Daihatsu Materia- Not a Cube, Not a kei, car mini MPV!

The Daihatsu Materia was an unusual Mini MPV, with concept car looks that gave it the appearance of a jumbo Kei car and was an interesting alternative to things like the Ford B Max or Vauxhall Meriva

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[Rxnzoi]

I am the proud owner of one of these cubes!!!!
It's my first car and I only got my license just over a month ago. It's so fun to drive and although it took some getting used to, it's the perfect car for a 17 year old on a low budget.

Some key things I've noticed with this car:

It's really really fun to drive around London. I have the automatic which makes it quite nippy around the little streets and areas where you need to move around quickly. I can comfortably transport all my passengers with no complaints. This is obviously due to its boxy dimensions but also due to the fact that you can move the rear bench seats back and forth.

The adjustable boot size really adds the M to MPV and I quite like the fact that I can make the boot more spacious when I need to go on a journey. It seems like an ideal car for camping with friends as you said yourself and I am interested to see the "double bed" arrangement of the seats.

I like the big windows and that makes it very easy to park, especially in tight spaces that you'd find in cities like London. The flat vertical rear door also adds to this and I find that even though the car looks big due to its dimensions, I often have ample space in parking spaces.

The fuel economy is not very great which obviously is an added cost and the road tax is around 300 pounds. Insurance companies quoted me 7k a year initially (for a car worth roughly 1k and with a 1.5L engine), however after researching quotes I managed to find one with Aviva for roughly 1.4k ontop of my parents' insurance. The car is great for the city and really fun to drive up to 50mph. The van style dashboard and seating position, coupled with the short front end and its quite stable driving makes it feel like you're driving a gokart. It snowed the other day and with my rear summer tyres it may or may not have been able to muster up some slides and drifts. ;))

However, beyond that (like on M roads) the car starts to sound like a hair dryer and I get the feeling that I am driving a tin box. The fact that its light and not very aerodynamically shaped means that you can really feel the wind sometimes. It also fogs up very easily and for the rainy island that is the UK, this is quite an annoyance.

It's a 2009 and you can feel its age with the whining 1st gear and the occasional knocks and shudders, however I believe its quite reliable (toyota engine) and I think I can definitely see why it was advertised to "funky youth". I love its simplicity in both the cockpit and the engine, which I believe makes it easier to fix minor issues. I only started learning to drive in April and I've already changed its battery and I am trying to fix its rear wiper not working.

Might make my own video review at some point. Great car. Thank you for this video! Happy new year.

[Eunos]

Daihatsu are a genuinely underrated Car Manufacturer. Its a shame they left the UK market, they are almost in away so uncool that it makes them cool.

[Miragev]

New intro with peppy music, love it!
Think Materia's looked the best in that red/purple colour they had.

[terryatkinson]

A future Hubnut car in about a decade 😮👍🇮🇪

[richardhowlett]

Like something The Ant Hill Mob might drive ! Love it .

[demogaming]

Personally I love the design. It’s the most JDM looking non JDM car ever, if you know what I mean

[damianfuller]

Oooo fancy new intro!Very dramatic!I was behind one of these a few weeks ago. The girl was driving it like a lunatic! Had not seen one before and then here you are!! Cool looking thing. Happy new year to you and yours. And the furious viewers. Cheers

[moschops]

Owned one for a year, and loved it. Only the switchgear is from the Yaris. The suspension is all Materia/bB. And like all Daihatsus, they rust for fun, and parts are very difficult to get hold of. Toyota can source a lot of it from Japan, but certain parts are just not available. I'd have another in a heartbeat though.

[lesklower]

In Australia we got these as the Toyota Rukus sold in reasonable numbers after all Toyota's sell extremely well in Australia and these vehicles will be ultimately reliable and if you can buy one buy it and it will last for many years

[GaryRobertonBoyes]

My sister drove the Toyota Scion Variant here, and was very happy with it's manners, economy, utility, and Economy. She did say a long motorway journey would have been a bit tiring, and the tyres were a bit short on grab, (probably the Brand) . She did install a battery tender, to address long bits of Storage between uses however. An 8 out of 10 as she put it. Cheers

[saippuakivikuappias]

Great video Matt. Moved into one of these in the summer, and have to say im loving it, as are the kids. So practical, and fun to drive. Rides well and feels solid even on 17 inch alloys on our wonderful roads.
Glad to see you got your hands on a pretty much unmolested example.
One thing you missed though, is the illumination around the speakers and in the door pulls (switch to the right of steering wheel). Lights up blue, which clashes nicely with the orange of the instrument cluster and the green of the hvac controls. No idea what colour the standard stereo lights up in. But overall, tbese things are a bit of a hidden gem, although JDM imports of the Toyota Bb are starting to become popular. They have a few extra features over the Daihatsu, as you might expect, including fancier interior lighting with illuminated tweeter surrounds, blue instrument cluster and "disco" settings. There is also a gret big subwoofer in that empty space under the centre console.
Also of note is that it was called the Daihatsu Coo in Japan and also sold as the Subaru Dex.

[cowtc]

Had one as courtesy car when my Sirion sx was serviced. It felt a lot larger than the Sirion even though it’s not massive and a bit more solid, enjoyed it though I preferred Sirion I had

[davidhinkson]

I fugured you'd make a Hubnut reference given you are driving a Daihatsu. I thought it was a Scion xB when i first saw it. Also like your new intro.

[fhwolthuis]

Lovely little car, although I'm not really a fan of a centrally mounted dashboard.

[toyotaprius]

We derided mini mpvs and mpvs in general because of looks and status in favour for SUVs, and look at the state of where that has left us

[edwardjohntaylor]

Full of Yaris mk2 heater controls and centre console parts there.

[andyrobertshaw]

The Materia also had one of the most blokey features I have ever come across in a car - there were colourful lights around the speakers you could switch on and off!

[gg_vard]

I love the Materia! And generally Diahatsu made very interesting and together weird cars (or is it the HubNut influence)

[maxidyne]

Congratulations on the new channel sponsor! Loved the review as always, such a shame Daihatsu stopped selling cars in Europe.

[andyallen]

Very nice Matt although I have not seen any Scions on the road here in a long time good video best regards Andy Allen.