2008 Daihatsu Sirion S from UK and Ireland - Comments

Nothing at all; and I have looked VERY hard!

I am very impressed with the Sirion, especially with the 1.0 powerplant and the overall finish, quality and interior size. It is very well built from good grade materials.

I have owned recently a 2006 Suzuki Ignis 1.5 4grip, 2006 1.3 Suzuki Jimny, 2006 1.3 Suzuki Swift DDiS, 2006 0.6 turbo Daihatsu Copen, 2007 1.3 Perodua Myvi (similar to Sirion but not the same quality), 2007 1.3 Fiat Panda Multijet Diesel and a 2007 Fiat Doblo 1.9 Dynamic Multijet Diesel. See my comments for all of these on this site.

I previously bought the Panda and Doblo for myself and my wife to share, but found the Panda to be very tight in the cabin and too small for a pushchair, and by chance got talking to a Daihatsu dealer who offered an excellent deal to swap the two Fiats for two identical Sirion 1.0S in red, one for me, one for my wife.

Our previous car to the Fiats was the Malaysian cr firm Peroduas' Sirion equivalent, the 2007 Myvi 1.3, which is now owned by my Parents and has covered 18,000 miles.

We loved the Myvi but the quality was lacking (see posted comments on the Myvi reports) and had bought it because of the exceptional deal we got to part-ex the Copen (we made a healthy profit on it!!). At the time, the Sirion was more expensive.

When the Myvi was sold, we missed the interior space and ease of use-especially the lower rear seat base mechanism, and when the chance of a good deal on the Sirions came up, we jumped at it.

Our cars are the latest 2008 facelift model, with the aux audio socket, updated dash and bumpers, plus body colour door handles. The deal worked out at around £6500 each including the five year warranty and breakdown cover offer, which was excellent.

We looked at the Sirion in 2007 when buying the Myvi-the Myvi was £6500 including metallic paint, mats and flaps, and came with the bigger 1.3 engine, rear speakers, LED lights, LED indicators in body coloured mirrors, body colour handles and a far prettier front end and interior/dash and a neater rear end with the number plate on the bootlid; not on the rear bumper.

The trim fabric was far posher looking too than the Sirion, which cost over £7000 at the time for a base 1.0S with miserly kit (metallic, mats and flaps extra too), and it just looked so gawky and basic with cheap looking trim, black door handles and awful wheel trims.

After owning the Sirion, we realised where the savings were made by Perodua-no rear headrests, NO CLOCK!!, poor paint quality, no ISOFIX, no parcel shelf strings, no passenger airbag switch and so on. We had a number of faults and quality issues, which are still ongoing; the second set of hatchback gas struts have failed already, the interior light switches are constantly faulty, electric window switches play up, and so on.

All of the above leads me to the conclusion that the basic 1.0S Sirion is an excellent car, with no faults, super build quality, and that the facelift has overcome the reasons not to buy one; it has included extra kit for less money and made the overall car more attractive to look at, and now has the five year warranty/breakdown deal.

Standard spec of the 1.0S base model is now very comprehensive: remote locking including boot, air-con with recirculation facility and face level vents, excellent quality stereo with aux input for MP3, split fold and reclining rear seats with clever seat base and five seatbelts and headrests, ABS/EBD, dual front AND SIDE airbags with passenger airbag switch, 4* NCAP crash rating with excellent side impact score due to side 'bags, £30 2009 road tax/55+mpg daily, body colour door handles and bumpers, rev counter/tachometer, fuel computer with instantaneous and average consumption display, clock and twin tripometers, remote locking fuel cap, double glovebox, backlit centre dash storage cubby and additional storage drawer on dash.

I actually think that the excellent 69BHP 998cc 3 cylinder engine is actually preferable to the 1298cc 86BHP 4 cylinder unit, as it has lower emissions with tax at £30pa (not £115pa as for the 1.3), lower insurance (4 not 6) and is far easier to use as the characterful thrum gives you great pedal feel to prevent stalling. My wife is a new driver and regularly stalled the smooth and silent 1.3, but never does this in the 1.0.

The 1.0 also has a great sound to it with a burble and a very slight whistle at lower revs turning into a pretty sporty sounding snarl at higher revs. It pulls from 25mph to 80mph in 3rd..!! I find myself driving with the window open just to listen to it!

My brother runs a Citroen C1 with the same engine, and we loved the engine but the C1 was to tinny and basic for us. The same engine is found in the Citroen C1, Toyota Aygo, Peugeot 107, Toyota Yaris 1.0 VVTi and the new Subaru Justy, but the combination of low price, best spec and size make the Sirion by far the best choice.

We find the car capable on any road, including motorways (but sidewinds deflect it easily) and get between 50 and 62mpg depending on terrain.

Best bits: interior layout and size, rear seat set-up, high spec, great quality, 1.0 engine full of character, minimal running costs.

Needs looking at next facelift: we had to bend the parcel shelf string hooks slightly to stop the string keeping falling off the hook, why oh why provide a STUPID space-saver spare wheel?, your neck causes the front headrests to click up when shifting seat position (e.g. getting keys out of your pockets) which means getting out to reach the button to allow them to go down again, 12v power socket in daft location as accessory plug in way of passenger shin.

I would definitely buy one again, and would suggest the pick of the range is a Sirion 1.0SE. The SE spec adds electric mirrors (sorely missed), rear door speakers, seatback pockets, alloy wheels and reversing sensors. The best colour is the new 2008 dark red metallic which suits the car very well indeed and with the SE spec alloys gives a premium hatchback look for an amazingly cheap price of about £7000 after a good haggle.

We opted for base S spec cars in base red-the free colour-due to money limits, and also because we did not want alloys or reversing sensors. We would have liked the electric mirrors, rear speakers and seatback pocket though.

***NOTE*** After 1600 miles the transmission has transformed-please note that the 1.0 seems very slow at first but loosens up massively, and the at-first stiff gear change soon settles down. Mine now runs exceptionally well, my wifes has only done 500 miles and is hard work compared.

I recently drove the 1.3 Myvi (identical engine to Sirion 1.3) straight after the 1.0 Sirion and noticed a slight difference in engine volume and smoothness, but missed the 1.0 sound and power band.

So far-highly impressive. I will update the thread as the miles pile on, please ask any questions by posting comments and I will reply asap.

Geoff.

** Update **

Exceptionally pleased with both cars, and have had to look very, very hard to make any comments, but here goes:

Two Sirions, two sets of updates:

My car at 3500 miles - slight click on steering rack when turning lock to lock, fuel gauge once did not register fullest bar, even with fuel running out of the filler, swift 3rd-5th gearchange often outwits the synchro.

My wife's car at 2700 miles - one bar of rear screen heater has never worked, slight rattle around driver's side dashboard top, NSF door appears to have a loose screw somewhere as slight rattle when slammed shut.

Love:

Engine sound, economy and performance - fabulous - we both much prefer it to the 1.3 unit, plus the smugness about 50-60mpg and £30 road tax in 2009.

Vast interior space, impressive build quality and finish, brilliant split rear seat bases, which pull forward to create a large flat space, which in conjunction with the 90 degree opening rear doors, provides a space big enough to throw in four stacking chairs without folding the seat backs down, and provides a flat area which nothing can fall off.

Standard air-con.

Soft ride, good seats, copes with long journeys 4-up well.

Don't love:

The inner sills and around the doors jambs are always filthy as no dust seals.

No rear speakers on 1.0S base model.

The daft fabric/hook set up of the rear shelf is fiddly and unnecessary, and prevents easy boot access from the rear seat.

Interior plastics scratch extremely easily.

Through ventilation poor (needs rear outflow vents to draw air through car).

Cheap gearstick on base cars (I have now fitted a posh one in my car).

Current verdict:

A well designed, spacious hatchback, which is perfect in the current financial climate with 50-60mpg, £30pa tax and an enjoyable engine note.

Not as "polished" as the Yaris which we demo'd for two days, but lighter, quicker and more fun.

Tip: if considering which engine to choose, do bear in mind that the 1.0 is very tight and slow on demo cars if they have done less than 2,000 (hard!) miles.  We used both and much prefer the 1.0 for its engine note and economy, and find it much harder to stall than the silkier and quieter 1.3 unit. I MUCH prefer the 1.0 unit, and would choose it over the 1.3 every time, as I like to drive with "vigour" (!!!) and it sounds great.  The £30 tax band, better economy (8-10mpg better) and lower insurance group seals the deal.

I think the best car in the range would be a 1.0SE in dark red metallic, as it looks expensive and has all the kit - reversing sensors, alloys, rear speakers etc, but still has the best engine and lowest running costs.  Do a deal at around £7600 including metallic, if you can get hold of one.  Worth looking out for - highly recommended. Top spec cars make much less sense compared to, say, a supermarket sourced six month old Astra or similar.

I check the site regularly, so if you have any questions, post a comment.

Hey I drive a sirion from 2005 and I think the air con is really poor - I live in the Middle East.

Whats your thoughts on this?

The air conditioning is not as powerful as systems in some other cars - the whole ventilation system in the Sirion is the weak spot in an otherwise excellent package.

In the UK, I find that even in a new 2008 car with 4,000 miles, the air con is slow and takes a long time to cool the car down. Once cold, it is OK, but there is not a big enough draw of air through the car, necessitating opening the window every so often.

For a cheap car, though it is worth considering that the car has STANDARD air con on the base model, and all the competitors with the same cabin size are more expensive and have the air con as a cost option.

The way I look at it, the air con is no better or worse than other budget cars, and the fact that it is a very cheap car and the air con is free!! In that respect, it is a great feature.

As I have said on other comment threads, the Sirion makes excellent sense as a cheap car - the 1.0SE is a fabulous car and absolutely unbeatable for the money. Once you get over £7000, the competition simply gets better.

I love my Sirion for its many qualities - I can live with the just-adequate ventilation/air con system at this price. You expect more if you spend more!! I do feel smug when I see an Aygo/Yaris/107/C1 driver sweating in the sun....!

Geoff.

We have a black 1.0SE, and find the aircon very effective. Switch to recirculate and it only takes a minute to cool even the rear seat passengers. This is in the UK though, where summer has been a little disappointing...

Excellent review geoff, i own a 2007 sirion 1 litre s in silver, i have owned this car from new and have now covered 15500 miles. i have had no reliability problems with the car. i agree the gear change loosens up nicely after about 6000 miles. the fuel consumption is excellent and seems to be even better after reaching about 10k miles. air con is a little underpowered but does the job. servicing is cheap my 1st service was £106 including vat and the second service is approx £180 including vat. i do find the ride quite harsh but this is something I can live with for such a cheap car. the best thing it is a japanese car still built in japan using japanese components. i have two brothers one owns a sirion 1 litre se and my other brother owns a charade and has just ordered a daihatsu terios kiri. i totally recommend daihatsu for bullet proof reliability. why follow the crowd buy something a little bit different.

Thanks for the positive response.

I am very happy with my Sirion, and now feel that it is the best car I have owned.

It is so well built and easy to live with, the economy of 50-65mpg now it is fully run in is amazing, the low road tax is helpful and it is the only car I have ever owned that has not had to go back to the dealer before the first service to rectify issues. Excellent job, Daihatsu!

My boss is considering buying a pool car at the moment and has had a Peugeot 107 on demo. I drove the 107 Urban Move today and was appalled by the tinny quality, rattles, squeaks, crashy ride and awful seats. I was staggered to find it is more expensive than the Sirion 1.0S even though it uses the same engine and box, but has way inferior quality and interior space. The Sirion feels like a proper car compared!

A very content Daihatsu owner.

Geoff.

Useful additions to the Sirion which I have added and recommend:

5 x carpet mat set (including bootliner) with fixings (Ebay) soften the floor and reduce noise.

Anti-slip matting roll cut to size and double sided taped into glovebox and large central cubby stops stuff sliding; phones etc stick to it.

Halfords UltraBrilliance or Philips Xtreme+80 headlight bulbs make the excellent light incredible.

Sparco chrome gear knob (or Momo one off a Copen if you can find one) improve on the horrid cheap thing on the S model.

I use a Tomtom 510 as navigation and bluetooth handsfree kit, and bought a self adhesive disc which sticks to top of centre console just above central airvents, which the standard windscreen mount attaches down onto, allowing the unit to be close to you and the dc cable to run down the dash to the low cigar socket, with the excess cable pushed into the central cubby. This works well and once set up, looks like a factory extra. The 510 unit has been temperamental though, needing frequent upgrades, resets and has been replaced twice.

In conjunction with the dash trip computer set on AVG MPG (average mpg), which encourages economical driving, the nav helps avoid wasted mileage and keeps my running costs down. The map display also helps to alert you of sharp corners ahead and how far the junction is away to allow you to plan your approach using the least fuel, so is well worth buying.

Over the last month (Aug 2008) my average daily mpg has been; worst 49.8mpg, best 67.2mpg. Over the month, I have calculated actual fuel cost at 9.2p per mile.

With the few extras above, the car is as pleasant to use on long stints as the bigger cars I also have to use and is the perfect solution to these harder times where we need to economise. I am starting to see the backlash against expensive luxury cars in the press and public; little greener cars are the thing to have at the moment, and the Sirion is a very likeable car.

Update: both cars at 6,000 miles and running well. Only minor fault is slight click on steering when turning full lock to full lock.

I am amazed at the capacity of the Sirion - with a new baby and family trips, an MPV would be handy, but the huge internal space and daily economy of the Sirion means we keep on going. We spent last week showing family around the local area which meant carrying four large adults plus the baby in the ISOFIX baby seat, buggy/pram, baby kit, high chair and the weeks shopping all at the same time - amazing! The 1.0 engine copes staggeringly well, especially on the motorway, even loaded like this.

We were on the lookout for a cheap MPV to replace one of our Sirions (my wife's - I'll keep mine), but as the Sirion interior is so spacious and as the back seat is wide enough for two adults and baby seat, the only benefit seems to be a larger boot and more power. Ideally we would have four large adult seats and one ISOFIX seat in the middle of the back row, but no-one seems to sell a car like this. Even the 7 seat Zafira is not ideal as the rear (middle row) seat is not much wider than the Sirion's and the two rear seats are too tight for adults and do not have ISOFIX, so there is no benefit over the Sirion for us. The Materia is no wider, but has a larger boot and is very thirsty.

There is not much benefit buying a larger car like a Focus or even a Vectra as the passenger space is not a great deal larger, and this is what we need to make us swap. I have been genuinely surprised by the vast interior space of the Sirion - it is very well packaged being large on the inside and small on the outside. My friend's 2008 Clio is 40cm longer, but much smaller inside the cabin. The Sirion is amazingly very similar in cabin size to the Focus - another car I use regularly, but obviously does not get the same boot space.

I wish Daihatsu made an MPV (the Materia is much wider outside but marginally narrower inside than the Sirion) as I am very impressed with the total quality and reliability of the Sirion, and would definitely buy Daihatsu again.

In the meantime, I am happy to report that the Sirions are the best cars I have ever owned, for so many reasons.

I agree totally. I bought my Sirion 1.0 SE 3 months ago (review to come soon) to replace my Kia Rio Diesel. I do a 200 mile a day commute and the car is the most comfortable I have owned for it. I am averaging 56mpg (the Kia could only manage 48mpg) and am keeping up with the flow of traffic happily.

The space inside the car is immense! With the rear seats down it is like a tardis and was a real help when moving home!

I cannot recommend the car enough.

Update: my Sirion now at 7500 miles and my wife's is at 6800 miles.

Both cars running superbly, with only the minor click sound on steering full lock to full lock.

I usually change my cars every 4-6 months, but I am absolutely amazed by my 1.0 Sirion and cannot bear to part with it. It is truly excellent and combines impressive performance and huge economy in a comfortable, well built package.

However, we have a baby and need space for four adults, ISOFIX seat and pushchair etc so have today agreed a deal to swap my wife's Sirion for a Daihatsu Materia which uses the 1.5 Sirion running gear, but is larger with more rear seat width and a bigger boot. This was a tough decision as we both adore our Sirions, but need more space to take the (large!) Grandparents out with us.

We have confidently ordered the Materia after a test drive and our very encouraging ownership experience of Daihatsu, based on our previous 2006 Daihatsu Copen and the two 2008 Sirions.

The deal was amazing - we got £6000 back for our 6800 mile 1.0 Sirion S and got a 5,000 mile 2008 Materia demo for £7030 (plus £170 RFL), including a service, five year warranty/breakdown and carpet mats. So nine months of motoring in a most enjoyable car has cost us less than £500!! Bearing in mind the low asking price of the nearly new Materia, this is outstanding.

My wife was unconvinced by the look of the Materia on the brochure, but warmed to it in the flesh and was sold after the drive. It is not as efficient as the Sirion and does not have much more space, but fits our needs and we could not turn the deal down.

That being said, the Sirion will be a very hard act to follow indeed - at the price, it is class-leading.

That's a very good deal, Geoff - not surprised you went for it! And the expected 2010 road tax won't affect you, I suppose, because it'll be gone by then!

We've had some interesting debate re the Sirion and I look forward to your review of the Materia!

No much to report on my 1.3SE Auto - thank the Lord - but the graunching steering and abysmal heater continues to annoy. Waiting for the Soul, but early reports slate the rough ride, which would certainly kill it off for me. Probably wind up with a Note...

Cheers - Peter.

Hi Peter - the tax for the manual Materia is £170 now and rises slightly to £175 in 2009 and £180 in 2010. The biggest change is the first years "showroom tax" which does not apply after the first year.

I am impressed with the Materia so far - initial thoughts are it handles and corners superbly, with better steering and poise than the Sirion (surprising with the height), but the suspension is a little harsh on poor surfaces and 4th and 5th gears are too close; 80mph in 5th means a noisy 4000rpm coupled with wind and tyre roar. The build quality is first rate and equipment good but the design is not as clever as the Note for example-stupid rear shelf, no clever cubbies/drawers etc, but the sense of occasion/fun is massive. The Materia is an enjoyable car to use though, and causes much debate amongst friends and other road users..!!

At the price I paid it is magnificent but they are far too expensive new, with high tax and 30-35mpg so far...

I drove the auto version, which was smooth but slow (nearly 3 seconds more to 60), but seems to have a better, higher top gear. Even higher tax and even thirstier though.

Once I have assessed it fully over 3000+ miles, a detailed report will be posted. At present, I love hustling the Materia along twisty but smooth rural roads, plus the reaction it gets in town, but it is thirsty and motorways are tiring.

See new Daihatsu Materia report comparing 2008 Sirion & 2008 Materia - somewhat surprising!

Further to the original report, I report with sadness that I have sold the Sirion (as we decided to go down to one car to provide funds for house renovation) and kept the Materia. A bizarre decision as I much prefer the Sirion to the Materia - but the truth is that the Sirion was hugely in demand and dealers were bidding against each other to buy it in as stock... they all quoted LESS to buy the Materia which booked at £1400 MORE in the Glass's guide.

The 1.0S Sirion was easily the best car I have ever owned and I am gutted to see it go - it was the only car that reached the first service without going back to the dealer beforehand...

Superbly competent, huge fun, spacious, comfortable, practical, enjoyable to drive and economical-it will be sorely missed...

Nice one, Geoff - it's been interesting reading! I hope I get similar treatment when I trade in my Auto (which has given no more trouble - now at 8k miles).

At present I'm waiting for someone to get in a demo of the facelifted Note - on sale since 8/1 but no-one has one to drive - well done, Nissan!

Will probably wait for '09' reg now, which will also see the Kia Soul hit the dealers. It's reported that they've modded the ride quality (courtesy of Lotus) so might be worth a look.

But do I want to spend well over £10k on a Kia supermini...?

Cheers - Peter.