with nothing of any consequence ever going wrong. The only problem I ever had with the Charade was a water pump failure. The Copen has had numerous things go wrong, but nothing has ever prevented it getting from A to B. The reality is, when you buy a Copen, you buy a hobby as well. In my case, it's my only car, so the hobby is even more serious. All the moreso, since Toyota seems to have abandoned any pretense of support in this country.
We bought the car new in 2003 and with 70000 klms on the clock its been perfect till now when diahatsu pulled out of aus they advised toyota would take over so we have stuck with them for servicing the illusion that toyota cared came to an end when the 1st time we get a check engine light on the dealer said their equipment couldnt talk to the cars computer and they just cut me loose guess the local senior toyota executives just go diahatsu thats not us
In Germany, there are still a handful of former Daihatsu dealerships that have the correct scan tools and can provide OEM spare parts...lucky me
@JMK It's a worry; the "check engine" light has never come on for me since I've owned the car, in spite of existence of conditions where it certainly should have. The OBD2 fuctionality of the Copen seems to be a subset that only addresses basic emission control functions. I have tried numerous codereaders, and none of them have succeeded in communicating with the vehicle until I found the AUTOPHIX OBDMATE OM500 JOBD reader. It has a limited function, but at least it works. Anyway, the fact that the light is on would have to indicate a fundamental problem like total failure of an important sensor. This should be reflected in obviously abnormal running of the engine.
I finished up paying a $150 to a guy who specialises in connecting to ECUs and he correctly identified a defective O2 sensor that has been fixed. Given Sal and Anji's comments, next time i will try the other toyota dealer in town
