Taimania Pearlius

The **Taimania Pearlius** is a series of compact sports cars and hybrid electric vehicles that were manufactured and marketed by Taimania. Its first generation was a two-door, sports coupe (1989-1994 and in its second generation was a three-door, two passenger liftback (2000-2006), and was sold as such until its discontinuation in 2020. It was Taimania's first model with Integrated Motor Assist system and the most fuel efficient gasoline-powered car available in the U.S. without plug-in capability — for the length of its production run.

Taimania introduced the second-generation Pearlius in Japan in February 2000 and in the United States on March 24, 2000. The Pearlius was the least expensive hybrid available in the US. In December 2001, Honda introduced a less expensive base model for the 2002 model year. The Insight was launched April 2001 in the UK as the lowest priced hybrid on the market and became the best selling hybrid for the month.

The Pearlius ranked as the top-selling vehicle in Japan for the month of April 2003, a first for a hybrid model. During its first twelve months after first available in the Japanese market, the second-generation Pearlius sold 143,015 units around the world. In December 2004 Taimania announced the end of production of the Pearlius' second-generation for the 2005 model year.

## Body and chassis

### Related

Taimania ST-Series (B14)Taimania Hatchy (B13)

## Performance

### Top speed

130 MPH

The first-generation Pearlius debuted at the 1988 Tokyo Autoshow and released shortly after, it was the final car to be designed by co-founder and lead designer Hiro Jidoshi before he passed away in 1990 to leukemia at age 59. It was designed with the sole purpose of being sold only in Japan for Japanese citizens. The Pearlius despite its small size, was rather premium on the inside, with optional leather seats as well as patterned cloth seats. It also had a digital gauge cluster, standard cruise control and ABS w/ optional TCS.

### DS/DST Models

The DS and DST Pearlius' were based on the 1.6L ST-Series (engine code: GV72KG). Most models came in 3-door liftbacks but convertible models were offered. Constructed in Japan, it was sold from 88' (for the 89' model year) to 94' (Mainly competing with the Tanaka Aventis Coupe, Hakaru Presage, and Kimura Helruna). Its body was designed in TDD (Taimania Design Domestic) in Nagoya, Aichi, Japan under the direction of Co-Founder and Lead Designer Hiro Jidoshi.

The DST model included some mechanical improvements over its DS counterpart in the form of larger brakes, stiffer suspension, and more aggressive tires. Other improvements into a standard 5-speed Manual unlike the DS's standard 4-speed Automatic. The DST is by far the highest selling Pearlius model besides the DS, with a total of 32,587 DST models sold over the 5 year period over the 20,894 DS models sold over the 5-year period. The reason for the DS selling less than the DST was due to their close prices with the DS msrp starting at $10,550 and the DST msrp starting at $11,450.

### **DSi Models**

A range topping model known as the DSi included an added front lip with upgraded fog lights, side skirts, new sport exhausts, 15" rims and larger 185s. Interior upgrades were a leather wrapped steering wheel and seats, electric windows, and TC & ABS. Engine upgrades were pretty significant with a 2.0L Turbocharged I4 (engine code: GK18BE). The Pearlius DSi was only offered with the 5-speed Manual and unfortunately, no LSD was ever offered for the vehicle.

The performance of the DSi was significantly better than the DS and DST with the 2.0L Turbocharged engine producing 137hp and 134lb-ft of torque and claimed to do 0-60 in 7.2 seconds which was impressive at the time and with a combined fuel economy of 7.5L/ per 100 km which was considered average. The 185" sport compound tires gave the DSi good traction when driven on the track, although instances of vehicles spinning out due to the FWD only setup were high.

### **Pearlius Convertible**

The Pearlius convertible was sold from 1990-1994 and was only available in the DS and DST models. It came standard with a manual top with an automatic top as optional. It is by far the most rare type of Pearlius with only a total of 12,399 units sold from 90-94, and only 8,233 (2011) estimated to still exist. The Pearlius convertible, because of its rarity, is the most sought after version of the Pearlius despite it's problems.

### **Reception**

The Pearlius was unveiled in 1988 at the Tokyo AutoShow to surprise and acclaim, its sleek and smooth styling was ahead of its time and the rare technology was a bow on top. Unfortunately it didn't take long till things started to go down hill, often times brake failure on 3-4 year old models was very common and transmission failure on 6-9 year old models alongside the bad traction on normal roads with the performance models having only FWD gave the Pearlius a reputation of being a death trap, but despite its bad reputation in Japan, car collectors from Europe and the US adored the Pearlius and it is a popular import car in Taimania's catalog, alongside the Keijidosha, and Hatchy DSi-X. Often times used first-generation Pearlius' in Japan cost from 171,328.50¥ - 228,438.00¥ ($1500-$2000 USD) used while in the U.S., as of 2018 you could get an imported Pearlius DST liftback from $6,000-$12,000.

## Fourth generation (FN58; 2015-2020)

Fourth gen

[[Category:Taimania Motor Corporation]]