E12 1.2 (Libero)

STORY

A seven-seat micro-MPV stretched out of the Sambar kei van, with the engine still behind the rear axle. Japan knew it as the Domingo; export markets got the same car under a name picked by competition so it would not read as a delivery van: Libero across continental Europe, Sumo in Britain, Columbuss in Sweden, Combi in Belgium and Estratto in Taiwan. The E10 and E12 badges in European brochures are engine sizes, not body codes. European years run ahead of Japanese ones: the second generation reached Germany in late 1993, months before the Domingo FA launched at home. In Finland the Elcat converted it to electric drive and kept building it until 2002, outliving the Domingo itself.