Birth of Kembara

The Daihatsu Terios is a mini SUV, first released in 1997 by the Japanese car manufacturer Daihatsu. The engine was a modified Daihatsu Charade 1.3 litre engine or 660cc kei car engine, with constant four wheel drive or two wheel drive. It comes in 5-speed manual transmission or 4-speed automatic transmission. The width of the first generation Terios is lesser than 1500mm to fulfill the kei car regulation. The kei car's Terios is shorter without rear pillar-window to fulfil the kei car's length regulation. The second generation of Terios is co-developed by Daihatsu and Toyota.

The first generation of its history was available as 4-door wagon, and the smaller model( Kei car ) called Terios Kid, which was only released in Japan.

In 2000, Daihatsu gave the Terios a mild facelift both in the exterior and interior of the vehicle. A new chrome grille replaced the plastic black grille. The high-grade model had an addition of electric front windows, central locking, rear seat head restraints, alloy wheels, roof rails and a roof-mounted rear spoiler. Mechanically, the 1.3 litre SOHC four cylinder engine fitted to the previous model had been replaced by the new 1.3 litre DOHC four cylinder engine. Power was also increased by 3 kW (4 hp). A sport version of K3-VET engine were produced on Japan in several period.

In Australia, a sports limited edition series was introduced in 2001 with only 200 units being available. The vehicle had body colour matching bumpers, different from the two-tone bumper colour on the standard model. Rear spoiler and sunroof became standard. The interior was updated with metallic paint finish on the center console and instrument