New car news

11 July 2008 - 12:00

Block party

Definitely from Daihatsu's cubist period, the new Materia is all straight lines and right angles. But we like it.

With function dictating form, the Materia is a box on wheels to give maximum interior space, and Daihatsu says the Materia is as big as a family car inside while being the same sort of size as a supermini outside. 

The dash is a little more restrained in concept, with the speedo mounted in the centre of the dash-top, but otherwise fairly normal.

The engine is Daihatsu's straightforward 1.5-litre petrol with 103bhp, driven through either a five-speed manual or four-speed automatic gearbox.

The Materia goes on sale in July with a standard equipment list that includes air conditioning, CD player, alloy wheels, privacy rear glass and four airbags.

All that, plus the stand-out styling from £10,995 looks pretty attractive to us.