Hello,
I am Marwin, a 24 y.o. Automotive Engineering student from the Netherlands. I live in Didam (a village near the German border), although I rent a little place near Rotterdam for my study. I don’t really have much more to say about myself, so let’s start with my vehicles:
When I got my drivers license about 7 years back I first bought a 1983 Mitusbishi Galant, see the bottom picture. Although I bought it as my first car, when I changed studies I had to drive that Mitsubishi daily. So (my mother and) I bought a daily driver (a 2005 Hyundai Accent LC2) to keep the Mitsubishi in the storage away from the salty Dutch roads in the winter. See one of the other pictures for my daily. Apart from that I own two 1993 Kawasaki (Ninja) GPX600R motorcycles. One is just my normal motorcycle, the other originally was a donor as had an accident with the first one. The first one is back in good condition, but the donor is still waiting for a restauration/repairs. Those where until last monday all of my vehicles. So as you probably will guess, that new vehicle is a Daihatsu, and a rather odd one if I say so myself. I came across this forum via a reaction on the Japanese Nostalgic Car forum I posted, and I think it is the easiest to copy that post. So this is the story on how I just got my 1992 Daihatsu Cuore (Mira) L201 Convertible:
Last week a Facebook add for a Daihatsu Cuore convertible popped up on my feed. I love these kind of oddities, but after a quick look I went on scrolling through facebook as the car was sold at the other side of the country anyway. Later however I thought: I am going to the Zandvoort Circuit for the annual Dutch version of Japfest this weekend and the car is for sale about half an hour away from there. So I sent a message to the seller to take a look at the car sunday evening after the Japfest event. In the meanwhile I searched the internet for more information about the car and the convertible conversion. According to the add there where a total of 20 Cuores changed into convertibles (although at the inspection/testdrive the seller said probably 40 of these conversions where done). I’ve managed to find a post on the German Daihatsu forum about an Ebay-add for an L201 convertible. Unfortunately the add has disappeared as the post is from 2006. One of the reactions however, speaks about a German company named Löwer and an (I believe) Polish/German company named POP-Automobile. That is at the moment the only thing I know of the convertible conversion. I am going to ask on that forum if anyone knows more about this car/conversion.
So after a nice day at the Zandvoort Circuit I started the short journey to the seller. I made a testdrive, inspected everything I could see or check on the car and the only two problems I could find are oil hanging on the exhaust (I haven’t found the source, but the engine is clean as far as I saw from the engine bay) and a cable (I think from the clutch or gearbox) that touches the exhaust somewhat. The testdrive went smooth, engine starts great, runs great and even has a remarkable amount of power for the weight of the car. So after taking some pics I started on my journey back home, agreeing I would think it over for the drive home and message the seller that evening if I wanted to buy it or not.
After considering it a bit and talking it over with a friend I decided to bid on the car. The seller went along with the bid and we agreed to pick up the car the next day (yesterday). It took some organizing, and eventually it became clear the seller didn’t have the code to transfer the ownership of the car. But the seller is taking care of that so I can transfer it to my name later this week. Anyway, I drove the car to the storage where I keep my Galant. I’ve driven about 160km without any problems, except for one of the turning lights that needs replacement (probably the reason the seller suggested the best test drive route was turning right most of the time XD). As the APK (Dutch MOT) is almost expired, I am going to order all the parts needed for maintenance and everything I need to replace, but it shouldn’t be too long before that will be completed and it wil get a fresh APK.
So apart from showing a few more pics of this lovely little car there is one thing to do: I want to ask if anyone knows more about this car or convertible conversion. Every piece of info is welcome, as I want to know more about the car.
It is originally a 3-door Cuore/Mira, I don’t know which trim. The first registration is from 12 June 1992, so just like myself it will be 25 years old in a few weeks. It is imported in november 2001 to the Netherlands, probably originally from Germany. It also has two convertible roofs: the one with the windows in it and one in a kind of coupe style without windows in it.
good luck with finding out info for it. also the Glant looks pretty sweet, here in Australia they were released as a Sigma, is it the 2L or 2.6L motor?
