The Daihatsu New-Line was a compact series of

pickup truck A pickup truck or pickup is a light-duty truck that has an enclosed cabin, and a back end made up of a cargo bed that is enclosed by three low walls with no roof (this cargo bed back end sometimes consists of a tailgate and removable covering) ...

s and

van A van is a type of road vehicle used for transporting goods or people. Depending on the type of van, it can be bigger or smaller than a pickup truck and SUV, and bigger than a common car. There is some varying in the scope of the word across th ...

s built by Daihatsu from 1963 until 1968. They were based on the Daihatsu Hijet " ''keitora''" and microvans, although they were somewhat larger and sturdier. The 797 cc inline-four engine also seen in the Daihatsu Compagno was fitted, rather than the 356 cc two-stroke unit seen in the Hijet.

First generation (L50)

Based on the first Hijet (of late 1960), the first New-Line used a conventional front-engine, rear-wheel-drive format with the driver sitting behind the engine, in a similar pickup fashion. It arrived in January 1963. It was longer than the Hijet and could carry thanks to a larger, 800 cc engine with . Top speed for the low-geared vehicle is . This car did not meet the strict kei car standards of the time and sold only in small numbers, until its replacement in February 1966. The cargo space was more useful, up from to .

Second generation (S50)

The smaller Hijet adopted a

cab-over Cab-over, also known as cab over engine (COE), cab forward (U.S.), flat nose (Canada), or forward control (UK), is a body style of truck, bus, or van that has a vertical front, "flat face" or a hood (vehicle), semi-hood, with the Cabin (truck), ...

approach in 1964, retaining availability of the first generation bonneted style. From February 1966 an 800 cc version of this Hijet was also available, as the "Daihatsu New-Line Cab" (S50, S50T). It replaced the earlier L50 New Line. As for its predecessor, it shared its engine with the Daihatsu Compagno. The New Line Cab was built until March 1968, and was replaced by the somewhat larger Daihatsu Delta 750.

References

{{Daihatsu timeline

Newline Newline (frequently called line ending, end of line (EOL), next line (NEL) or line break) is a control character or sequence of control characters in character encoding specifications such as ASCII, EBCDIC, Unicode, etc. This character, or a ...

Pickup trucks Vans Cab over vehicles Vehicles introduced in 1963