What is Daewoo Really Like - Good or Bad Car?

[31rx7]

My daughter is in need of cheap transportation for around town. The car needs to last probably a year or so. In her price range, most of what I am seeing are worn out Neon's, Cavaliers, and the assorted high mileage Japanese cars, all either rusty, wrecked, or in need of significant repair.

There is a 2000 Nubira for sale locally within her price range. I will likely look at it within the next few days.

Reading this forum, there are only extreme's when it comes to these cars: people hate them as junk, or people love them for cheap, economical cars. My mechanic has a couple in his stable of customers, and feels while they are not great cars, they are not nearly as bad as they are made out to be; certainly better quality than the Hyundai's through the mid '90's.

I would like to know the following:

- How easy / difficult is it to get parts? There is a dealer in town that I plan on visiting that claims to stock parts. I have been to the new Daewoo US web site, and while they seem to list most everything, I am curious to know what is REALLY available?

- How are these cars day to day? I can maintain, diagnose, and repair most everything that doesn't require machine work, so I am not too concerned - can't be any worse than my son's Neon!

- Can anyone speak specifically to having one for awhile and tell of their experiences?

Thanks for your time.

[eck1039]

my lady has a 01 daewoo leganza and it is a good car. she bought it new in 01. we are blessed to have an awesome cadillac/honda dealer that still services daewoo cars that is not too far and the head daewoo tech said that the daewoo timing belt is very important to have changed @ around 40K miles due to a poor factory design. otherwise it'll snap and you need a new engine. he replaced hers @ 42K and 'beefed up' the timing belt guides and rollers (problem areas) and should be good to 100K. otherwise, no problems whatsoever. the interior quality is not like a rock solid honda, but so far the car seems like a good solid economical ride. I would question mileage of a 2000 model and want to see records of maintainence. Her's is a 5 speed so not sure about auto trans reliability, and it has 47K problem free miles in texas heat.

[eck1039]

as far as parts availability goes, the dealer is pretty good, though we haven't had to replace anything other than the timing belt. a quick ebay search on brake pads/rotors seemed to bring up several vendors. common things like this are probably readily available. I do the oil changes since the warranty ran out and have no probs w/filters. ebay rocks for auto parts...

[nick bamberger]

Personally, I wouldn't waste my money on a Daewoo.
Seems to me, that a higher mileage, japanse car such as toyota camry/corolla, honda civic/accord would be a better choice. These are GREAT cars, and most last to atleast 200,000 miles. Although, if buying one over 200,000, I would go for a manual transmission.

Not trying to offend anyone--Just my opinion.

[31rx7]

Originally Posted by nick bamberger

Personally, I wouldn't waste my money on a Daewoo.
Seems to me, that a higher mileage, japanse car such as toyota camry/corolla, honda civic/accord would be a better choice. These are GREAT cars, and most last to atleast 200,000 miles. Although, if buying one over 200,000, I would go for a manual transmission.

Not trying to offend anyone--Just my opinion.

I would tend to agree with you on this except for a couple factors:

The two issues with the low priced, higher mileage Honda's, Nissan's, and Toyota's that I have found is that they need quite a bit of basic work on them (timing belts, brakes, exhaust, etc) or are rust buckets (here in central Ohio they use salt on the roads).

There is no doubt that a well maintained Honda, Toyota, or Nissan can last well up to 200k miles or more, but the problem is that after 7 or 8 years most of them are no longer well maintained.

However, this is irrelevant to me now: I stumbled on a one owner 128k mile Saturn SL1 for $300 that needed a couple of things. I did some repairs, and she now has about $500 into the car and all is well.

I have had good luck with high mileage Saturns (this is my third), and they don't hold resale like the Japanese cars, which is good if you are on a tight budget! At the time I did the original post on this thread, I was really struggling to find anything cheap to own and decent for under $2000, and got lucky with the Saturn. It is not a flashy ride by any means, but serves the purpose. I had to replace the drivers window regulator, the odo gear, and the fuel gauge is not working (the prob is with the sender in the tank), but other than that, it is A1. She gets 30mpg around town.