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Part
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8/11: Brand Car Insurance & Warranty Information (Daihatsu – for 10 Asian countries)
Daihatsu currently sells directly in Malaysia, Indonesia, and Taiwan, and offers a standard 36 month or 100,000 km warranty, whichever comes first, in Malaysia and Indonesia. We could not find proof of a similar warranty in Taiwan, nor could we find evidence of an extended warranty or brand insurance in any of these three countries. Daihatsu has withdrawn from China, Thailand, and Vietnam, and is only available in Hong Kong through a third party, Crown Motors.
We have entered our research into the project spreadsheet. Below you will find a deep dive of our methodology and results.
METHODOLOGY AND LAYOUT
It is Wonder's usual practice to use sources that are less than two years old whenever possible. However, in this case, we had to make some exceptions: Daihatsu's withdrawal from certain markets (e.g., China) was documented only in earlier sources, most often press releases issued at that time, with no follow-up in any English-language public source since. The lack of follow-up is itself evidence that Daihatsu has not re-entered those markets, with Vietnam possibly becoming an exception next year. As a result, we have provided the original press releases as our documentation of which markets Daihatsu has withdrawn from despite their age.
In all cases where Daihatsu is not currently active in a given market, we have marked the project spreadsheet with N/A ("Not Applicable"). The exception to this is Hong Kong, where Daihatsu vehicles are sold only through a third-party vendor.
To define the distinction between a warranty and an extended warranty, we understand the warranty for 36 months or 100,000 km described on Daihatsu's web page to be their standard warranty. We did not find any evidence of any in-house extended warranty in any country beyond this.
CHINA
THAILAND
According to a 2012 article (the most recent we could find), Daihatsu pulled out of the Thai market in 1998.
INDIA
According to an October 2017 article, Daihatsu has decided not to attempt to enter the Indian market following a Toyota-Suzuki alliance to dominate that market.
MALAYSIA
Daihatsu has a good presence in Malaysia. We found that Daihatsu offers a standard warranty of 36 months or 100,000 km, whichever comes first. There is no mention on their site of an extended warranty. DMM Sales, a subsidiary of Daihatsu, offers insurance on at least one model, the Perodua.
INDONESIA
Daihatsu also has a good presence in Indonesia. We found at least one example of a 36 month / 100,000 km warranty for Daihatsu in Indonesia. Insurance is available only via a third party, Asuransi Astra, not directly from Daihatsu.
TAIWAN
Daihatsu does operate in Taiwan, but we could not find any evidence that they offer brand insurance or an extended warranty on new or used vehicles on their Taiwanese page.
KOREA
We could find no public source that indicates that Daihatsu has ever been active in Korea; our available sources indicate that the company is primarily active in Indonesia and Malaysia.
PHILIPPINES
We could find no public source that indicates that Daihatsu has ever been active in the Philippines; our available sources indicate that the company is primarily active in Indonesia and Malaysia.
VIETNAM
Daihatsu withdrew from the Vietnamese market in 2007. However, there are rumors that they will re-enter the market in 2018.
HONG KONG
Daihatsu is sold in Hong Kong only through Crown Motors, a third party. While Crown Motors does offer an extended warranty, this warranty is expressly issued through Crown Motors, not from Daihatsu. This also means that Daihatsu does not offer brand auto insurance in Hong Kong.
CONCLUSION
As requested, the above results have been entered into the project spreadsheet, with the caveats explained in our methodology section.