Faults:

Wiper blade arm came away from the motor.

Exhaust manifold rusted through.

General Comments:

A lot of fun to drive, but the ride was quite hard and the seats quite basic in their support. Great acceleration and braking performance, but I found that the gear ratios were a compromise: first, second and third were quite tightly bunched and designed to allow rocket-powered acceleration from a standing start... fourth and fifth were cruising gears, which it took forever to build up speed in. The gap between 3rd and 4th was especially something to pay attention to when joining a motorway; a couple of times I got caught with no revs trying to pass a slow lorry after coming down the slip road behind it.

All-round visibility was excellent, making parking and inner-city driving much simpler. Light steering and simple controls also helped. On the motorway it was quite good on long journeys; certainly superior to some other small cars I have driven since.

Faults:

The first thing I noticed with the car is that at such an age the back of the seats have started to twist in fact one actually broke already.

My next issue is that the engine recently started having a noise similar to that of a hissing noise, but apart form that its performance hasn't been hindered.

Any other problems with the car isn't because of poor workmanship, but rather where I live; because I live near the coast what persons in the Caribbean would call sea-salt has caused the body of the car to rust very badly.

General Comments:

The car has a very good pick up in terms of acceleration when tuned properly and although the seats are bad I still feel at home within the vehicle because of its cabin capacity.

Faults:

The engine required overhauling after about 1000000 Kilometers.

General Comments:

The Daihatsu Charade is one of the best and fastest 1000cc cars I've ever driven! In the huge amount of time I've owned it, if raced with Suzuki Swifts (1.0), Cultus (1.0) and even Corollas (1.3) and Civics(1.5).. and won!.. That too on a standard engine.

I have already opened up the exhaust and installed an air-intake.

I'm planning to soup it up and get this baby Turbocharged.. in addition to a full body-kit and 13" 195s.. and then see what it does to the rest of them on the road..

Get ready for the ultimate charade.. you track racers in Karachi!!

Faults:

The head gasket had cracked after 40000km.

There have been some leaks in the pipe that carries the oil which led to my car blowing smoke from the engine.

General Comments:

This car is definetly for someone, preferably female who wants to get from A to B.

It is very economical. In fact a whole tank lasts 400km which costs only $25 to fill up.

However the downfall is that it is embarrassing to take friends on adventures as the lack of power make the charade difficult to drive around the town.