DAIHATSU CUORE 1.0 3dr (1998)

Pocket rocket - Not a Micra

The number of times people have mistaken my Daihatsu Cuore for a friggin Micra, arggh!! It's way better than the Micra, but for some reason nowhere near as popular. That's good marketing for you I suppose.

The Daihatsu Cuore is a fantastic little beast, brilliant power to weight ratio, means it zips away from a standstill, and it'll happily cruise at 85, even 90 with a fair wind and a bit of a slope. It doesn't shake around at those speeds like you might expect, I dunno, a MICRA to do! It's great, keeps its cool and keeps on trucking.

Fuel economy is brilliant, probably about 50mpg, might be more. As a result the tax is really cheap, and cos it's a silly little inoffensive car the insurance is dead cheap too.

Very reliable, but... it's a small car so the parts do wear out a bit quicker than you might expect in a bigger family saloon or whatever. The worst so far has been the gearbox which conked out at 60k miles, which isn't great really. I got the clutch done at the same time cos it's only sensible to get both done together.

It's tiny on the outside, nice and big inside -- again, unlike the Micra. Parking is a joke as a result, whip it into the tiniest of spaces no problem at all.

Not that comfy on the bumps, but I'm an urban driver so it's fine most of the time.

It's quite 'light on features' as they say, and the interior is a little bit drab. But that's just a way to negotiate the price down second hand. As long as you get one that's got fairly low mileage and been taken care of, you'll have a reliable motor for years.