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Despite the price, the Charade lacks for nothing especially in terms of safety. Even the basic EL, has ABS with EBD, driver and passenger airbags. Plus, electric front windows and mirrors, a radio/CD player and speed-sensitive, power steering. The front seatbelts are height-adjustable as is the steering wheel. It's obvious that you're not going to get leather seats but on the other hand, neither is the cabin décor spartan.
The Charade appears to be and is a small car but it is 20mm longer than its sister, the Sirion and the YRV. This means that the rear seats can be placed further back to make more legroom for the rear passengers. However, there is still plenty of space left for shopping or luggage with 157-litres (5.5 cu ft) of space available with the split-folding seats up. If you put the seats down the area is increased to 421-litres (14.8 cu ft). Both measurements are to the window line.
As an aside, many, many years ago, when the Charade was first launched, a local dealership held an open evening. One of the events involved borrowing nurses from the local hospital (any excuse) in order to see how many would fit into a Charade. I believe the result was 17 and, thankfully, didn't involve any visits to A&E.
The fuel consumption is pretty impressive too. The official figures are, 47.1mpg for the urban cycle, 68.9mpg for extra urban and a combined of 58.9mpg. Again, Daihatsu claim that the` Charade is the UK's number one four-seater in terms of petrol-engine economy, I'm not about to argue. An added bonus to ownership is the emissions. At 114g/km for the manual car, the Road Fund Licence is £75 per year.
'See you - Goodbye', appears in the instrument display when the ignition is turned off and 'Hello Happy', when it is turned on. That about sums up the Charade. I liked it instantly. In fact, I would go so far as to say that it has to be the best city-car I have driven to date and I am pretty fussy.
STATS
Price - £6,295
Max speed - 99.4 mph
0-62mph - 12.2 seconds
Combined - 58.9 mpg
CO2 - 114 g/km
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