We have a 99 model and it is brilliant. Daewoo is actually affiliated with General Motors and the motors in them are the same as the ones in the Holden Camira.
The main issues that can arise are the timing belt, but that one has just been replaced so it should be good for a long time. We got a quote to have ours done for JIC and with genuine parts and done through Holden it was $700ish. Not too bad really. With Non genuine parts at a regular mechanic it would be much cheaper. I will ask DH when he gets home with the non genuine parts quote was. From memory it was about 1/2 that of the Holden quoted price.
We love our Daewoo because it costs nothing to fill and that lasts forever! $2000 for a 98 with the amount of Kms that one has sounds really good.

My husband is seriously a holden man through & through. Until the Daewoo we'd only ever owned Holdens yet he loves his little Daewoo. We're actually selling ours to my sister & BIL as we have 3 cars and it is the smaller of the 3 so not as useful to us these days.