The Daihatsu Copen Is Dying: Another Fun Car Killed Off
Japan’s kei car segment is about to lose one of its most fun models. After more than 20 years on sale, the Copen will go out of production next August. Still, there’s a glimmer of hope the diminutive open-top sports car might return someday. Daihatsu says it is conducting “various studies” on the possibility of launching a third-generation model, but no decision has been made.
The Copen debuted in 2002, several years after Suzuki had pulled the plug on the Cappuccino. Similarly, the Honda Beat had retired in the 1990s, though a spiritual successor was sold between 2015 and 2022 as the S660. The current Copen has been around since 2014 and even received the coupe treatment with a fixed carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic hardtop for a limited special edition introduced in 2019.
Before it bows out, the Copen starts at 1,983,300 yen (about $13,300 at current exchange rates) for the base model fitted with a CVT. Toyota's value-focused brand also sells the hardtop convertible kei car with a five-speed manual, which raises the price to 2,038,300 yen ($13,700). Even the range-topping GR Sport version with a stick costs only 2,567,400 yen ($17,200).
We’re loosely using the term “sports car” since the Copen had to comply with kei car regulations, so it’s far from a pocket rocket. The 0.66-liter, three-cylinder turbocharged engine makes 63 horsepower and 68 pound-feet (92 Newton-meters) of torque. Then again, it doesn’t take much to put a smile on your face when the car weighs just 1,874 pounds (850 kilograms) with the manual.
At only 133.6 inches (3395 millimeters) long, the tiny Copen makes a Miata look huge by comparison. It’s always been a front-engined, front-wheel-drive affair, but a Vision concept shown a few years back experimented with a RWD layout. Pictured below, the one-off abandoned kei car dimensions in favor of a larger footprint with a bigger engine, but it sadly never reached production.
The Copen was the sole surviving member of the fun kei car genre that once gave us the ultra-quirky Autozam AZ-1 with its mid-engine layout. Here’s hoping Daihatsu revives the recipe one day, given how strong the kei car segment remains in Japan. If not, we can take comfort in knowing that Mazda will introduce another generation of its beloved MX-5, complete with a larger engine.
Meanwhile, automakers such as Renault and Stellantis want the European Union to adopt its own kei car-like segment with fewer safety features to reduce costs and lower prices. But even if the EU agrees to a less-regulated category of small cars, the odds of seeing anything remotely like the Copen are slim to none. These cars would almost certainly end up being exclusively electric anyway.
Gallery: Daihatsu Vision Copen
