What can you get, or where can you go for £10 these days? Two cinema tickets, and no popcorn? A short local train ride, late as usual? A lonely takeaway for one? A bottle of plonk from the supermarket? Not a great deal, in other words, unless you are lucky enough to buy into the funky, frugal Daihatsu Sirion range, where your £10 goes further.
In the fully-loaded, superb value Daihatsu Sirion SE+ 1.0, £10 gets you a long, long way, 165 miles to be precise, thanks to the innovative, free-revving, three-cylinder, twin-overhead camshaft, 12-valve 1.0-litre Daihatsu engine. Developed with Dynamic Variable Valve Timing (DVVT), the flexible, economical, low CO2 engine delivers performance way beyond its cubic capacity and raw figures suggest (although maximum power of 69.3 PS at 6,000 rpm is exceptionally high for its size, while the 69.3 lb ft torque is also impressive, especially at an accessible 3,600 rpm). Such engineering innovation offers a surprisingly wide spread of high-end power, combined with low-speed flexibility - making the Sirion the perfect city slicker and motorway cruiser alike, offering fabulous frugality, and fun.
Put simply, no rival can match the new Daihatsu Sirion 1.0-litre's performance, fuel economy and low emissions. The top speed is a remarkable 99.4 mph with a 0-60 mph time of 13.5 seconds. Fuel consumption is an outstanding 46.3/64.2 and 56.5 mpg on the Urban/Extra Urban and Combined Cycles. Meanwhile, exceptionally low CO2 emissions of 118 g/km means the car qualifies for a Road Fund Licence charge of only £35 for 12 months, plus £50 first registration fee (B band up to 120 g/km). This places it in a category largely dominated by hybrids.
And the high-specification of the luxurious Daihatsu Sirion SE+, with its large Webasto electric sun-roof, rain-sensing and anti-trap features, front fog lamps, side protection mouldings, leather steering wheel and leather gear-knob for manual models - presents the perfect choice for belt-tightening motorists wishing to downsize, but not down-spec.
Priced from £8,320 on-the-road for the Sirion 1.0 S (£9,670 for the SE+, just £1,350 more), the entire range is extremely well-equipped with, for example, air-conditioning, ABS with EBD, driver, passenger and side airbags, radio/CD player, four electric windows and remote central-locking. These high interior standards are matched by a sharp chassis, with revised rear suspension, offering brilliant ride and handling, making each mile (and you get a lot of those for your money) a pleasure, not a chore.
As a further incentive in these financially-challenging times, all Daihatsus now come with a five-year unlimited mileage warranty, plus five years' UK roadside recovery (the offer is not transferable and applies to all retail sales), while insurance for the 1.0-litre Daihatsu Sirion S and SE+ is very low, in group 4D.
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