Here’s how Daewoo Motors tried and failed to gain independence from GM

Did we cover the Daewoo G8?

Do the Pontiac Vibe

The Lacetti in 2004 was badged as the Chevy Optra in Canada. The worst car by far I have ever owned. Poor ride, lack of power 118hp poor heater and head gasket blew out at 150,000klm, 2nd head gasket at 200,000klm. The car was a real gas champ though, 900+klm on full tank all highway.

I'm Canadian and I've never seen a Passport anything but I've seen the Pontiac Le Mans hatchback. Also, Asuna (emphasis on the second syllable) is a short lived Canadian brand which also marketed the Asuna Sunfire (on the same platform as the Isuzu Strom/Piazza, and Lotus Elan) and the Asuna Sunrunner (a rebadged Suzuki Escudo/Geo Tracker... although we also got the Geo Tracker).

I had one of these Pontiac LeMans. Awful car...l had to finally junk it.

That will be the DAE when they WOO over the American public.😢
Good help myself 🤣🤣. So they were they manufactured as a car gym slap the name tags Le Mans on!?!
Thank you for the information.

Got a friend who has a LeMans. It's got a Saab Ecotec four and a six speed transmission in it. Goes like stink.

And also please definitely do a video on Hyundai

You should definitely do a video on Kia motors

They had an ad-campaign in the late-90's that had a singer that sang the name to the tune of Dayo.

Is that Pontiac LeMans

Growing up in a city that had a Daewoo factory in Europe, I've seen every single model they've had for sale in Europe. It's funny how that specific factory ended up being bought by GMs competition: Ford and now makes the new Ford Puma and used to make the EcoSport and the Transit Connect.

There was also the Chevrolet Epica, which was sold in Canada, and was essentially a replacement for the Leganza.

What you called the luhhsetty the US version was named Suzuki Forenza. Just like the Verona and Reno were also Daewoo built piles of crap

finally, a foreigner who actually knows about GMK - Saehan - Daewoo dynasty.
edit) it would have been better if you actually explained how Daewoo lost its reputation in Korea. in the 80s, Daewoo was selling Royale series. which was based on holden, and opels. Daewoo spent their 10 or more years producing same chassis with SO MUCH different variations. Royale duke, prince, diesel, salon, and imperial. every Royale series Daewoo made except imperial was based on the same chassis, which was heavy and slow. in 1986 and 88, Hyundai released the grandeur, known as Azera and sonata, which was a big hit. Daewoo lost its customers and fell out of the competition.

I owned a Daewoo "assualt" rifle and it never jammed and was very accurate and reliable unlike the cars..

Daewoo had a weird selling practice.

Daewoo was always the joke car on MadTV.

It's mad to me to see the Vauxhall Astra in the same family as a 70s muscle car 😂

@myoldcar You should review the Nissan stanza

Yeah that was another mistake for general motors getting involved with that Korean crap general motors did some pretty stupid that's why they are the way they are

Odd enough, the Chevrolet Aveo didn't have a bad reputation in Latin America

last generation subaru leone

i think you mispronounced cielo too sorry

did gm do the same thing to holden?

How wouldn't they know where the car is built unless they never checked when they bought it or check air pressure themselves being that the manufacturers data plate is on the door or B pillar?

Volkswagen Fox

Searching for the Daewoo commercial with announcer saying , "Daaayy wooo".. lol

A double hit from Germany - my first own car was a Kadett E and I can tell you its build quality was not any better than obviously its Korean counterpart. Trim parts like the sun shades fell of on road bumps. And once I wanted to get out and instead of opening the door the door opener broke out of the door. Until the spare part was delivered I had to wind down the driver door window and use the external door handle to open for more than a week. On the other hand it was one of the most reliable cars I ever had. It never broke down or so.

And my only US driving experience (I mean driving in the US - there was also a Camaro IROC-Z I owned here in Germany for 8 years which is sort of US driving experience) was a rented Chevy Sonic. While for sure a pretty cheap looking car with a lot of plastic, I liked driving it. With 125 hp and 7 speed automatic it felt pretty sporty to drive. Its floorpan cousin Opel Corsa here in Germany usually would come with 60 to 105 hp and either 5 speed manual or 4 speed automatic, both making it not exactly good on acceleration.

Forget the intonation, how about the pronunciation?
Is it day- or die- woo? Or even dee?

What about the Pontiac 6000 I haven’t seen one of those in a long time

the daewoo came out in the UK just as GM brought out the mark 3 vauxhall astra, and was unmistakably the mk2 astra

"and their poniac clone, the Pontiac 1000(also known as the Acadian up here in canada)

I had an 88 Lemans hatchback five speed and I absolutely loved that little car. From what a salesman had told me, it was Pontiac’s competition to them second generation Honda CRX. That little car had excellent gas mileage. Never really had any issues with the car. Had to replace the clutch one time, and then I cracked the head trying to drive 10 miles back to Napa auto parts store. But both of those were operator error. The GS model looked absolutely cool as hell to me. I was looking for one before I bought my 1990 sunbird. The sedan Lemans just looked plain as hell to me. I guess the hatchback made it look a little bit sporty here.

I own a 2004 Aveo 5 door hatchback. It is doing fabulously well. 
The Achilles Heel on these cars is the fact that the timing belt needs to be replaced every 60K miles. And it's not so much the belt as the idler pulley which is made of plastic and eventually cracks apart (!!) Many owners have ignored the belt change and being an interference engine, the pulley failure becomes an engine killer. Consequently these cars are becoming very rare on the street, but not in the boneyard. There was also a recall on the daytime driving light module that was said to be a fire hazard, but mine has never been a problem.
I acquired my car in 2020 at 65K miles, immediately changed the belt/pulleys/water pump, (The idler pulley was cracked halfway through the radius) and did some other routine maintenance, and the car is a joy to drive. It is a peppy and nimble little go-kart of a car. It is comfortable and roomier that it would seem to be.The sheet metal is a bit on the thin side, and being in Chicago, I did acquire it with a certain amount of rust, but nothing unmanageable.
Anyway, bottom line is I love it and am babying it...no salty winter driving on this baby. I have a Cherokee XJ for that. The Italian design is distinct. I do believe the 2004-2005 5 door hatchbacks are a classic design. I am routinely complimented on the car being cute...and it is. Aerodynamic with rounded edges. Of all the Aveo/Sonic/Spark models, I like this design best. I consider it a collectable. Gas mileage could be better (28 highway, 20-22 city) for a 1.6L engine, but I'm not complaining. It has been a totally dependable daily driver . It's a keeper over here.

Just think.... if you were a UAW member watching all these vehicles manufactured elsewhere and sold here in the US under an US Domestic brand nameplate.

A little late to the debate but the W in daewoo is just a weird carryover from outdated romanization. In the Korean alphabet it would be spelled "deu" (really daeu, but the ae is pronounced e), so Day-oo is more accurate. Same goes for the family name Woo -- it's actually just U.

Daewoo Windstorm is the Chevy Captiva

No disrespect to Daewoo motors, but these le manses were insults to the original. My dad had a 77. Had all the typical half muscle car half land yacht features. These Daewoo made models didn't even have power steering and were even fewer features than many other imports. Even isuzus were nicer

Uh-VAY-oh. (Aveo)

Pontiac……….Gone
Isuzu…………..Gone
SAAB…………..Gone

Seeing the common denominator…..at least two of the three owned by GM.

In 1990s, Daewoo became giant part of my fatherland's automotive landscape. It was made in Warsaw at FSO (Espero, Tico, Lanos, Nubira, Matiz, Kalos/Chevy Aveo, Lacetti, Spark, Leganza, Tacuma) and in Lublin at FS Lublin (Nexia - that's how Cielo was called in Poland, Musso, Korando) + models distinct to Poland like Daewoo-FSO Polonez Caro/Atu Plus lineup and Daewoo Lublin delivery van. It was the last gasp of air for FSO before it died after long, long agony caused by chain of bad decisions, overall ineptitude, bad quality, terminal technological backwardness, lack of proper research and testing facilities due to underinvestment, and a pinch of political reasons and unions' greed.
I could recommend a video about it but to watch it you need to understand Polish and be immune to great volume of swear words.

Any car is better than a Chinese built car like the British MG

I'm still rocking a 99 Lanos 5-speed hatchback.Runs and drives great with 187000 miles on it. Unfortunately the floors have started to rust through from NW Indiana weather. So it probably only has another 2 years left.

Daewoo was also famous in the US for hiring college students to sell their vehicles on dealer lots. The suggestion being that it would be easier to get financing through their dealerships for younger aged buyers.

Chevrolet plans to discontinue the Spark in North America after the 2022 model year, with production ending in August. The Chevrolet Spark was the United States and Canada's least expensive car on sale. Production for South Korea is scheduled to cease in October 2022.

my wife in 1999 bought a 2000 Daewoo Nubira I always liked it's like it so I bought a used one and turned out it was a wagon and thank goodness I have the good mechanic and I try to do what I can,I do have the timing belts every 50000 miles and the control lower control arms at a 100000 So here in 2022 I have 2 of them but but taxes are real low and the 2 liter engine has has a fair amount of zip no problem on the highway, But the parts sometimes be in hard to get I would suggest to anybody buy a Toyota or Honda or mazda unless u c a n do the work yourself

Suzuki had three dawoo cars in there line up. Verona, lanos, verenza.