The fact that Daihatsu is no longer a player in the Australian new-car market, doesn't affect its status on the used-car scene.
Daihatsu prices took a dip when the announcement was first made that the manufacturer was pulling out of Australia, but beyond that, it's been more or less business as usual when it comes to pre-loved Daihatsus.
Much of the reason for the brand's resilience, of course, has been its good reputation as a provider of dependable cars. And why wouldn't they be? With engineering links to Toyota (it is a subsidiary of the company), Daihatsus, particularly latter day models, have been made of stern stuff.
While most car makers gradually increase the size and cylinder count of their engines over the years, Daihatsu has never really been drawn into that. It has stuck with the 1.3-litre four-cylinder and a charismatic 1.0-litre three-cylinder.
So when the Sirion was released in 1998 as more or less a replacement for the elderly Charade, it was those two engines that were employed; the four-cylinder Sirion wasn't seen until 2000. But that's no hardship because the 1.0-litre engine was not only nicer to use, it's also actually more durable despite the fact that it works pretty hard just about all the time.
There's a certain charm to the offbeat, three-cylinder and as well as being fairly torquey where you need it, it's also happy to rev hard to give all it has.
By contrast, the four-cylinder version tends to run a lot hotter than the three-cylinder and that can cause sludge to build up in the engine, particularly if oil changes haven't been carried out frequently enough.
Sludge will eventually kill an engine as surely as cholesterol in humans, so any four-cylinder you're considering needs to have a complete service history if it's to earn your consideration.
That said, the four-cylinder does produce more power (75 kW against just 40 kW for the three-cylinder), so if performance is important, the bigger engine is worth the trouble. Then again, if performance is your thing, may we humbly suggest a Sirion is probably not for you in the first place.
If your second-hand Sirion absolutely must be automatic, we'd recommend the four-cylinder version.
The Sirion was released when the bubble-car design phenomenon was raging. Inside, it is also pretty funky, and that high cabin means there's a surprising amount of space for heads and legs.
Handling was never the Sirion's strong point - there's lots of body roll, and precious little steering feel, but it is quite capable if you are prepared to thrash it along to keep up with other traffic.
Build quality is quite good with decent plastics and a better standard of fit and finish than most Korean cars of the time.
If you can find one, the pick of the Sirions was a model called the GTvi which got the four-cylinder engine, alloy wheels and a better level of fittings. In automatic form, it also offered steering-wheel-mounted shift buttons, although the novelty of those tends to wear off in days rather than weeks. It also pays to remember that no matter how many GTvi badges Daihatsu applied to the thing, it was no sports car.
Regardless of its name, the model retained the Sirion's fairly ponderous handling and lifeless feel.
And while it was quicker than the three-cylinder, it still wasn't what you'd call fast in isolation.
Our pick would be a manual-gearbox three-cylinder version, purely because it's the cheapest. And when it comes to second-hand micro-cars, that counts for an awful lot.
