Well, these are two pretty similar cars we have here! It's only details that could potentially make the difference. Considering they both belong to the city car segment and utilize the same 5-door hatchback body style and the front wheel drive system, it all comes up to the specific petrol engine choice they offer. The first one has a Daihatsu-engineered powertrain under the hood, a 3-cylinder, 12-valves 55hp unit, while the other one gets its power and torque from a 4-cylinder, 16-valves 63hp engine designed by Mazda.

Unfortunatelly, neither of the two vehicles was submitted to the European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP) testing. This makes it virtually impossible for me to pick one over the other and I'm generally against buying such cars as the safety should really always come first. That aside, let's consider some other aspects which affect safety. Both vehicles belong to the city car segment, which is generally not a very good thing safety-wise, still it doesn't help us solve our dilemma, does it? On the other hand, when it comes to weight, a factor that most people underestimate, Demio offers a potentially life-saving difference of 30% more metal.

Manufacturers have been building their reliability reputation for decades now and, generally speaking, it appears that Daihatsu does have a slight advantage, when all the models are taken into account. These are the official statistics, while our visitors describe reliability of Daihatsu with an average rating of 4.1, and models under the Mazda badge with 4.4 out of 5. Some independent research have also placed Cuore as average reliability-wise, and Demio is more or less at the same level.That apart, owners of different cars powered by the same engine as Cuore rank it on average as 3.5, while the one under the competitor's bonnet gets 5.0 out of 5.

Daihatsu is undoubtly more agile, reaching 100km/h in 1.2 seconds less than its competitor. Still, it lacks the power to win the top speed competition, topping at 140 kilometers per hour, 11km/h less than the other car. When it comes to fuel economy the winner has to be Cuore, averaging around 5.1 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers (55 mpg), in combined cycle. We can't ignore that 37% difference compared to Demio.

Mazda appears just a bit more reliable, although the difference is truly marginal. The most important thing when deciding between any two vehicles should always be safety, both passive and active. In my opinion, everything taken into account, Demio offers much better overall protection, which launches it ahead of the other contender. From there things take a different direction, with Daihatsu being considerably quicker, thus putting more smile on driver's face. To make things even better, it consumps less fuel! No mistake, whatever you decide here, but I'd still go for the Daihatsu. In any case that's my personal view, built upon all the data available to me. What should decide here though is the way you feel about the two vehicles, and I hope you'll find my guidelines useful in the process. I suggest you spend two more minutes in order to find out which car, based on your needs and budget, would be picked by the virtual adviser™, among thousands of similar, yet so different vehicles.