1 Jul 1997
By CHRIS HARRIS
The Terios 4WD looked like a serious off-roader but behaved like a tall city-based small car. Its monocoque body, five-link axle and coil spring suspension all round and no low-range gearbox saw to that.
And that’s how Daihatsu intended it to be, since the appropriately named Rocky still sold alongside the Terios for buyers after a real mud-plugging 4X4.
The Terios’ narrow, tall four-seater four-door wagon body came in two models – DX and SX.
The latter added central locking, power windows, air-conditioning, alloy wheels, extra chrome trim, a parcel shelf, rear seat head restraints and roof racks to the DX’s standard dual airbags, power steering and power mirrors.
Power came courtesy of a 61kW/105Nm 1.3-litre four-cylinder engine, mated to either a five-speed manual or four-speed automatic gearbox driving all four wheels.
A diff lock was standard, as was air-conditioning from mid-’99 when minor trim changes were applied to the whole Terios range.
