Auto Trader Ten Point Test: Daihatsu Terios

Auto Trader Ten Point Test rating: 62%

The Daihatsu Terios is the ‘politically correct’ face of 4x4s. No enormous petrol engine and bulky bodywork here. Your money gets you a no-frills supermini-sized 4x4 with a small engine.

But in a sector that sells on power and off-road ability, is there room for a High Street SUV?

Read on for our full review of the Daihatsu Terios, or click below to skip to a section.

Looks | Looks Inside | Practicality | Ride and Handling | Performance
Running Costs | Reliability | Safety | Equipment | X-Factor

1. Looks

Unattractive from most angles, the Terios isn’t a car which will be bought for its looks. The spare wheel is mounted to the tailgate rather than in the boot floor or under the car to increase its off-road clearance, but looks ugly. This could have been remedied with an attractive body-coloured cover rather than the garish red, white and black one Daihatsu saw fit to use. There are flashes of inspiration though: the headlights kick off a nice line which runs to the back of the car and the ‘wrap around’ rear quarter windows and rear screen are something you’d expect to find on a premium off-roader. It looks like a teenager that’s sprouted in height overnight: gangly and awkward.

6/10

2. Looks inside

The interior is uninspired, with a boring, conventional three-dial layout in front of the chunky steering wheel and a bulbous centre console which houses the radio and heater controls. The later of these are shared with the Toyota Yaris, and are quite fiddly to use. The front seats lacked support for the lower back, so longer journeys are likely to be met with complaints from the occupants. There’s lots of legroom in the rear, and the rear seats recline, which is an unusual feature in a car of this price.

5/10

3. Practicality

Thanks to its height, the Terios is bigger inside than most superminis as there’s less wheel arch intrusion in the cabin. The boot is capacious too, with 380 litres of storage with the rear seats up; Daihatsu say this is enough for four golf bags, four mid-sized suitcases or a baby buggy – enough for most. The Terios has a small drop between the floor carpet and the sills, which should make it easy to sweep out dirt during cleaning, although it seems it would be easy for items to fall out.

8/10

4. Ride and Handling

As the pace increases, so does the Terios’s road noise, becoming unbearable on long motorway runs. The ride gets choppy over bad road surfaces and at speed it feels unstable. It’s not a car to cover long city-to-city jaunts. It’s better around town, where its tight turning circle comes into play. The Terios has permanent four wheel drive, presumably to keep costs down; although it does have a differential lock to aid grip off road.

5/10

5. Performance

The paperwork says the our manual Terios can hit 60mph from rest in 12.2 seconds, but it feels much longer because of the thrashy, rough engine. Top speed is 99mph, which seems realistic if a little dangerous given the high speed stability issues.

5/10

6. Running Costs

The biggest cost involved with Terios ownership is depreciation. Our 1.5 SX manual test car will retain less than 40 per cent of its original price after three years. Having said that, prospective buyers should be able to haggle a fair amount off the list price. Its better when it comes to a visit to the fuel pumps, with the Terios returning around 34 miles per gallon on average. Road tax is lower than most other 4x4s, with a Band F rating and Group 8 insurance should be fairly painless.

7/10

7. Reliability

Daihatsu are generally reliable and the small but loyal band of customers who visit family run dealers back this up. The Terios brings to mind the Land Rover Defender and Jeep Wrangler in the sense they’re all basic but built to last. Nothing on our test car suggested fallibility.

7/10

8. Safety

The Terios hasn’t been tested by EuroNCAP yet, although Daihatsu says its own in-house safety tests give it the equivalent of a four star rating for occupant protection and three stars for pedestrian protection. Our SX test car came with driver, passenger and side airbags, ABS and brake force distribution.

7/10

9. Equipment

Our mid-range Terios wasn’t overloaded with toys, with just a CD player, electric windows and heated mirrors to keep the driver amused. A set of 16-inch alloys with big 235/60 size tyres and differential lock are more for it’s off road ability than styling. The SX we tested is the only model in the range to have two-tone extended wheel arches, which add an air of ruggedness.

6/10

10. X-Factor

As far as cheap, practical tiny off-roaders go, you can do better. We’ve previously driven it off road, where it feels more at home, so you happen to cross a field on the way to buying your milk and newspaper it’s the perfect car. A Kia Sportage would be the better choice for the rest of us.

6/10

Rivals:
You might also want to consider one of the following

Kia Sportage
Toyota Rav-4
Fiat Sedici

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