Daihatsu Midget II

Daihatsu’s first Midget, a three-wheeler for small deliveries, was built from 1957 to 1972, and in 1996 the company revived its name, and its job, for a new kei truck.source 1source 2 The maker’s own model history calls the Midget II the second generation.

It was shown first as a reference exhibit at the 30th Tokyo Motor Show in 1993, on 12-inch wheels and with disc brakes at the front, which production cars did not have.source 1source 3 At the 31st show, in 1995, it stood beside the Midget III, a passenger car with one seat in front and two behind in a triangle, and doors that differed from side to side, the driver’s on the right and the rear passengers’ on the left.source 1

The Midget II went on sale on 5 April 1996, as a pickup only, the Pick, with one seat, a four-speed manual gearbox and a payload of 150 kg (331 lb).source 1source 4 There were three grades: the budget B type, the standard D type and the dressed-up R type, at ¥469,000, ¥489,000 and ¥599,000.source 1source 4 Kuruma News gives about ¥580,000–730,000, perhaps with tax or at a later date; the difference is unresolved.source 5 At 2,790 mm (110 in) long and 1,295 mm (51 in) wide, it sat far inside the kei limits of the day, 3,300 by 1,400 mm (130 by 55 in), and the Cargo, the micro van that followed, was only 35 mm wider than a kei car of the 360 cc era had been allowed to be.source 1

Its look was its spare wheel, mounted on the nose, and its headlamps and front wings, which stood out from the body.source 1source 3 Under the cab was a 659 cc EF three-cylinder of 31 PS (23 kW), without a catalytic converter, which it shared with the Daihatsu Hijet; because the Midget II was so light, it used about half the Hijet’s fuel.source 1source 5 It shared many other parts with the eighth-generation Hijet to keep costs down, and its tail lamps came from the Suzuki Carry.source 1 The instruments were a speedometer and a fuel gauge, without even a warning light for the water temperature, and the window in the left-hand door did not open.source 1 It turned in a radius of 3.6 m (11 ft 10 in).source 1source 5

It was planned from the start as a small-volume car, and it was built by hand in a separate workshop at the head-office plant at Ikeda, in Osaka, the Midget Kōbō.source 1source 3 By Kuruma News’s account there was no conveyor and no robot, so that experienced workers could pass their skills on to younger ones.source 5 Daihatsu’s advertising invited buyers to keep a Midget, in the words one uses of a pet, and its comic television advertisements had a Midget II attacked by a lion and sprayed by a skunk.source 1

Two seats, and a cargo van

New colours and an R Limited special came in September 1996.source 1 In January 1997 Daihatsu added the Cargo, in D and R types, to the slogan “ふたりで飼おう”, “Let’s keep one together”, for there were now two-seat models, Pick and Cargo, with a three-speed automatic and a column shift.source 1 The Cargo was 40 mm longer and wider and 55 mm taller than the Pick, and the Pick gained a left window that wound down.source 1 English Wikipedia calls the two-seaters “one and a half seaters”; Japanese sources say two seats.source 3source 1 The American Custom of October 1997 had two-tone paint, a leather-rimmed wheel and seats in “protein leather”, and in September 1998 the Custom joined the range for good and the R type was dropped.source 1 A passenger version of the Cargo, the Midget IV, appeared at the 1997 show, the 32nd, and like the Midget III was never built.source 1

The kei rules changed in October 1998, and the crash rules grew tougher, and in September 1999 the Midget II was reworked. The spare wheel moved behind the driver, and a round cover with Daihatsu’s “D” took its place on the nose; a longer front bumper, to absorb a crash, added 105 mm, making the Pick 2,895 mm long and the Cargo 2,935 mm. It had a collapsible steering column, a force-limiting seat belt and a brake servo, a driver’s airbag as an option on the two-seat automatics, and the EF-SE engine, with fuel injection, of about 33 PS.source 1source 3 Production ended in June 2001 and sales in July, and the Hijet range took over its work.source 1source 2 The Midget workshop became the Expert Centre, and from 2002 it built the Daihatsu Copen.source 1 In 2025 Daihatsu used the name again, for the Midget X, an electric concept car.source 3

No survivor count has been found; the Midget II is a cult car in Japan, a regular in lists of the country’s most unusual kei cars, and has been exported second-hand to the United States.source 1source 3 Owners have converted single-seaters to a column shift with a passenger seat, or to a five-speed gearbox, with parts from three generations of Hijet.source 1 The photographs on this page show Midget IIs in the United States and England in 2011, at Paphos in 2016, in the Cyprus Historic & Classic Motor Museum at Limassol in 2017, and at a show in Japan in 2025. Auction sales by the major houses have not been found.