Hi! I’ve recently bought a 1995 Daihatsu MIra tr-xx AvanzatoR4 (L512s). I live in Cleveland, Ohio, and am still waiting on the car to ship from its importer in South Carolina. The car in question has 144,xxx km, and is unfortunately in mediocre shape. It does appear to be pretty rust free, and has some interesting modifications such as a very tight bucket seat, rear sway bar, rear speakers, steering wheel, front lip, and front coilovers. The paint however is dull and looks like all the clear coat has flaked off, and the passenger side front fender has been badly repainted, plus it is missing all of its stickers. It doesn’t run that well: the seller stated it surges at idle, but I didn’t witness that during my test drive. I believe it may have a misfire, since it has a weird Subaru-like rumble and it doesn’t feel as fast as I was expecting, at least compared to the Vivio rxr and cappuccino I test drove. The brake pedal is also super mushy and not very confidence inspiring, and the interior plastics just seem “dry” as though it has sat outside in the sun for a while. It also has a bundle of questionable wiring around the head unit and for some reason actually has two headunits?
Anyhow, I’m very excited to finally receive my car and can’t wait to get it into good shape. Hopefully in the future I can try taking it to autocross courses or maybe even some track days! I am very open to any advice, recommendations, or knowledge on this car that can be shared.
I’ll post some pictures if I can figure out how.
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Welcome.
Very nice score although you don’t sound too thrilled about and more concerned. By the pic it looks like you have the 4cyl jb,jl engine in there. That is pretty cool to be honest. Make sure you keep up the services etc after you get it.
I see you also got Aircon, Turbo and aircon that is a great combo. Most of us Aussies didn’t get either in our L5’s.
Is it a 4wd model or fwd?
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Yeah, I have mixed feelings right now. I had checked out two really nice Subaru Vivio RX-R’s right before this car, so when I drove 9hrs to look at this Mira I was a bit disappointed. However, I don’t think it’ll be too difficult to get it fixed up, and getting it repainted however I want might be kinda fun.
And yep, it is the four cylinder turbo AWD version, it should be a ton of fun once it’s sorted out.
yeh it should a heap of fun. I belive these rev out to 9k which is 1k above the jbdet which was in the copen. I guess if the engine ever craps itself then a copen engine will fit it so there is that as a good option.
I honestly think after you get the niggles sorted out etc then it will be a great fun car.
However I am biased to daihatsu obviously but I do like the little Vivio’s etc too well nearly all small cars to be honest.
Would it be the case that the vivio is supercharged in comparison to the mira as it is turbo and you may get that slight bit of lag?
I know when I had a copen and I had the intercooler pipe come off and it was running N/A it was damn terrible.
When you get it maybe check that everything from turbo to throttle body is hooked up properly.
When I first bought my copen it had a boost leak as pipe to the BOV was cracked and leaking. After replacing that the boost improved and the turbo wasn’t spinning it’s heart out and getting no where.
Just some ideas to check. 
Welcome. What a great find. Lucky dog.
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No clue at the moment why it’s running poorly, unfortunately it’s hundreds of miles away until I can get a shipper to pick it up, so it could be anything. Once I get a hold of it I’m going to tear into it and try to replace as much old rubber bits as I can, as you suggest it wouldn’t hurt to do a boost leak test as well.
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