Hi all, the name’s Rob and I don’t have a daihatsu yet but getting pretty keen on them the more I look around
I’ve always loved little cars , my first being a 69 ke10 corolla, and I need a new daily soon to replace my 50cc scooter which I’m sick of riding. Would rather be warm and dry most of the time. So I’ve been looking around at possible candidates, but I don’t want ‘just a car’ like the usual Getz, Yaris, Micra etc and just don’t feel any of them have the unique character i’m after. Then I saw a Sirion and remembered how much I loved the look of them when they came out. There’s still a few around but not many, and that led me to this community.
It’s going to be another few months before I’m ready to buy something, but at this stage really hoping to find a reasonable 1999-2004 model Sirion which I can slowly do some basic mods to, just to have a fun little car that is kind of different and yet fun to drive - speed isn’t the most important thing to me, as long as it can do highway speed and I can throw it around corners like its on rails with a good exhaust note.
Welcome Rob.
The GTVi would be what you want. The K3-VE2 engine is the pick of the bunch. Plenty of minor mods that can be done to them easily.
Alternatively one of the 1.5 yaris/echo could be fun. I believe the 1nz engine in that is slightly more modern and has a bit more power/torque (at the expense of a lower redline).
Thanks for the welcome @TPG and @evilhighway, I agree with your suggestion of the GTvi as it seems like the sensible choice for more power and better options / kit. But… I’ve never owned a 3 cylinder and I love the engine sound. I obviously have no experience with them and I’ve read several Sirion reviews that have suggested the ejde has better long term reliability because the k3 runs hotter and has a tendency to gunk up if not maintained religiously? Is there any truth to this, or have I just been reading crap?
Thanks in advance for any feedback, from what I’ve been reading you have a great community here and I really hope one day I can contribute.
the same is true for the ejde engine 3cyl and the 4cyl gtvi engine. Both get the rings gummed up if they are not looked after and serviced regularly. The 3cyl option is fine too just slower due to the power to weight but can still be a great car.
I think we just suggested the k3ve option because you will get more power and maybe more bang for your buck.
Ah good to know, and I guess at the age of these cars now if they haven’t been maintained correctly it should be easy to tell if the engine is crap - regardless of type.
Hey I really appreciate the recommendation to get the GTvi, and my head knows it would probably be the smarter choice. The 3 cylinder just seems alluringly quirky at the moment
Yeh I like 3 cylider’s tbh they are really easy to work on. It confuses most people used to 4,6 or 8 but I bought one years ago and have had many since.
Welcome to the forum Rob can’t beat the sound of a 3 pot screamer, plus they are more common so parts are easier to source but there have been a few cheapish good GTVi’s on gumtree lately. Good luck with your search
Dare I ask what, in your opinion would be a cheapish good deal at the moment. I’m on the Gold Coast and my uneducated reasoning is that any GTvi under $2800 with < 250k kms is ok if the car is in alright condition for its age? your thoughts? Not really asking for specific examples, just if my thinking is sound, or I’m way off with my expectations. thanks.
Most GTVis (and 3 cylinders for that matter) with over 200k will most likely need a rebuild, or at very least rings, cleaned up drain holes and bearings. Make sure you factor the costs for that in with the cost of the car.
Or you just keep driving it and top up the oil as needed and ignore the blue plume at high rpm. If you have good compression…what’s the problem? Slightly poorer combustion? More frequent work plug changes?
I guess it depends on the level of oil-burning.
Not that I’ve driven one but either on here or Facebook I once read that someone said up to ~4K rpm the 3cyl and 4cyl are quite comparable. Past that the 4cyl power starts to show.
I tried to be pretty vigilant on topping up oil on my GTVi and still the bottom end seized up. It had 130k on the clock. Guess it was the worst case scenario, but, still something to be wary of.
I had a gtvi sirion engine in the L700 at one point with 240,000km on the clock.
It consumed some oil, around 100ml per 500km, it blew some blue puffs when giving it hell above 5,000 rpm but that said it never let me down and being diligent with monitoring/topping up the oil I never had a drama with it, I did replace the engine in the end with lower km unit because I acquired it (purchasing my wrecked gtvi back for $130) but it was not at the stage of do or die, they are a strong motor even if tired.
Look on gumtree, not sure if i shared link on forum but there is a reasonable looking red GTVi for $1200 near brizvegas at moment, good starting point i reckon. Personally i am biased towards the EJ’s but i have an EJ swapped L200 i did drive @Motherhatsu’s K3 turbo swapped L700 Lumpy Space Princess and couldn’t wipe the grin off my face
Ah yep, saw that red one @Mokeman - not yet in a position to get it unfortunately, but it looks a lot cheaper than some of the others advertised around. I watched a vid on youtube of some L2D members at a race meeting and the purple LSP was there, really nice car.
