Watch your Kopen being built

Borrowing from the inspiration of new-car purchasing tradition from companies like Mercedes-Benz, which allows customers to see their cars being built and drive away in the finished vehicle direct from the factory, Daihatsu will introduce a similar scheme at its factory near Osaka City, Japan’s second biggest city.

And the model to usher in this new procedure will be none other than Daihatsu’s high-profile 660cc-powered mini sports coupe, the all-new Kopen.

First seen in concept form as the OFC-1 at the 2007 Tokyo motor show, and more recently in near-production styling at last year’s Tokyo show, the innovative ‘Kopen Studion’ will allow customers to see their car actually being assembled.

The new model will incorporate a 660cc turbocharged three-cylinder engine generating around 50kW, wrapped in a body featuring interchangeable panels.

Production of the previous Copen (denoting a spelling change from the original model to the new version) finished in 2012, but the Copen was last sold in Australia in 2005, priced at $28,990, before the Toyota-owned brand was discontinued here.

However, Daihatsu has plans for its new coupe. In the same way that Honda is seriously considering a more powerful 100kW 1.0-litre turbocharged version of its new S660 mini-coupe for the US and Europe, Daihatsu too is weighing up its options for a higher-powered Kopen.

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