As Daihatsu firmly established itself as Toyota's compact car specialist brand, compact cars were the biggest vehicles marketed by the company.
When replacing the long-running Charmant, the company decided to try a unique approach at the segment, with the intention to capitalize on the preferences for sedans, while at the same time offering the flexibility and convenience of a 5-door hatchback body.
Resulting from such thinking, the Applause was presented at the 1989 Geneva Motor Show in production-ready "concept" form, as the MS-X90.
The engine was also a new development, a 16-valve 1.6-liter inline-four shared with the F300-series Rocky/Feroza/Sportrak.

In the first year in the market, Applause's reputation was tarnished by widely publicized incidents of gasoline spurting under excessive air pressure while refuelling, which could lead to very hazardous accidents.
Daihatsu fixed the problem in the 1990 model, named Applause Theta, to highlight the improvement.
The car was engineered from the beginning to be equipped with four-wheel-drive, a model which appeared only a few months after the introduction.
It came equipped with a viscous coupling, sending up to 47 percent of the power to the rear wheels.
In the spring of 1991 Daihatsu presented a cabrio coach prototype of the Applause, called the "Applause Windward," but it never entered production.
As Daihatsu firmly established itself as Toyota's compact car specialist brand, compact cars were the biggest vehicles marketed by the company. When replacing the long-running Charmant, the company decided to try a unique approach at the segment, with the intention to capitalize on the preferences for sedans, while at the same time offering the flexibility and convenience of a 5-door hatchback body. Resulting from such thinking, the Applause was presented at the 1989 Geneva Motor Show in production-ready "concept" form, as the MS-X90. The engine was also a new development, a 16-valve 1.6-liter inline-four shared with the F300-series Rocky/Feroza/Sportrak.
In the first year in the market, Applause's reputation was tarnished by widely publicized incidents of gasoline spurting under excessive air pressure while refuelling, which could lead to very hazardous accidents. Daihatsu fixed the problem in the 1990 model, named Applause Theta, to highlight the improvement. The car was engineered from the beginning to be equipped with four-wheel-drive, a model which appeared only a few months after the introduction. It came equipped with a viscous coupling, sending up to 47 percent of the power to the rear wheels. In the spring of 1991 Daihatsu presented a cabrio coach prototype of the Applause, called the "Applause Windward," but it never entered production.
Daihatsu Applause