Could This £3k Daihatsu Copen Be Your Ticket To Cheap Summer Fun?

It’s often repeated that this time of year is the worst possible time to buy a convertible, as sellers hike up prices in anticipation of the summer demand for top-down motoring. That may well be the case, but because we’re not fonts of sensible financial advice, we’re going to recommend a little two-seater roadster to you anyway.

There’s no shortage of options for top-down, two-seater motoring on low, low budgets – MX-5s, MR2s, Z3s, SLKs, MGFs, Alfa Spiders… we could go on. Don’t they all seem a bit… obvious, though?

Thankfully, one company that doesn’t really know the meaning of ‘obvious’ is Daihatsu. The Japanese company, which sadly pulled out of the European market in 2013, has always had a fine line in small, affordable and endearingly odd cars, and that included its attempt at a sports car: the Copen.

We use the term ‘sports car’ very optimistically. The Copen was a kei car which, as JDM aficionados will know, meant it could have an engine size no bigger than 660cc, and produce no more than 63bhp.

That’s just what you got with the Copen’s little 659cc four-cylinder turbo engine which, when it was first exported to Europe, made it one of the only kei cars to make its way outside of Japan through official channels (later export versions got a nat-asp 1.3-litre engine instead, but if you’re going to get a kei car, you may as well do it properly, right?).

So no, with a leisurely 0-62mph time of 11.7 seconds and an equally sedate 106mph top speed, the original Copen wasn’t particularly fast. But it was light at just 830kg, and had a snickety manual gearbox and an engine that fizzed its way to 8000rpm. And let’s face it, in a teeny little car like this with the folding metal roof retracted, any sensations of speed are bound to be heightened. A bit. Maybe.

That’s why we’ve been browsing Auto Trader, leading us to this red Copen from 2004. With just 44,000 miles on the clock, it seems like a surefire way into cheap, care-free top-down driving at an asking price of £2990.

Now, we’ll admit that while the Copen’s frothy little engine appears to be pretty durable, we can’t say the same about the chassis: we did MOT checks on several examples we found for sale, and pretty much all of them feature orange advisories mentioning the word ‘underseal’. This one’s no different, but does seem to be one the less scary ones available at the moment. Maybe just put it away when autumn comes around.

So, would the cute little Copen make an ideal summertime companion for you? Or would you rather have some patience and wait until you find a Suzuki Cappuccino for sale instead?