Daihatsu Cast: My Fourth Rental in Okinawa

A blue Cast that fits right in with Okinawa’s blue skies

Haisai! I’m CULT.
This week’s installment of my Okinawa rental car review masterclass features the Cast. It’s made by Daihatsu. Toyota owns 100% of the company, and since kei cars have low profit margins, Toyota sells them through Daihatsu rather than making them itself. So Daihatsu has plenty of quirky cars you don’t see from Toyota. Today, it’s the Cast.
I still.. can’t buy a car because I haven’t been able to get proof of a parking space. But I can rent cars very cheaply, and I used to head up to northern Okinawa for photo shoots about 3 times a week, so I prefer fuel-efficient cars.
Since I travel alone, I naturally rent a kei car for long trips and a bigger car for short trips to places like American Village. I want to try as many different cars as I can. I’ve got to drive them all before I can go around bragging about how many rental cars I’ve tried in Okinawa.

Anyway, today’s car is the Daihatsu Cast. This is my fourth time renting it.

They offer a pickup service as soon as you arrive in Okinawa and a ride to the airport after you return the car.
I live near Kokusai-dori, so I don’t need that, but this car is also available for collection in town. That’s how I usually get the car. A Korean staff member handles everything, so it’s easy.

I photographed the instrument panel after getting into the car. It shows a remaining range of about 400 km. Even the farthest places you’re likely to visit in Okinawa are about 120 km away, so even with plenty of driving around, you generally won’t run out of fuel during a 3-night, 4-day trip. Of course, if you’re the type to accelerate hard, you’ll need to refuel along the way.

Always take care when turning right across oncoming traffic..
It’s nothing difficult, but you should always be careful if it’s your first time.

This car has a 660cc engine. I’ve reached the point where I can recite the specs without looking them up.
It seats 4, but it’s so small that with four people aboard, there’s no room for luggage. So it’s fine for 2 or 3 travelers, but with a child.. I wouldn’t recommend it. Little ones keep hugging the suitcases and getting their clothes dirty.
For solo travelers or couples, though, it’s hard to beat the value.

The Nissan Dayz I introduced recently is a little better in terms of features, condition and fuel economy. But the Dayz is often rented out, and it’s red. Some people like blue. Okinawa has blue skies for almost the whole summer, so I think a blue car suits it really well.

AI-generated image

I did a quick AI edit on just the wheels in this photo.
I use AI for photos I deliver to clients, but I don’t use it for photo shoots or blog photos. This time, though, there had apparently been a new update, so I gave it a test. The wheels look a little warped. They’re fine in real life.

Here’s the front of the cabin. There’s a smartphone mount.. The navigation is in Japanese, so you won’t be using it. Even if you understand Japanese, or are Japanese, I always say I dislike Japanese navigation systems and don’t recommend them. Just mount your phone and open Google Maps. That’s the way to go..
Most cars have a screen that supports Google Auto / Apple CarPlay, but oddly, this one doesn’t.

It’s a kei car, but you’ll fit even if you’re 190 cm tall, so no need to worry..
And the best thing about Japanese kei cars.. state-of-the-art cup holders. There’s one in front of the A/C vent. If you spend about 30 minutes dipping your feet in the sea in summer, you’ll come back to a hot cabin and warm drinks, but the A/C cools your drink back down. I love this.

There’s one Type-A and one Type-C charging port, but with music playing and Google Maps navigation running on an iPhone 16 Pro, I got a 3% charge in 1 hour. It says Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0, but it doesn’t actually deliver that much power. In really old cars.. cars more than 15 years old.. the battery sometimes drains even while plugged in. At least it’s not doing that.

It has a rear camera. This car has a dashcam too.
Honestly, the car is so small.. I don’t really need the rear camera. I just park by eye. But you should always check the rear camera when parking. As I always say, the people who crash a rental car within an hour are the ones insisting they’ve gone 20 or 30 years without an accident. It’s science. SCIENCE. Yep.
Beginners who got their license about 1 year ago actually have fewer accidents.

There are 3 pedals.
The pedal on the far left is the foot-operated parking brake, the middle one is the regular brake, and the one on the right is the accelerator. The pull lever at the upper right is the fuel door release lever. I explain this every time, and you still get it wrong every time. Plenty of people have that moment of wondering why the car won’t move.. with the parking brake still on.

Here’s the trunk. With all 4 seats in use, it fits one carry-on suitcase. You can pretty much say there’s no space.
So I’ve folded one seat forward out of the way like this. That makes room for 3 carry-on suitcases and one of the largest, 28-inch suitcases. Three adults can travel in it without any trouble. But there’s a catch..

This is the view from the rear seat. There’s a suitcase on the right. It’s fine for an adult, but a child keeps rubbing against it and getting their clothes dirty. I actually saw this happen during a photo shoot.. a hands-on lesson in why I shouldn’t recommend it for three people if one of them is a child.

If you’re a family of 3–5, rent a Toyota Raize instead.

For two travelers, it can carry pretty much the maximum amount of luggage a typical tourist would bring. The owner told me.. when two people rent it, he sends the car out with the rear seats already folded down.

I’ve driven the Cast several times, so I’ve had a range of experiences with it.
Since I’m always driving alone, fuel economy is decent, and parking is so easy I can more or less just pull into any spot. It has no trouble maintaining 80 km/h on the highway either.
But the body is light.. and when I’m alone on the highway, it feels a bit floaty. I imagine that would be less noticeable with someone beside me and some luggage. Well.. I always say Route 58 is a better way to travel around Okinawa than the highway. Of course.. if you’re driving at night, just take the highway.
Late at night, there are plenty of people driving strangely on the local roads. U.S. military personnel, for example. A bit unhinged.. If the license plate starts with Y, it’s someone in the U.S. military stationed in Okinawa.

I’ve never been to the Americas, so I don’t know, but is cutting people off just a passive skill Americans come with?

The car had to go straight out again as soon as I returned it, so I agreed to wash it and clean the interior myself. Of course, I could only do that because I’ve done it several times and know the owner well.

Time to fill up. I hadn’t driven that much, just down south for some errands and over to American Village. This car takes gasoline, called regular in Japan. The red nozzle.

The total came to 950 yen.
A round trip to American Village by public transport costs 1,460 yen, so the fuel was cheaper. That’s average for a gasoline kei car. Neither great nor poor. I’ve driven so many rental cars.. I can practically rank them for fuel economy and how good or bad they are. This one is somewhere in the middle. Still, for the price, it’s very good value.
And keep the receipt, just in case there’s a problem.

Your rental car will have this beginner driver sticker. Even if you’ve gone 50 years without an accident.
All foreign drivers are encouraged to use it. You might mix up left and right. And aggressive driving targeting a car with this sticker carries heavier penalties. Newbie protection policy.
Think you’ll get left and right mixed up? If you’re normally a careful driver, you won’t have a problem. Just pay a little extra attention, take a wide arc when turning right across oncoming traffic, as if rounding a bend on a running track, and remember that Korean drivers tend to drift left within the lane. Pay attention to your position relative to the right side of the lane.

Driving manners are much better in Okinawa than in Korea, so there’s less pressure too. With the beginner sticker on, people just think, oh, they must be new to driving~

Return the car to the office specified when you book, and they’ll drive you to the airport afterward. The Cast is small, so you usually have to move your luggage to a bigger car. If there’s a spare seat, they normally drive you to the airport in the same car, but apparently most Cast customers have to move their luggage.
You can also return it on Kokusai-dori like this. My home is a 15-minute walk or a 5-minute bike ride from here, so of course I return it on Kokusai-dori.

When I rented it, the daily fee was 5,000 yen, plus 1,650 yen for collision damage waiver and NOC insurance combined, totaling 6,650 yen per day. The website will show 13,000 yen and change because they don’t offer one-day rentals; prices start at 2 days. For rentals of 3 days or more, you can select the rate of 6,650 yen per day.

The basic insurance does cover most things, but if you have an accident without collision damage waiver or NOC insurance, you’ll be sent from place to place and lose all that travel time. With both, the process after an accident is much simpler. A fee for your peace of mind..

That’s all for today!
I’ll be back in a few days with another installment of my Okinawa rental car review masterclass. Mata yasai