DAIHATSU TURNS ITS BACK ON EUROPE

Daihatsu is leaving Europe. For good. Or bad, apparently. The Japanese brand says it is withdrawing from the 10 European countries in which it has been trading. Stated as the reason is “the result of increasing development costs to comply with regulations in Europe, such as those related to CO2 emissions, and the appreciation of the yen against the Euro, which have had a negative impact on business results and made selling vehicles manufactured in Japan by Daihatsu no longer viable”.

Make what you will of that press statement but word is that sales of just about 19 000 in 2010 did not put a big smile on company parent Toyota, which owns a 51% share. Any company that sells its goods well will have adequate research and development budgets to keep growing strong.

I smell a political ploy of some sort. I mean if Daihatsu leaves Europe, where will it go? Who will replace it? Scion? Subaru? In South Africa it does not do that well either. Is there a future for this little brand that makes some of my favourite cars in the Materia and the Sirion?