Small-car specialist Daihatsu has achieved great success in South Africa with its popular range of Terios compact SUVs and Gran Max pick-ups. There exists a car park of nearly 30000 Daihatsu vehicles in this country and the brand has built an outstanding reputation for reliability and quality. It may therefore come as quite a surprise to find out that the brand has made the decision to stop importing new vehicles to South Africa as of this month.

Daihatsu Leaves SA

This news has obviously left us and some owners concerned. What does this mean in terms of parts, back-up and resale values? We spoke to Pedro Pereira of Imperial about these issues:

Why isDaihatsu withdrawing from the SA market?

“Daihatsu Japan has taken a strategy to pull out of Western markets and concentrate in the East where they do very well. Daihatsu has pulled out of Australia, New Zealand and Europe a few years ago but kept the South African market for a bit longer because of how well it has always done here.”

What does this mean for the Daihatsu owner in SA regarding parts back-up, warranty, servicing, resale values etc?

The Daihatsu customers will continue to have the full back-up from Imperial Daihatsu. We have signed agreements to continue to supply parts, honour warranties and give after-sales service. Daihatsu resale values remain high as it is still a very popular car in the used car market.

You mentioned the (8-year) service contract with Daihatsu Japan – what happens after that?

We will continue to source parts for our customers and provide the after sales back up and service facilities.

Could Daihatsu vehicles become available again under the Toyota badge, as elsewhere in the world? For example, the Terios is badged the Toyota Rush in some markets…

From what we have investigated, this will not be happening in South Africa but we do not know exactly what Daihatsu Japan decides to do in the future.