Dynamite in a small and practical package

After almost a year of storming around town at the hands of most CIA staffers, it's time to bid farewell to a long-termer that divided opinion like no other.

Its design, with that 'double-wedge' window line and seemingly Subaru-inspired front bumper, was the first point of debate. It's certainly sporty, but some didn't like the bread-bin proportions of the car.

There were certain things that everyone liked about this tall, boxy 'Young Recreational Vehicle' as Daihatsu dubs it.

Its performance is the most surprising aspect. Its engine started life as a 1.3-litre 16V petrol unit with variable valve timing, sourced from Toyota and similar, as far as we understand, to the unit that powers the new Yaris that you'll read about elsewhere in this issue. But Daihatsu decided that its 64kW was simply not good enough and did what we'd probably have done - mated it to a high-boost turbocharger.

The result is a little gem of an engine. Producing 95kW at 6400rpm and 170Nm at 2800rpm, it defies all expectations of what a small engine can do, although we do wonder if perhaps the little engine is under too much stress.

It doesn't come with a manual transmission, something we initially cursed, but once we became accustomed to the automatic box with its 'Steershift' manual changing function, most of us grew to enjoy it. Though the manual function needs to be activated by the push of a button every time the gear stick is shifted into 'D', it does make the car far more fun to drive.

Gears are selected via buttons on the steering wheel and using the Steershift function allowed us to gain a second on the 0-100km/h sprint, achieving 8.9 seconds versus the ten seconds it took in auto mode. We don't like that it's only a 4-speed unit and can't help but wonder how much better the engine would be exploited by six manually shifted cogs.

In a straight line, the YRV Turbo is surprisingly fast. It'll outrun anything else you'd get at the R140K price by quite a margin, its closest challenger being the R170K Ford Fiesta ST. The YRV disappoints with loads of steering shake and torque steer when you pull off at full steam and the performance novelty fades even further the second you approach a corner.

Despite the relatively hard and shaky ride, presumably as a result of stiffened suspension aiming to optimize the car's cornering ability, the YRV does not turn in all that sharply nor does its steering impart much in the way of communication with the driver.

Part of the blame goes to its excessively high center of gravity, which results in an abundance of interior headroom that you're not going to need or appreciate unless your name is Hercules or Marge Simpson. Yet the MPV-inspired design does allow for surprisingly ample interior space and stadium-like seating that perches the rear seats 75mm higher than the front ones. The YRV is also versatile with rear seats that can slide 15cm forwards or backwards, allowing you to create more rear legroom when there's not much luggage and visa versa.

Visually, the netted black seat trim works well, but the facia, done in hard black plastic, looks cheap and old-fashioned. The YRV is fitted with all the luxury features you'd expect at the price and for safety it has dual front airbags and ABS brakes with EBD.

Having covered almost 24 000km under our custodianship, the YRV held together very well, with no unexpected niggles or faults to deal with. Our only gripe was that the front tyres tended to spin too easily on pull-off and had completely worn by the end of our test period.

And now that the car has been returned to Daihatsu, we continue to think about that potent little engine and where it may end up in the future. Mated to a manual gearbox and installed in the more dynamically capable Sirion, it'd be an instant pocket rocket champ and it'd likely be even more affordable than the YRV.