Roomy, Tank & Thor – Toyota & Daihatsu Launches New Range Of Minivans

Toyota and Daihatsu have simultaneously pulled the covers off a range of new jointly-developed minivans for the Japanese domestic market. The new pair of minivan range are called the Toyota Roomy, Toyota Tank, or Daihatsu Thor, depending on which dealership you visit.

Built to comfortably navigate the tight confines of urban roads, the Roomy, Tank, and Thor follow in the best traditions of Japanese minivans in offering spacious accommodations within a small footprint. They measure about 3.7 metres long and have a turning radius of 4.6 metres.

Despite the diminutive dimensions, however, both the Toyota and Daihatsu variants have the option of being specced with Panoramic View 360-degree camera.

Access to the cabin is via conventional front doors complemented by power-sliding rear doors, and occupants can freely move about between the front and rear seats thanks to the walk-through design of the front seats. Rear seats, meanwhile, offer forward/backward plus reclining adjustment.

Propulsion comes from the 1.0-litre 1KR 3-cylinder engine in both naturally-aspirated and turbocharged guises; the NA engine can be specified with a choice between front- and all-wheel drive, whilst the turbo is FWD only. All setups get a CVT as the standard transmission.

Neither companies provided official performance numbers in their releases beyond mentioning that the turbocharged version produces about 140Nm of torque from 2,400 to 4,000rpm. Fuel consumption in the JC08 cycle are as follows:

• Naturally-Aspirated FWD: 4.06 litres/100km
• Naturally-Aspirated AWD: 4.55 litres/100km
• Turbocharged FWD: 4.59 litres/100km

All variants of the Roomy, Tank, and Thor qualify for eco car tax incentives by the Japanese government. These vehicles are obviously developed solely for the needs of the Japanese domestic market, but one might wonder if the folks at Perodua are considering this as a possible basis of a new replacement model for the long-discontinued Kenari.

Perodua enjoys a fruitful technical partnership with Daihatsu, which recently became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Toyota. Whilst not officially confirmed by company sources, the recently-opened Daihatsu Perodua Engine Manufacturing (DPEM) plant is known to be supplying engines used to power the recently updated Toyota Vios 1.5 Dual VVT-i.