Kenari – Styling

The Kenari’s styling follows the trends for cars in this class with the wheels
pushed right to the corners of the two-box shape to maximise interior room. 

Although conventional rectangular headlights were considered, the dual
headlight front end was chosen to give a sporty and unique image. At the
rear, the clean design of the large side-hinged rear door is flanked by high-
mounted rear light clusters (with large amber lenses for the signals) that
follow the style in the Kembara. Being mounted here not only makes them
more visible to drivers behind but also reduce the chances of damage in
rear-end collisions. The reversing lights are set in the rear bumper lower to
the ground. As such lights are not normally very bright, their illumination
would not be of much use to the driver anyway and serve more to alert
other drivers of the Kenari being reversed.

It is important to note that the Daihatsu Move which served as the basis for
the Kenari is not the original one which was introduced in Japan in the early
1990s but the newer one which has been sold since late 1998. The difference
is that the newer wide-body Move was designed based on the revised minicar regulations in Japan which were introduced in October 1998.
Basically, the revisions were made because of stricter safety requirements
which the original minicars would have difficulty meeting. The new minicar
specifications allowed an increase in overall length by 10 cm to a maximum
of around 3.4 metres and an increase in overall width by 8 cm to around
1.48 metres.

The Kenari, being a Malaysian model, is obviously not directly affected by
the regulations but as it uses the same platform as the Move, its overall
dimensions can’t be substantially changed. The important thing about the
increased dimensions permitted is that they have removed the ‘tall and
narrow’ profile that characterised most minicars and made them look like
they would easily tip over. The Kenari, in fact, has a low-slung look even
though it has 160 mm of ground clearance.