AUTOMOTIVE : Daihatsu Showing in ’91 Safari Rally Could Boost Sales

Daihatsu America Inc. in Los Alamitos is the U.S. importer for what most auto-industry experts agree is one of the classiest minicars around. But the tiny company has yet to make a big sales impression with its Charade passenger car. Only 10,630 were sold in the United States last year.

Company officials say success will come with time, and they explain that the company is hampered by import quotas which limit sales and make it difficult for them to spend enough on advertising to effectively market the product.

The company might get a little extra visibility, though, from Charade’s recent showing in the grueling 1991 Safari Rally in Kenya.

Using two-wheel-drive Charades (the four-wheel-drive version wasn’t ready in time), Daihatsu raced against everybody else’s four-wheel-drive models and captured two class championships in the six-day, 4,500-kilometer event. Charade driver Lynda Hughes also captured the women’s championship; none of the four Charades entered finished lower than second in its class. In its coverage of the Safari Rally, Newsweek magazine referred to Daihatsu as a “giant killer,” a sobriquet that must be warming hearts in Los Alamitos.