When you drive a car, who do you usually use it with? Do you usually use it by yourself? Do you often use your car for shopping with your spouse on the weekend? Do you ever go on a long trip with your family in your car? Or do you use the car for a date with your friend? There are many purposes you can use your car for. At this year’s Geneva Motor Show, Daihatsu proposes a concept vehicle focusing on family use. The D-Compact Wagon.

Actually there are many cars that are designed for family use, but most of them simply emphasise big interior and ease of use. They may be great for everyday purposes, but many users may be thinking: “Wouldn’t it be nice if my car had a character that gives me a joy of owning it?” There are also minivans, MPVs and people carriers that are inconveniently big for everyday purposes because they are designed for leisure purposes. On the other hand, there are users, mostly city users, who drive conventional 2-box cars but are not necessarily satisfied with their interior space and versatility.

To address the needs of such users, Daihatsu proposes a unique and emotional multi-purpose wagon that appeals to senses. The D-Compact Wagon has a unique presence that provides its owner with the pleasure of ownership. Its big cabin and numerous devices enhance the leisure time spent with family and friends.

Exterior and Interior
With an aggressive use of rounded surfaces, the D-Compact Wagon’s exterior styling leaves an unforgettable impression on anyone who saw its figure. The front styling emphasises a sharp and powerful image, and together with spicy, chrome-plated parts, gives the car a wide and stable look while at the same time creating a unique character of its own. The unique character continues from the magnificent side silhouette to the rear styling, which emphasises the car’s wide and low-centre-of-gravity design. The D-Compact Wagon oozes character all around.

The interior is designed so that the user feels the joy of owning this vehicle. It surrounds the occupants with a relaxing atmosphere, making them feel as if they were sitting in a living room. The instrument panel is composed of curved lines, and this round theme continues to the rear end of the interior. The generous seats also contribute to the lovable and relaxing atmosphere of the interior.

Packaging and power unit
The D-Compact Wagon has a compact body measuring less than 4 metres front to rear and boasts an amazingly small turning circle of 9.8 metres (kerb to kerb), and yet its interior space is among the biggest of any competing car, even of a class above.

Thanks to the relaxing front bench seat with a long seat slide of 220 mm and rear seats, together with a versatile seating arrangement that adapts to personal or family use, the D-Compact Wagon provides more interior space than its dimensions suggest. The best-in-class tandem distance creates a large “living-room” space that makes one think of a luxury saloon. Moving the rear seats to the front-most position produces a large luggage space that’s among the longest in its class. The D-Compact Wagon’s infinite versatility is its biggest feature.

The power unit is a newly developed 1.5-litre engine, which optimally balances power and fuel consumption. This engine delivers sufficient power that allows the driver to enjoy highspeed cruising on the highway and nimble driving in city or on the winding road as well as generating ample torque in the low to medium rev range so that it’s easy to drive in most frequently used everyday situations.

This engine excels not only in power but also in environmental performance such as low fuel consumption and emissions, thanks to the employment of the “Intelligent Catalyst.”

The Intelligent Catalyst is Daihatsu’s advanced exhaust-gascleaning technology that allows a precious metal used in the catalyst to regenerate itself. Normally, the catalytic precious metal (palladium in this case) gradually deteriorates over time.

The Intelligent Catalyst is a groundbreaking technology that gives the precious metal a self-regenerative capability so that it can sustain its cleaning performance over a long time. This is how it works. Of the several precious metals used in automotive catalytic converters, palladium is the most prone to deterioration by heat. Using nanotechnology, Daihatsu has succeeded in implanting palladium as ions into a special perovskite ceramic crystal. The palladium ions come out of and go back into the perovskite crystal in response to the natural changes in the exhaust-gas conditions. When the exhaust gas is at the reduction stage (with too little oxygen), palladium ions come out of the perovskite crystal and become active metallic particles. When the exhaust gas is at the oxidation stage (with too much oxygen), the palladium particles go back into the crystal and return to their original state. By repeating this selfregeneration cycle, the Intelligent Catalyst can maintain its initial, excellent emission cleaning capability over a long time, dramatically reducing the use of precious metals, which are valuable natural resources, and at the same time achieving much cleaner emissions.

Advanced safety technologies
For improved occupant safety, the D-Compact Wagon employs numerous safety features including curtain shield airbags in addition to its highly rigid safety body construction. Pedestrian protection is also an important consideration for modern cars.

The D-Compact Wagon employs the state-of-the-art pedestrian protection technologies including crushable structures for the bonnet hinges and the bonnet itself as well as other shock absorbing structures.

The D-Compact Wagon also employs VSC (Vehicle Stability Control), which controls the vehicle’s movements in all directions for improved safety. Vehicle-movement control in cornering improves safety when making quick turns and driving on snowy roads.

More info, specifications and pictures on the Daihatsu D-Compact Wagon on auto.moldova.org

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