Daewon't . . .

I wonder what it would be like to delve into one of those little engines and toy with it a bit, you know? Try to extract some power, experiment a bit . . . what else are they good for, certainly not dependable transportation . . .

Later

I owned a Daewoo built Pontiac LeMans for several years and besides regular maintenence it never gave any problems. My family and I racked up over 130,000 miles without a hitch:)

You certainly have not tried one of those, i tell you I like to drive hard (sometimes) at first I was scared like you to demand too much power in the car, of course now I´m more confident and I easily get in 6000rpm and the engine feels very elastic and responsive.:silly2:

There were no strange problems?

You mean the cars ran flawlessly . . . I find that hard to believe . . .

6000 rpm isn't a lot by reference.

What is the redline in your Daewoo?

Well, after two years of hard service delivering newspapers and pizza delivery, the engine was noisier and rougher.

Originally posted by enginerd
I owned a Daewoo built Pontiac LeMans for several years and besides regular maintenence it never gave any problems. My family and I racked up over 130,000 miles without a hitch:) That'd odd because here in NZ we got the Opel Kadett, Le Mans and Cielo (The Daewoo) and I have not heard of a happy owner of either cars

It might be interesting to take a look on this.

those are some sweet cars!

Ever had the feeling that you live in a parallel universe? You know what I mean -- the surroundings are familiar, the people are the same folk you know and see everyday, and all is as it should be. Except, they're all doing weird stuff or saying things that just don't make any sense.
Well, I've had this experience with Daewoo's Lanos four-door sedan.
Every automotive magazine around has taken potshots at Daewoo cars, and they're not too crazy about other Korean products, such as Kia, either. Only recently have they gotten religion about Hyundai when it became clear that it's gotten its act together with some pretty neat products such as the Sonata and the Santa Fe.

But after driving the Lanos, I'm thinking, gee, I must be living some kind of parallel life because the negative things that I've been reading about Daewoo products don't make a lick of sense to me after driving the Lanos.

Call me weird. Call me crazy.

I liked the Lanos.

In fact, I liked it a lot better than certain other small sedans I've driven recently, including one or two from -- horrors! --Toyota...

I'm not saying that the Lanos is the best compact car you can buy. Far from it. But, although those manufacturers make terrific cars, don't just assume that the Lanos and other Korean products are uniformly shoddy, cheaply built or outdated.

As typical consumers, what we care about is how cars feel when we drive them. Will I have to worry about acceleration or passing on the highway? How well does it stop? Does it have enough good safety stuff on it? How's the room? What kind of mileage will I get?

On most of those questions, the Lanos does quite well.

The first thing I noticed on the Lanos was the glossy red paint. One of the first areas where you spot cheapness is in the quality of the paint, and this one looked pretty terrific.

I also loved the cool alloy wheels and the chrome exhaust extension and jaunty rear-mounted antenna -- all of which made it look like a pretty sporty number to me.

Looks pretty much like any small economy car. The controls are at hand, convenient. The dashboard is all business. Not much space for showy stuff, but that's OK. The material on the dash looks durable enough to me.

On the other hand, say this for Daewoo: It uses quality fabrics on its seats -- nothing about them seemed cheap -- and they even were done in an attractive, soft blue and gray combo.

The stereo system turned out to be pretty cool sounding too. I've driven some more expensive cars that didn't sound as nice. But the CD player occasionally skipped when I drove over a big bump.

Now look behind you in the back seat. Where is the rear seat leg room?

There is none to speak of in the Lanos, and it may be best to think of this as a car for two. You'll probably want to use the back seat for groceries or other packages.

The Lanos has been criticized for being slow to accelerate, but again, I'm wondering, what are the car rags talking about?

This little thing had acceleration aplenty for me. In fact, I was looking at the speedometer more than once and noticed it had eased into the 70s with no problem at all. And in everyday traffic, it zooms ahead nicely.

The Daewoo Lanos has a 1.6-liter, 4-cylinder, 105-horsepower engine, and it can get hard on your eardrums, particularly when you're accelerating.

Now then, the biggest consideration with a Daewoo has nothing to do with the car itself, but with the maker. Those of you who follow the news know that the company has declared bankruptcy, and at the time I took delivery of the Lanos, I was told that all further deliveries of other Daewoos for testing would have to wait until they knew what was up for the future.

If we were talking about a huge company with lots of dealerships and plentiful parts, I would feel better about taking the risk of owning one. You have to decide for yourself.

And that's a shame, because it's basically a good product. Let's face it, not everybody can afford a $30,000 or even a $17,000 automobile, a fact that seems wasted on car makers, judging from the sheer lack of choice at the low end of the market. That's why I hope somebody buys the company. I'm for more choices, not less.

Another thing I should tell you is that the jury is still out on both reliability and resale value because Daewoo hasn't been in the U.S. market long enough to draw any conclusions. Daewoo does offer a three-year, 36,000-mile basic warranty and a 5-year/60,000-mile powertrain warranty as well.

My week with the Lanos is proof of the obvious: Your reaction to a car depends on the chemistry involved. Even things such as how tall or heavy you are, along with the way you drive, can affect how comfortable you'll be with a given car or truck.

Some people -- me included -- think the Ford Focus, some BMWs and Saabs, and just about all Volkswagens are fantastic, flawed though they may be in their own ways. You may drive any one of them and loathe it, and it may well not have anything to do with the car.

And that's why you should never buy a car or truck without driving it for more than a block or two.

One other thing before I come down off my soapbox. All of the criticism that Daewoo and the others have taken from the automotive press has at least something to do with the fact that most of the big guys at the big rags like to drive expensive automobiles. Who wouldn't?

And judging from how little space they devote to economy cars, very little priority is given to them.

By the way, mea culpa! I'm just as guilty if you look at the list of cars yours truly has tested, thanks to the vagaries of scheduling with manufacturers who tend to get their showier, costlier stuff to the media first.

By Don Hammonds, Post-Gazette Auto Reviewer

I honestly think that Daewoos are the better Korean cars

As mentioned by Euro19, they are a risky company to buy from. So risky, in fact, that they are pulling out of the North American market. And it is unlikely that GM will provide service for them (they mightm, but it will be skimpy). So I have to rate them a bad buy. And remember, the Lanos has 105hp, the Rio had 92. I like the Lanos, but the rest weren't so great, IMO.

Originally posted by Chris
As mentioned by Euro19, they are a risky company to buy from. So risky, in fact, that they are pulling out of the North American market. And it is unlikely that GM will provide service for them (they mightm, but it will be skimpy). So I have to rate them a bad buy. And remember, the Lanos has 105hp, the Rio had 92. I like the Lanos, but the rest weren't so great, IMO.

I'd like to know where you got your information.
All of the articles I've read say that GM will most likely take over the warranties. There has been a bankruptcy declared and it seems that GM is simply taking one step at a time.

GM now owns 2/3 of the company, the creditors own the rest. GM says they plan to stop selling Daewoos here, and the dealerships will have to change brands. While GM will probably be obligated to fulfill the warranty, your local shop (or any for that matter), will not keep a nice supply of Daewoo-specific parts. Therefore, they will have to be ordered, adding many days to the time the car needs to be out of commission. And once that warranty is up, the rental is going to come out of your pocket, most likely.
So its not a pleasent situation:(

My dealership doesn't provide a rental car, so we're s.o.l. everytime we take it to be fixed.
I already know I have to bring it in for the passenger airbag to be fixed (recall).

So I suppose Daewoo parts will eventually run out and we'll all be driving another version of the Yugo? (Is that Yugi oh?) ;)

I suppose we should all be hunting (ahead of time) for parts that we know our car will eventually need?

Lanos Owner

No free rental, how sad:(
The thing is, its almost impossible to tell what your car will need, other than the basics. What would be an idea is to find a good junkyard, one with a Lanos in it. Then, you can salvage parts from it and use them to fix your car (you can find lots of really useful things in junkyards). Otherwise, I guess you fall back on the fact you got a decent car for $$$$ less than the other guy.

Originally posted by Chris
GM now owns 2/3 of the company, the creditors own the rest.

I hate to correct you...

Daewoo Motors is owned by the Daewoo Group, at this point. General Motors is still in negotiations and contracts have not been signed yet. That is expected to happen in September (or sometime this fall).

When the agreement goes through, GM Daewoo Auto and Technology Company will be formed to control the part currently being sold. General Motors will own 42.1% of the new company and Suzuki will take over 14.9%. Between the two of them, they will hold roughly 2/3 and creditors will own the rest.

Only three assembly plants and distribution systems in a handful of countries (as was mentioned above, Daewoo America isn't part of the deal) are included.

What do you folks think of the concept being floated that Suzuki would sell Daewoo products instead of a GM brand? Since Suzuki has no bigger car than the Aerio and no larger truck than the XL7, the addition of the Nubira and Leganza/Magnus could be an asset to Suzuki's worldwide distribution network. It would be especially helpful in the US where the Aerio is a bit on the small side of the market.

I took my info from a car magazine, (R&T, C&D, MT). And GM is pretty closely tied to Suzuki. I could see Suzuki benefiting from nothing, really. I liked teh Lanos, and the Nubira was OK. The Leganza didn't cut it, IMO. And the Korando isn't that large, either. So Suzuki wouldn't really get anything special, IMO, just a few more models like they already have.

I really don´t see Daewoos with the Suzuki badge. Suzuki has another kind of design, more functional, and Daewoo is more styled, it just isn´t right...

Bankruptcy processes take a lot of time and pehaps that's why this contract signing is taking so much time.
GM wouldn't buy an assembly plant unless it plans on using them.

GM would make money just selling parts over here. They aren't in this to lose money.

GM's in the Daewoo deal to enter the very closed Korean market and to have a low-cost manufacturing arrangement for use, mainly, in Asia. The deal has not been signed yet and the latest troubles with Daewoo and its suppliers can only harm the deal.

Suzuki could gain from the larger products that Daewoo has. The six-cylinder Leganza/Magnus will solve the main problems with that car, it's lack of power.

As for the Korrado, I don't believe it's part of the deal. The Korrado (and the Musso) are Ssangyong products. Daewoo made an attempt to take over Ssangyong a few years ago, but Ssangyong is now independent.

In Memphis ,TN GM is not honoring any warranties on Daewoos. In fact there are over 2000 cars in shops right now that can't be fixed because you can't get the parts. A 2000 Lanos, that was bought for around $12,000 after financing, is now only worth $2000. Anyone else out there having these sort of problems?

Boys boys boys.

I purchased a 1997 Daewoo Espero Cd in well 1997 brand new of course from my local Daewoo Dealer.
I have never had one fault with my car and, living in Australia with harsh conditions all cars are put to the test. About three years ago one of my friends bought a 1997 Toyota Camry four cylinder which had done less than 60.000 kms [ about the same as my Espero ] it broke down several times over a number of months, in the end he ended up selling it and buying a Daewoo Leganza with which he has no trouble.
I know, and know of plenty of Daewoo owners who are happy with their cars.

Everybody is enitilted to their own opinion, wether it be Daewoos are good, or like some people on this site think they arepiles of Rust that are worthless and cheap quality.
When South Korean cars first came to our shores, they were cheap and low quality designed as run about cars that would last about 100,000 Kms. That is completely true, all the South Korean Manufacturers were piles of Rust. Now, we must give them credit because they produce much better cars, that i believe equal the quality of the Japanese
[ except some bottom range South Koreans which are still made of Polystyrene ] The problem is the world still believes that Hyundai, Kia and Daewoo all make really crap cars at a really affordable price and the truth Ladies and Gentlemen is that Daewoo, Hyundai and Kia now make Good quality, safe, comfortable, stylish and affordable cars.
So each is entitled to their own opinion but my mind is made up, Daewoo make good cars.